MAX Light Rail
The Metropolitan Area Express 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 between 30 minutes off-peak and three minutes during rush hours. In 2023, MAX recorded an annual ridership of.
MAX was among the first second-generation American light rail systems to be built, conceived from freeway revolts that took place in the 1970s. Planning for the network's inaugural eastside segment, then referred to as the Banfield Light Rail Project, started in 1973 ahead of the cancelation of the Mount Hood Freeway. Construction began in 1982, and service commenced between downtown Portland and Gresham on September 5, 1986. The original 27-station, line has since been expanded to 93 stations and of track. The latest extension, from Portland to Milwaukie, opened in 2015.
MAX is one of three urban rail transit services operating in the Portland metropolitan area, the other two being the Portland Streetcar and WES Commuter Rail. MAX directly connects with them as well as with other transit services such as Amtrak, Frequent Express, and local and intercity buses. Trains operate with at maximum two-car consists due to downtown Portland's short city blocks. Vehicles and platforms are fully accessible, and fares are collected through the Hop Fastpass payment system.
History
Predecessors
In the early 20th century, privately funded interurbans and streetcars gave Portland one of the largest urban rail systems in the American West, with lines that once extended as far north as Vancouver, Washington, south as Eugene, east as Troutdale, and west as Forest Grove. Ben Holladay brought over Portland's first trolleys from San Francisco in 1872; drawn by horses and mules, they were operated by the Portland Street Railway Company. In 1890, the first electric streetcar opened in Albina while the first cable car began serving 5th Avenue; these marked the start of an era of major rail expansion. In 1892, the East Side Railway Company opened the first long-distance interurban line—a route from Portland to Oregon City. The Portland Railway, Light and Power Company had taken over all local streetcars by 1906, and interurbans by 1908. In 1912, as Portland's population exceeded 250,000, transit ridership stood at 70 million passengers annually. Passenger rail services had started to decline by the 1920s with the rise of the automobile and suburban and freeway development. Portland's original streetcar lines had ceased operating by 1950, replaced by buses until 2001, when the modern Portland Streetcar opened in downtown Portland. The region's last two interurban lines, which traveled to Oregon City and Bellrose, permanently closed in 1958.Early beginnings
At the height of local freeway revolts in the 1970s, studies for public transit began using funds made available by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973. These funds had been intended for the Mount Hood Freeway and Interstate 505 projects, which were abandoned amid strong opposition from the Portland city government and neighborhood associations. In 1973, Governor Tom McCall assembled a task force that helped determine several alternative options, including a busway and light rail. Local jurisdictions originally favored the busway alternative but support for light rail prevailed following the mode's inclusion in a 1977 environmental impact statement. The proposal became known as the Banfield light rail project, named for the Banfield Freeway, a segment of I-84 that part of the alignment followed. TriMet approved the project in September 1978. Construction of the, 27-station line between 11th Avenue in downtown Portland and Cleveland Avenue in Gresham began in March 1982. Inaugural service commenced on September 5, 1986. Less than two months before opening, TriMet adopted the name "Metropolitan Area Express", or "MAX", following an employee contest.As the planning of a light rail line to the west side gained momentum in the mid-1980s, the original MAX line came to be referred to as the Eastside MAX to distinguish it from what would become the Westside MAX extension. Early proposals called for the extension to terminate just west of the Beaverton–Hillsboro boundary on 185th Avenue in Washington County. A dispute between TriMet and the Urban Mass Transportation Administration over a financing plan suspended the project for several years but planning resumed in 1988 and studies were completed in 1991. Staunch lobbying by local and state officials led by Hillsboro Mayor Shirley Huffman forced an extension of the line further west to downtown Hillsboro in 1993. Construction of the 20-station, line began that August with the excavation of the Robertson Tunnel. The Westside MAX opened in two stages following delays in tunneling: the section from 11th Avenue to Kings Hill/Southwest Salmon Street was opened in 1997 and the section to Hatfield Government Center—the segment's current western terminus—was opened in 1998. The resulting MAX line began operating as a single, through service on September 12, 1998. This service was renamed the Blue Line in 2001 after TriMet adopted color designations for its light rail routes.
South/North plan
At the same time TriMet was planning the Westside MAX in the mid-1980s, Metro regional government announced new light rail proposals for Clackamas County. Its planning committee—the Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation —proposed two separate routes that would have run between downtown Portland and Oregon City via Milwaukie and between Portland International Airport and Clackamas Town Center via I-205. Further planning led JPACT to favor the I-205 corridor due to an existing right-of-way along the I-205 Transitway, an unfinished mass transit component of the freeway that had been built to accommodate a busway. TriMet, however, prioritized the Westside MAX during its bid for federal matching funds and the I-205 plans were put on hold. In 1989, studies for both I-205 and Milwaukie proposals received funding from the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations under the condition that they included potential route extensions to Clark County, Washington. Metro completed the studies in 1993, ultimately abandoning I-205 in favor of a route along the I-5 and Willamette River corridors. It finalized a single line from Hazel Dell, Washington south to Clackamas Town Center via Milwaukie, which Metro and TriMet formally named the South–North Line. Metro said it adopted the name "South/North" instead of the more conventional "North/South" word order, at the request of representatives in the southern part of the corridor after the southern leg, which had long been planned to be the next-priority MAX corridor after the Westside line, was merged with the northern leg as a single proposed project.In November 1994, 63% of Portland area voters passed a $475million ballot measure to fund Oregon's portion of the project. The following February, however, Clark County residents defeated a tax measure that would have funded Washington's share. To move the project forward, TriMet downsized the plan and abandoned the line's Clark County and North Portland segments up to the Rose Quarter. That July, the Oregon House of Representatives approved a $750million transportation package, which included $375 million for the scaled-back line. The funding was annulled by the Oregon Supreme Court due to the inclusion of unrelated measures that violated the state's constitution. The legislature met again in February 1996 and passed a revised $375million package, but light rail opponents forced a statewide vote and defeated it the following November. A third proposal between Lombard Street in North Portland and Clackamas Town Center followed. This time, Metro and TriMet pursued the project without seeking contributions from either Clark County or the state, instead sourcing funds from Clackamas County and Portland. In 1998, TriMet placed a new ballot measure to reaffirm voter support for the $475million originally approved in 1994. The measure failed by 52% in November of that year, effectively canceling the proposed line.
Airport and Interstate lines
Compelled by the rapid expansion of Portland International Airport in the 1990s, the Port of Portland began exploring ways to alleviate worsening traffic congestion, including the possibility of introducing MAX service, which regional planners had not anticipated for at least another 20 years. In 1997, engineering firm Bechtel accelerated plans by submitting an unsolicited proposal to design and build an airport rail link in exchange for of Port property. A public–private partnership between the company and local governments was negotiated and construction of the Airport MAX began in June 1999. With no federal assistance requested and right-of-way already secured, it was completed in just under two years. The four-station, line between Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center and Portland International Airport station opened on September 10, 2001. Celebrations scheduled for that weekend were canceled in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Red Line service originally ran between the airport and downtown, turning around at the loop tracks on 11th Avenue. On September 1, 2003, it was extended west along existing tracks to Beaverton Transit Center to relieve overcrowding on the Blue Line and to create a one-seat airport connection for the west side.In 1999, Portland business leaders and residents who were opposed to the cancellation of the South–North Line urged TriMet to revive the project. TriMet responded with a new proposal that would expand MAX solely to North Portland via North Interstate Avenue. The agency moved forward with this plan and the Interstate MAX broke ground in February 2001. To minimize costs to taxpayers, the city created an urban renewal district and federal matching funds were allocated from the Airport MAX and Portland Streetcar projects, since these projects were locally funded. The 10-station, extension from the Rose Quarter to the Expo Center opened on May 1, 2004, with its new service designated the Yellow Line. From 2004 to 2009, the Yellow Line ran from Expo Center station in North Portland to 11th Avenue in downtown Portland, following the Blue and Red lines' downtown alignment from the Steel Bridge. On August 30, 2009, it was rerouted to terminate at the PSU Urban Center stations with the addition of light rail to the Portland Transit Mall. In September 2012, this was extended further south to the PSU South stations, which had not been built due to the construction of nearby transit-oriented development. The Yellow Line became interlined with the Orange Line in 2015; it now only operates the northbound segment of the transit mall.