September 19, 2012
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Patrick John Sweeney
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Portland, Oregon
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The Portland Streetcar will connect the downtown streetcar system to eastside landmarks like the
Oregon Convention Center (above), the Oregon Museum o f Science and Industry, the Rose Quarter
and Lloyd District.
Eastside Connection
c o n t i n u e d f r o m page 11
downtown and Pearl Free Rail Zone,
and people have been used to riding
the cars for free over much of the
route. That ended this month when
TriMet abolished the rail-free zone.
Now you can hop a ride on the
streetcar for two hours for $ 1, trans
fer for free to buses or MAX light rail
trains for $2.50, or ride the system all
day for $5. There is also a Youth Fare
for $ 1 and an Honored Citizen fare
for $1.65.
The streetcar extension cost
$ 148 million, of which $75 million
came from the Federal Transit Ad
m inistration. O btaining the fed
eral monies proved frustrating and
im possible under the George .W
Bush adm inistration, with federal
officials uninterested in a vehicle
that was neither faster, nor cheaper
to build, than a bus. Streetcar ad
vocates have argued that their sys
tem increases public transit rider
ship, that it is cheaper to operate,
and that it spurs development along
its rfcute. Since it was first launched,
they say, private developers have
built more than 10,000housing units
and 5.5 million square feet o f com
mercial space within a block of the
streetcar route.
“When you make this kind of
public investment, it encourages
p riv ate in v e stm e n t,” P o rtlan d
Streetcar executive director Rick
Gustafson said at a press preview of
the new route. He noted that there
are active plans to build 1,000 units
of new housing near the new route.
Funding is still an issue for the
east side streetcar. Plans call for an
extension of the route south from
OMSI to the new Light Rail Bridge
now under construction, and for the
line to hook up with the west side
route, forming a loop around the
innercityin2015.
For this to happen, however,
Portland Streetcar must come up
with another $7.4 million by year’s
end. Gustafson hopes to get $2 mil
lion in additional federal monies, the
rest in a General Obligation Bond
authorized by City Council, which
they will ask for later this year. It is
theoretically possible to complete
the loop after the bridge is built, but
it would cost considerably more and
would require disruption of light rail
service.
Another crucial financial issue is
operating funds. Due to budget
cutbacks generally, the Streetcar will
have only enough money to run a
total of 17 trains at a time. With this
fleet, west side streetcars will arrive
every 16 minutes, and east side ones
every 18 minutes, much less than
the 12 minute service advocates
would like.
Gustafson says he may persuade
TriMet to increase funding, which
would translate into more frequent
service, if he can show public ac
ceptance for the system.
“Our ridership figures in October
and November will be crucial,” he
says. Prior to instituting a universal
fare, the streetcar carried 11,000
passengers a day. Advocates ex
pect to add 5,000 to 6,000 new riders
with the new line, Gustafson says,
but admits, “It will take time.”
Planners are looking for ways to
increase the efficiency of the sys
tem.
For instance, Gustafson says, a
system to coordinate traffic signals
with streetcar movement reduced
the new route travel time by five
minutes. It was one of many chal
lenges Portland Streetcar had to
meet during construction. They also
had to largely rebuild the Broadway
Bridge because engineers were leery
of its ability to accommodate the
weight of both the tracks and the
cars.
“For every pound we added, we
had to take a pound off,” Gustafson
said.
On Northeast Seventh Avenue,
to reduce bicycle and streetcar con
flicts, they placed parking spaces
between the streetcars and bikes,
and eliminated it entirely on parts of
the avenue. Along the façade of the
Convention Center, to avoid get
ting caught in rush hour conges
tion, they created an exclusive right
of way for the streetcars.
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