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.
Milwaukie is a city mostly in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States; a very small portion of the city extends into Multnomah County. The population was 21,119 at the 2020 census. Founded in 1847 on the banks of the Willamette River, the city, known as the Dogwood City of the West, was incorporated in 1903 and is the birthplace of the Bing cherry. The city is now a suburb of Portland and also adjoins the unincorporated areas of Clackamas and Oak Grove.
The MAX Yellow Line is a light rail line serving Portland, Oregon, United States. Operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system, it connects North Portland, Portland City Center, and Portland State University (PSU). The line serves 17 stations; it runs north–south from Expo Center station to PSU South/Southwest 6th and College station, interlining with the Green and Orange lines within the Portland Transit Mall. Service runs for 21 hours per day with headways of up to 15 minutes. The Yellow Line is the fourth-busiest service in the MAX system; it carried an average 12,960 riders per weekday in September 2019.
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 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.
Ardenwald-Johnson Creek is a neighborhood straddling the border between Portland and Milwaukie, Oregon. It is recognized by both Portland's Office of Neighborhood Involvement as well as Milwaukie's Neighborhoods Program.
The Portland Transit Mall is a 1.2-mile (1.9 km) public transit corridor that travels north–south through the center of downtown in Portland, Oregon, United States. It comprises a pair of one-way streets—6th Avenue for northbound traffic and 5th Avenue for southbound—along which two of three lanes are restricted to transit buses and light rail vehicles only. As of September 2022, the corridor is served by the Green, Orange, and Yellow lines of MAX Light Rail; Frequent Express; and over a dozen local bus routes, all of which are services of TriMet, the transit agency operating within the Oregon side of the Portland metropolitan area. C-Tran, the transit agency for Clark County, Washington, additionally serves it with two express bus routes—#105 I-5 Express and #164 Fisher’s Landing Express.
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.
Southeast Flavel Street is a light rail station on the MAX Green Line in Portland, Oregon. It is the sixth stop southbound on the I-205 MAX branch. The station is located at SE Flavel Street, adjacent to Interstate 205, and has a center platform. Johnson Creek flows beneath the interstate and railway tracks, slightly north of the station.
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.
Lincoln Street/Southwest 3rd Avenue is a light rail station on the MAX Orange Line, located at 229 Southwest Lincoln Street in Portland, Oregon.
Southeast Park Avenue is a light rail station on the MAX Orange Line located at Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard and Park Avenue in Oak Grove, an unincorporated area neighboring Milwaukie in Clackamas County, Oregon, in the United States. It is the terminus and southernmost stop on the Orange Line and has a 401-space park and ride facility.
Milwaukie/Main Street is a MAX Orange Line station located in downtown Milwaukie, Oregon. It is the second northbound station on the Orange Line, preceded by the terminus at SE Park Ave. The station is located along Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way on a site bounded by Lake Road, SE 21st Avenue, and Adams Street near the city's post office. Amenities at the station including bike parking and connections to TriMet bus routes 29, 32, 33, and 34; it also has no parking spaces for cars.
South Waterfront/South Moody, formerly South Waterfront/Southwest Moody, is a combined light rail and bus station located at 698 Southwest Porter Street in the South Waterfront neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, at the west end of the Tilikum Crossing bridge. It is serviced by the MAX Orange Line and TriMet buses. Portland Streetcar travels through it but does not service it.
OMSI/Southeast Water station is a light rail station on the MAX Orange Line, located at 2210 Southeast 2nd Place on the east foot of the Tilikum Crossing bridge in Portland, Oregon. Like South Waterfront/SW Moody Station on the west side of the Willamette River, it consists of two island platforms. MAX trains stop on the outside of the platforms, while TriMet buses stop on the inner lanes. Just northwest of the platforms is a Portland Streetcar stop served by the A and B Loop lines. The station is named after the nearby Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
Clinton Street/Southeast 12th Avenue station is a MAX Orange Line station located at 1229 Southeast Gideon Street in Portland, Oregon's Hosford-Abernethy neighborhood, in the United States. The sculpture Intersection is installed at the station.
Rebirth, nicknamed "Deer Baby" and "Twilight Zone Bambi", was a proposed outdoor sculpture by American artist Seyed Alavi, considered for installation at the MAX Orange Line's Southeast Park Avenue MAX Station in Oak Grove, an unincorporated area neighboring Milwaukie in Clackamas County, Oregon, in the United States. The design of the unfinished creative work, which featured a 30-foot (9.1 m) deer with a child's face, was met with a mixed reception. Unable to meet TriMet's standards and remain under budget, in November 2011 Alavi withdrew his design from the project.
Kerf is an outdoor series of two pigmented cast concrete sculptures by Thomas Sayre, installed at the MAX Orange Line's Southeast Tacoma/Johnson Creek station in the southeast Portland, Oregon portion of the Ardenwald-Johnson Creek neighborhood, which straddles the border between Portland and Milwaukie, Oregon.
