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 lines connecting the six sections of Portland; the communities of Beaverton, Clackamas, Gresham, Hillsboro, Milwaukie, and Oak Grove; and Portland International Airport to Portland City Center. Trains run 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 Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) is a transit agency that serves most of the Oregon part of the Portland metropolitan area. 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 began 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). It also operates the WES Commuter Rail line since 2009. It also provides the operators and maintenance personnel for the city of Portland-owned Portland Streetcar system. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 62,055,600, or about 196,000 per weekday as of the first quarter of 2024.
Fareless Square was an area within central Portland, Oregon, where all rides on TriMet buses and light rail and the Portland Streetcar were free. It primarily consisted of the downtown area and, after 2001, the Lloyd District. It existed from January 1975 through August 2012, but was briefly renamed the Free Rail Zone in January 2010 after its coverage became limited to light rail and streetcar service, with bus rides no longer being free. The TriMet board decided in June 2012 to discontinue the Free Rail Zone primarily to help fill a large shortfall in the agency's budget, and the action was one component of a package of extensive budget cuts which also included service reductions and fare increases. The Free Rail Zone ended on August 31, 2012.
The MAX Blue Line is a light rail line serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system, it connects Hillsboro, Beaverton, Portland, and Gresham. The Blue Line is the longest in the network; it travels approximately 33 miles (53 km) and serves 48 stations from Hatfield Government Center to Cleveland Avenue. It is the busiest of the five MAX lines, having carried an average 55,370 riders each day on weekdays in September 2018. Service 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. It runs later in the evening on Fridays and Saturdays and ends earlier on Sundays.
Gresham City Hall station is a MAX light rail station in Gresham, Oregon. It serves the Blue Line and is the 24th stop eastbound on the eastside MAX branch.
Rockwood/East 188th Avenue is a MAX light rail station in Gresham, Oregon. It serves the Blue Line and is the 21st stop eastbound on the eastside MAX branch. The station is at the intersection of Southeast 188th Avenue and Burnside Street, within the Rockwood neighborhood. This station is a hub for bus service to Gateway Transit Center and Gresham Transit Center.
Hollywood/Northeast 42nd Avenue Transit Center, also known as Hollywood Transit Center, is a light rail station in the MAX Light Rail system, located in the Hollywood District of Portland, Oregon. Hollywood/NE 42nd Ave is the 11th stop eastbound on the eastside MAX main line, and is served by the Blue, Green and Red Lines. The station is designated as a transit center by TriMet, serving 3 connecting bus routes.
Pioneer Square South and Pioneer Square North are a pair of light rail stations in Portland, Oregon, United States, served by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. Situated directly west of the Portland Transit Mall at Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland, they occupy the sidewalk on Yamhill and Morrison streets between Broadway and 6th Avenue. The stations consist of one side platform each; trains traveling eastbound stop at Pioneer Square South while trains traveling westbound stop at Pioneer Square North.
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 Sunset Transit Center is a TriMet bus transit center and light rail station on the MAX Blue and Red lines in Beaverton, Oregon. It opened for MAX in 1998 and is the 5th stop westbound on the Westside MAX. This is the first stop after the Robertson Tunnel under Portland's West Hills. Sunset TC is the second-busiest station on the Westside MAX line, with a weekday average of almost 6,000 daily riders in 2012. Though the station has a Portland address, it primarily serves residents of the communities of Cedar Hills, Cedar Mill, and Beaverton.
Beaverton Transit Center is a multimodal transport hub in Beaverton, Oregon, United States. Owned and operated by TriMet, it is served by bus, commuter rail, and light rail. The transit center is MAX Light Rail's 15th station eastbound on the Blue Line and western terminus on the Red Line. It is also the northern terminus of WES Commuter Rail and a hub for bus routes mostly serving the westside communities of the Portland metropolitan area. Beaverton Transit Center is situated on Southwest Lombard Avenue, just north of Southwest Canyon Road in central Beaverton, connected by walkway to Canyon Place Shopping Center. It recorded 9,709 average weekday boardings for all modes in fall 2018, making it TriMet's busiest transit center.
Hatfield Government Center is a light rail station on the in downtown Hillsboro, Oregon, United States, owned and operated by TriMet. The station is the western terminus of the MAX Blue Line. Opened in 1998, it is located in the same block as the Hillsboro Post Office and adjacent to the Washington County Courthouse and the Hillsboro Civic Center. The block is bounded by First and Adams streets on the east and west and Washington and Main streets on the south and north. The station is named in honor of Mark O. Hatfield, a former United States Senator from Oregon and light rail proponent. It is the furthest west light rail station in the Continental United States.
Willow Creek/Southwest 185th Avenue Transit Center is a multimodal transport hub in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Owned and operated by TriMet, it is served by bus and light rail. The transit center is the ninth station eastbound on the Blue Line and a hub for bus routes mostly serving Washington County in the Portland metropolitan area. It is located by the intersection of Southwest Baseline Road and 185th Avenue near the city's boundary with Beaverton.
Parkrose/Sumner Transit Center is a TriMet transit center and light rail station on the MAX Red Line in Portland, Oregon. It is the fourth stop north on the Airport MAX branch, and consists of an island platform in the median of Interstate 205. The entrance and exit to the transit center are on Sandy Blvd. near 95th Avenue, in the Parkrose neighborhood and east of the Sumner neighborhood.
The MAX Orange Line is a light rail line serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. 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 and runs for 201⁄2 hours per day with headways of up to 15 minutes. It averaged 3,480 daily weekday riders in September 2020.
The Clackamas Town Center Transit Center is a bus transit center and MAX Light Rail station on the MAX Green Line, located in Clackamas County, Oregon, in the southeastern part of the Portland metropolitan area. It is the southern terminus for the I-205 MAX branch.
Wilsonville Transit Center, also called SMART Central at Wilsonville Station, is a bus and commuter rail transport hub in Wilsonville, Oregon, United States. The transit center, which is owned and operated by the City of Wilsonville, is the hub for the South Metro Area Regional Transit (SMART) bus system. The Portland metropolitan area's regional transit agency, TriMet, operates the southern terminus of its WES Commuter Rail at the facility; WES connects with the Blue and Red lines of MAX Light Rail at Beaverton Transit Center. Opened in January 2009, the transit center includes a 400-car park and ride.
Tigard Transit Center, formally Thomas M. Brian Tigard Transit Center, is a transport hub in Tigard, Oregon, United States, that is owned and operated by TriMet. It is a transfer facility for bus routes mainly serving the westside communities of the Portland metropolitan area and the third southbound station from Beaverton Transit Center on WES Commuter Rail. The transit center is the located in downtown Tigard just south of Oregon Route 99W on Commercial Street. It recorded 1,627 average weekday boardings in fall 2019. The facility opened in 1988 as a bus transit center, and a platform for WES was added in 2009.
The Barbur Boulevard Transit Center is a TriMet transit center located at 9750 SW Barbur Boulevard, near the intersection with Capitol Highway in southwest Portland, Oregon. Barbur TC is proposed to be a future stop on the MAX Green Line as part of the SW Corridor MAX Project, which would extend the Green Line from its current terminus at the PSU South stations southward to Bridgeport Village in Tualatin.
Frequent Express (FX) is a high-capacity bus service with some bus rapid transit (BRT) features in Portland, Oregon, United States. Operated by TriMet as FX2–Division, the 15-mile (24 km) route runs east–west from 5th & Hoyt on the Portland Transit Mall in downtown Portland to Cleveland Avenue Park and Ride in Gresham via Division Street. It connects Portland City Center, Portland State University (PSU), South Waterfront, Southeast Portland, and central Gresham, with transfers to MAX Light Rail and the Portland Streetcar.
TriMet: FX2, 9, 20, 21, 80, 81, 82, 84
