Transit Here Means Bus, Rail, Streetcar and Tram
Published Mar 21, 2008
MAX lines radiate from downtown to suburbs and the airport.
For those who count wondering when the next bus or rail car will arrive as an excuse not to ride public transportation, Portland’s TriMet system explodes the myth that mass transit can be daunting.
TriMet, the three-county mass transit network for metro Portland, carries 104 million riders annually, and its web of bus, MAX light-rail and streetcar service continues growing. In addition, TriMet links with C-Tran in Clark County, Wash.
Innovations include TransitTracker, which allows riders to phone for instant updates on when the next transit vehicle will reach them. To calculate waits, TransitTracker monitors satellite transmitters aboard buses and sensors embedded in rails.
“Much of Portland’s deserved reputation for livability is because of our excellent transit system. Forty percent of adults in the region use TriMet at least twice a month,” says U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who touts reduced greenhouse gases and less congested freeways as a byproduct. “Those benefits have not been lost on the region’s business community, which has invested more than $6 billion along our 44 miles of light rail since MAX was first planned in 1980.”
By 2009, another 8.3 miles of light rail will connect the Portland Mall and a renovated Union Station in the city center with Clackamas along Interstate 205 to the south.
Downtown, a new loop along 5th and 6th avenues will serve Portland State University and spur an estimated $1.5 billion in private development by the time it opens. “As the system grew, we needed a second alignment through downtown,” says Mary Fetsch, TriMet’s communications director. “It’s a really great opportunity for the future.”
By 2015, an additional 6.5-mile leg will travel roughly parallel to the I-205 route and connect with Milwaukie, northwest of Clackamas.
Across the Willamette River, a $117 million commuter rail line stretching 14 miles from Wilsonville to Beaverton is scheduled to connect to the MAX system by late 2008.
Elevator to Culture, Recreation
A MAX ride from downtown Portland westerly toward Hillsboro shows just how stunning the transit system is. Light-rail cars tunnel downward 260 feet, subway-like, to North America’s deepest transit station, Washington Park. Emerging from an elevator, riders find the World Forestry Center, Portland Children’s Museum and the Oregon Zoo clustered in Washington Park, with Forest Park’s 5,200 wooded acres – six times the size of New York’s Central Park – just beyond.
“People often say we are the economic engine of Oregon, and we are becoming more integrated into the global economy,” says Tom Brian, chairman of the Washington County Board of Commissioners. But the knitting of natural and manmade wonders means much more than that. “We’re privileged to live in one of the best places on Earth.”
In contrast to the subterranean trip to the depths of the MAX station at Washington Park, public transportation users also can climb high over the city aboard the Portland Aerial Tram, which has become a civic landmark since opening in January 2007.
Story by Gary Perilloux
Photo by Jeff Adkins
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