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State money pays for rail study The feasibility of commuter rail service between Ashland and Grants Pass will be the focus of a $50,000 study approved by the Oregon Legislature. A legislative budget subcommittee headed by Sen. Lenn Hannon, R-Ashland, set aside the money in the two-year budget of the Oregon Department of Transportation. "The study should be able to tell us when commuter rail should start, if it is not today," said Jackson County Commissioner Ric Holt, who asked Hannon for the funding. "Maybe the time for it is not now, but the need for it will be here eventually." Holt said that as more people move into the Rogue Valley, he wants to develop an alternative to auto traffic in the urban corridor. ODOT officials said they have not decided when to start this study. The agency has conducted similar studies of commuter rail service between Wilsonville and Beaverton, McMinnville and Portland, and Portland and Vancouver, Wash. Among the factors are the number of potential riders and the income they would generate, the frequency of service and its cost, the condition of the track and safe operating speeds for trains, and other improvements such as park-and-ride lots. "We know what questions to ask and what questions we would be wasting our time on," said Ed Immel, ODOT state rail planner. "You assume that the more frequently you operate, the greater your ridership -- but the more trains you run, the higher your costs are." Immel also said the study would involve the Rogue Valley Transportation District, which runs buses between Medford and Ashland. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA