Portland relies heavily on its transit system.  During our snowy winter storm over the holidays, ridership was at record levels. Now there’s something new coming to town – WES.  Here’s a little bit about Portland’s transit system:

MAX

Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) is a light rail system in the Portland metropolitan area in Oregon. It is operated by TriMet and currently has three lines: Blue, Red and Yellow, with Green under construction and Orange planned.

Did you know MAX is the fifth most ridden light rail system in the United States and the country’s second most ridden standalone light rail system, after San Diego’s? (The busiest light rail systems—Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles—are integrated with heavy rail subway networks.)  Since its inception about $3 billion has been invested in light rail in Portland.

In central Portland and Hillsboro, MAX trains run in reserved lanes on surface streets, unlike the Portland Streetcar, which runs in mixed traffic. Otherwise, MAX runs within its own right-of-way, generally either in street medians, along freeways or on former freight railroad lines.

Where tracks segments are along a parallel street, they are generally controlled by traffic signals which give trains preemption. Other segments away from parallel streets have gated crossings to give trains the right-of-way. A three mile (4.8 km) section consists of two tunnels below Washington Park. While this section has only one station, it is 260 feet (79 m) below ground level, making it the deepest train station in North America and the second deepest train station in the world.

Because of Portland’s relatively small 200-foot (61 m) downtown blocks, trains operate with only one or two cars. The MAX cars are about 90 feet (27.5 m) long, so a stopped train consisting of more than two cars would block intersections. Blue Line trains are typically two cars long. Trains on the Yellow and Red Line run in both one and two car configurations, though increasingly more Red and Yellow Line trains consist of two cars.

WES

WES is coming!!!

The City of Tigard had these last two announcements posted in their community CITYSCAPES January 2009 Newsletter.  You can view that newsletter here.

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