The Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) is a light rail system serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Owned and operated by TriMet, it consists of five color-designated lines that altogether connect the six sections of Portland; the communities of Beaverton, Clackamas, Gresham, Hillsboro, Milwaukie, and Oak Grove; and Portland International Airport to Portland City Center. Service runs seven days a week with headways of between 30 minutes off-peak and three minutes during rush hours. In 2019, MAX had an average daily ridership of 120,900, or 38.8 million annually. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted public transit use globally, annual ridership plummeted, with only 14.8 million riders recorded in 2021.
The Portland Streetcar is a streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, that opened in 2001 and serves areas surrounding downtown Portland. The 3.9-mile (6.3 km) NS Line runs from Northwest Portland to the South Waterfront via Downtown and the Pearl District. The Loop Service, which opened in September 2012 as the Central Loop, runs from Downtown to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry via the Pearl District, the Broadway Bridge across Willamette River, the Lloyd District, and the Central Eastside Industrial District and added 3.3 miles (5.3 km) of route. In September 2015 the line was renamed as the Loop Service, with the A Loop traveling clockwise, and the B Loop traveling counterclockwise. The two-route system serves some 20,000 daily riders.
TriMet, formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Created in 1969 by the Oregon legislature, the district replaced five private bus companies that operated in the three counties: Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas. TriMet started operating a light rail system, MAX, in 1986, which has since been expanded to five lines that now cover 59.7 miles (96.1 km), as well as the WES Commuter Rail line in 2009. It also provides the operators and maintenance personnel for the city of Portland-owned Portland Streetcar system. In 2021, the system had a ridership of 44,508,200, or about 148,500 per weekday as of the first quarter of 2022.
Interstate 205 (I-205) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the Portland metropolitan area of Oregon and Washington, United States. The north–south freeway serves as a bypass route of I-5 along the east side of Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington. It intersects several major highways and serves Portland International Airport.
The MAX Blue Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. The longest line in the network, it travels east–west for approximately 33 miles (53 km) between Hillsboro, Beaverton, Portland, and Gresham and serves 48 stations from Hatfield Government Center to Cleveland Avenue. The line carried an average 55,370 daily weekday riders in September 2018, the busiest of the five MAX lines. It runs for 221⁄2 hours per day from Monday to Thursday, with headways of between 30 minutes off-peak and five minutes during rush hour. Service runs later in the evening on Fridays and Saturdays and ends earlier on Sundays.
The MAX Red Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. An airport rail link, it serves 26 stations from Portland International Airport through Northeast Portland and Portland City Center to central Beaverton. The Red Line operates a 5.5-mile (8.9 km) segment of MAX from Portland International Airport station to Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center. From there, it interlines with the Blue Line and partially with the Green Line through to Beaverton Transit Center. Service runs for 22 hours per day with a headway of 15 minutes during most of the day. The Red Line is the second-busiest service in the MAX system with an average 10,310 passengers per weekday in September 2021.
The MAX Yellow Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. It connects North Portland to Portland City Center and Portland State University (PSU) with 17 stops from Expo Center station to PSU South/Southwest 6th and College station. The line travels from Portland Expo Center in the north, south to the Rose Quarter through a 5.8-mile (9.3 km) light rail segment along the median of Interstate Avenue. From the Rose Quarter, it crosses the Willamette River via the Steel Bridge and enters downtown Portland, where it operates as a northbound-only service of the Portland Transit Mall on 6th Avenue. Service runs for approximately 21 hours daily with a headway of 15 minutes during most of the day.
Like transportation in the rest of the United States, the primary mode of local transportation in Portland, Oregon is the automobile. Metro, the metropolitan area's regional government, has a regional master plan in which transit-oriented development plays a major role. This approach, part of the new urbanism, promotes mixed-use and high-density development around light rail stops and transit centers, and the investment of the metropolitan area's share of federal tax dollars into multiple modes of transportation. In the United States, this focus is atypical in an era when automobile use led many areas to neglect their core cities in favor of development along interstate highways, in suburbs, and satellite cities.
Portland is "an international pioneer in transit orientated developments."
The MAX Green Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. It is 15 miles (24.1 km) long and serves 30 stations from the PSU South stations to Clackamas Town Center Transit Center; it connects Portland State University (PSU), Portland City Center, Northeast Portland, Southeast Portland, and Clackamas. The Green Line is the only service that shares parts of its route with the four other MAX services, sharing the Portland Transit Mall with the Orange and Yellow lines and the Banfield segment of the Eastside MAX with the Blue and Red lines. Southbound from Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center, it operates the Interstate 205 (I-205) segment through to Clackamas Town Center. Service runs for approximately 211⁄2 hours daily with a headway of 15 minutes during most of the day. It is the third-busiest line in the system, carrying an average of 19,160 riders per day on weekdays in September 2019.
The MAX Orange Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. It connects Portland City Center, Portland State University (PSU), Southeast Portland, Milwaukie, and Oak Grove. The line serves 17 stations from Union Station/Northwest 5th & Glisan to Southeast Park Avenue and runs for 201⁄2 hours daily with a minimum headway of 15 minutes during most of the day. It averaged 3,480 daily weekday riders in September 2020.
The Westside Express Service (WES) is a commuter rail line serving part of the Portland metropolitan area's Washington County in the U.S. state of Oregon. Owned by TriMet and operated by Portland & Western Railroad (P&W), the line is 14.7 miles (23.7 km) long and consists of five stations. WES travels north–south just west of Oregon Highway 217 and Interstate 5 (I-5) between the cities of Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin, and Wilsonville. It connects with MAX Light Rail at Beaverton Transit Center. Service operates on a 30-minute headway on weekdays during the morning and evening rush hours. As of Spring 2022, the service saw daily ridership of 420 passengers, about 109,000 rides annually.
Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People is a cable-stayed bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was designed by TriMet, the Portland metropolitan area's regional transit authority, for its MAX Orange Line light rail passenger trains. The bridge also serves city buses and the Portland Streetcar, as well as bicycles, pedestrians, and emergency vehicles. Private cars and trucks are not permitted on the bridge. It is the first major bridge in the U.S. that was designed to allow access to transit vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians but not cars.
Bicycle use in Portland, Oregon has been growing rapidly, having nearly tripled since 2001; for example, bicycle traffic on four of the Willamette River bridges has increased from 2,855 before 1992 to over 16,000 in 2008, partly due to improved facilities. The Portland Bureau of Transportation says 6% of commuters bike to work in Portland, the highest proportion of any major U.S. city and about 10 times the national average.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation is the agency tasked with maintaining the city of Portland's transportation infrastructure. Bureau staff plan, build, manage and maintain a transportation system with the goal of providing people and businesses access and mobility. The Bureau received significant media coverage in 2017 for employee hazing within its maintenance operations.
Southeast Bybee Boulevard is a light rail station in Portland, Oregon, United States, served by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. It is the 14th station southbound on the Orange Line, which operates between Portland City Center, Southeast Portland, and Milwaukie. The grade-separated, island platform station adjoins Union Pacific Railroad (UP) freight tracks to the east and McLoughlin Boulevard to the west. Its entrances are located on the Bybee Bridge, which spans over the platform and connects Portland's Sellwood-Moreland and Eastmoreland neighborhoods. Nearby places of interest include Westmoreland Park, Eastmoreland Golf Course, Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, and Reed College.
The A and B Loop is a streetcar circle route of the Portland Streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, United States. Operated by Portland Streetcar, Inc. and TriMet, it consists of two services within the Central City that travel a loop between the east and west sides of the Willamette River by crossing the Broadway Bridge in the north and Tilikum Crossing in the south: the 6.1-mile (9.8 km) A Loop, which runs clockwise, and the 6.6-mile (10.6 km) B Loop, which runs counterclockwise. The services connect Portland's downtown, Pearl District, Lloyd District, Central Eastside, and South Waterfront, and serve various landmarks and institutions, including the Rose Quarter, the Oregon Convention Center, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), and Portland State University (PSU). Riders can transfer to the regional MAX Light Rail system at several points along the route.
Frequent Express (FX) is a future high-capacity bus route in Portland, Oregon, United States, that will be operated by TriMet as FX2–Division. The 15-mile (24 km) route will run east–west from 5th & Hoyt station on the Portland Transit Mall in downtown Portland to Cleveland Park and Ride in Gresham via Division Street. It will connect Portland City Center, Portland State University (PSU), South Waterfront, Southeast Portland, and central Gresham, with transfers to MAX Light Rail and the Portland Streetcar at several points along the route. FX will feature bus rapid transit (BRT) design elements such as dedicated lanes, transit signal priority, and 60-foot (18 m) buses with all-door boarding—the second such service in the Portland metropolitan area after The Vine in Vancouver, Washington. Fares will be collected through the Hop Fastpass payment system.
The Blumenauer Bridge, formally the Congressman Earl Blumenauer Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge, and previously known as Sullivan's Crossing, is a bicycle and pedestrian bridge in Portland, Oregon. United States. The $19 million project spans Interstate 84 and connects the Lloyd District with Kerns in inner northeast Portland. The bridge was originally slated to open in December 2020, but its projected opening was later postponed to the following spring and subsequently to July 31, 2022, and the bridge did open on that date.
Ned Flanders Crossing is a bicycle and pedestrian bridge spanning Interstate 405 to connect Portland, Oregon's Northwest District and Pearl District, in the United States. In 2019, the project's estimated cost was $6 million. It opened in June 2021 and was originally named Flanders Crossing, as it linked the two parts of Flanders Street separated by the interstate, before being re-dedicated to honor The Simpsons character Ned Flanders.
The Rhine–Lafayette Pedestrian Overpass is a pedestrian bridge near TriMet's Southeast 17th Avenue and Rhine Street station in southeast Portland, Oregon. It opened in September 2015, replacing a bridge which had spanned the Union Pacific Railroad tracks since 1943. Worked on the bridge began in 2014, and the span was lifted into place in December. Elevator improvements were completed in 2018. Along These Lines is installed at one end.
