William’s Travels: #yvrtopdx Vancouver to Portland then Salem on public transit!
William’s Travels: #yvrtopdx Vancouver to Portland then Salem on public transit!
The Buzzer blog is documenting the travels of TransLink’s William Hui while he takes public transit from Vancouver, British Columbia to Portland, then Salem, Oregon!
In case you don’t know yet, William Hui, System’s Engineer for TransLink, has embarked on a journey from Vancouver, BC to Portland Oregon and beyond all on public transit!
William has been texting the Buzzer editors with updates along the way. The latest news is that he’s in Chehalis, Washington. William still plans on reaching Portland by 6 p.m. tonight!
We’ve been tweeting his updates via the Buzzer blog Twitter handle @thebuzzer with the hashtag #yvrtopdx. It’s great to see people take part in William’s journey!
@thebuzzer having a great time following Will on his trip on transit from Vancouver to Portland. Thanks for the posts! #yvrtopdx #Vancouver
— Michelle Lindsay (@Michelle_Linds) June 21, 2013
@thebuzzer I'd do a trip like that. Sign me up! #yvrtopdx
— Eric Bucad (@heyrickie) June 21, 2013
@thebuzzer Go, William, Go!! #yvrtopdx
— sally (@balisally) June 21, 2013
See William’s trip on Google Maps!
William sent his coordinates from Tacoma last night so we could generate this Google Map at right. “There are waypoints in the track that show where I transferred to different buses. I did, however, miss the two transfers to Sound Transit: one at Everett and the other in Seattle (510 and 590) respectively.”
View William’s Travels: Vancouver to Portland on public transit in 2013 in a larger map. William says he’ll update it shortly!
William continues his journey past Portland to Salem, Oregon!
William has decided to visit the good people at Charriots, Salem-Keizer Transit after he arrives and spends the weekend in Portland.
Yup, he’s going roughly another 75 km south on public transit! He’ll be making the trip to Salem early Monday morning.
William will be taking the Amtrak Cascades train all the way back to Vancouver arriving around 9 p.m. Monday night.
He’d take public transit all the way back, but William has to work!
What does it cost to go from Vancouver to Portland then Salem on public transit?
The cost is $27.50 to Portland and another $4.50 to Salem!
Of note is that all this time on public transit is on William’s time, not TransLink’s. William thinks of this as a transit vacation!
We’ll continue to update everyone of William’s progress to Portland and Salem via @thebuzzer and here on the blog next week.
Follow the hashtag #yvrtopdx on Twitter and join in the conversation! William is even taking the odd the question when he has time.
I’ve always known this trip was possible. I remember finding out that it was actually possible to get all the way to Eugene, but I never bothered to research it further. I was a little disappointed I couldn’t get to California!
I’ve personally done the trip as far as Mount Vernon, spotting an Everett bound bus when I arrived. My trip was one of necessity, however. I needed to go to Mount Vernon to pick something up and didn’t have a vehicle at the time. Mount Vernon is as far south as you can go on public transit while still being able to return on the same day. Customs is a non-issue. I produced a detailed itinerary and was quickly admitted to the United States.
I have to wonder though, if we broaden the definition of public transit slightly, then trips to Seattle and the like aren’t all that outlandish. The Amtrak Cascades route from Vancouver to Seattle actually operates as commuter rail between Everett and Seattle. For that portion, it’s not any different than taking the West Coast Express. It’s the same train and you don’t have to leave your seat, after all.
There’s also other ways to make the journey if you include ferries as public transit. One can board a ferry to Seattle from Victoria, for example. Victoria from Vancouver, as we know, is trivial.
I can’t wait to hear his trip report. I’m especially curious to find out how the portion between Portland and Salem goes. I’m not going to lie though, the BoltBus, while a fantastic service, does take away a little of the magic of the journey.
[…] mentioned in the last update, William took the Amtrak home. He said the train ride was fun, especially since the rail line […]
I rode transit from here to Bellingham, and it was just to get a video game cartridge…and it turned out that I wasn’t supposed to get the cartridge from the store, which means that I sort of wasted my time. It was still a neat trip, though.
Maybe the route needs to be kept on a web site, and updated on a regular basis. That might encourage us to use it more.