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The MAX Blue Line is a
light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
line serving the
Portland metropolitan area The Portland metropolitan area is a metropolitan area, metro area with its urban area, core in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington (state), Washington. It has 5 principal cities, the largest being Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Man ...
in the
U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
. Operated by
TriMet The Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet) is a Transit district, transit agency that serves most of the Oregon part of the Portland metropolitan area. Created in 1969 by the Oregon Legislative Assembly, Oregon legi ...
as part of
MAX Light Rail 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 Neighborhoods of Portland, Oregon, six sectio ...
, it connects Hillsboro, Beaverton, Portland, and Gresham. The line serves 48 stations; it travels from
Hatfield Government Center station Hatfield Government Center is a light rail station 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 Hill ...
in Hillsboro to Cleveland Ave station in Gresham. Service runs for 22 hours per day from Monday to Thursday, with
headway Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise definition varies depending on ...
s of between 30 minutes off-peak and five minutes during
rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English, Indian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice e ...
. It runs later in the evening on Fridays and Saturdays and ends earlier on Sundays. The Blue Line is the busiest of the five MAX lines, having carried an average 55,370 riders each day on weekdays in September 2018. The success of local freeway revolts in Portland in the early 1970s led to a reallocation of federal assistance funds from the proposed
Mount Hood Freeway The Mount Hood Freeway is a partially constructed but never to be completed freeway alignment of U.S. Route 26 and Interstate 80N (now Interstate 84), which would have run through southeast Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of ...
and Interstate 505 (I-505) projects to mass transit. Among various proposals, local governments approved the construction of a light rail line between Gresham and Portland in 1978. Referred to as the Banfield Light Rail Project during planning and construction as a part of the Banfield Freeway redevelopment, construction of what is now the Eastside MAX segment began in 1983. The line was inaugurated as the Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) on September 5, 1986. Planning for an extension of MAX to the west side began as early as 1979. Known as the Westside MAX, construction was delayed by nearly a decade due to funding disagreements. Originally designed to terminate at 185th Avenue near the border of Hillsboro and Beaverton, proponents for a longer line achieved a supplemental extension to downtown Hillsboro just before groundbreaking in 1993. The Westside MAX opened in two phases following delays in tunnel construction; the first section up to Goose Hollow opened in 1997 while the rest opened on September 12, 1998. In 2000, the two distinct segments, already operating as a single
through route A cross-city route is a public transport route linking one suburb (or satellite) of a city or town with another, usually relatively distant, suburb (or satellite). Such a route can be operated by various forms of public transport, including co ...
between Gresham and Hillsboro, were unified in passenger information as the Blue Line after TriMet introduced a color coding scheme in preparation for the opening of the Red Line to
Portland International Airport Portland International Airport is a joint civil–military airport and the largest airport in the U.S. state of Oregon, accounting for 90% of the state's passenger air travel and more than 95% of its air cargo. It is within Portland's city li ...
. The Blue Line currently shares its route with the Red Line on the west side, between
Hillsboro Airport/Fairgrounds station Hillsboro Airport/Fairgrounds, formerly Fair Complex/Hillsboro Airport, is a light rail station on the MAX Blue Line, MAX Blue and MAX Red Line, Red lines in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. It is the 16th stop westbound on the Westside MAX, an ...
and
Rose Quarter Transit Center Rose Quarter Transit Center is a light rail station in the MAX system and a TriMet bus transit center, and is located in the Rose Quarter area of Portland, Oregon, a part of the Lloyd District. It is served by the Blue, Green and Red lines, a ...
. On the east side, it shares tracks with both the Red Line and the Green Line, between Rose Quarter Transit Center and
Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center Gateway Transit Center is a multimodal transport hub in Portland, Oregon, United States. Owned and operated by TriMet, it comprises Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center, a bus transit center and light rail station serving the MAX Green ...
.


Eastside history


Early freeway opposition

Following the recommendations of
Robert Moses Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influentia ...
, the
Oregon State Highway Department The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Dep ...
developed a plan for
freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...
s in the
Portland metropolitan area The Portland metropolitan area is a metropolitan area, metro area with its urban area, core in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington (state), Washington. It has 5 principal cities, the largest being Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Man ...
in 1955 that proposed, among others, the Stadium,
Mount Hood Mount Hood, also known as Wy'east, is an active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range and is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast and rests in the Pacific N ...
, and Industrial freeways. Added to the
Interstate Highway System The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Hi ...
as Interstate 405 (I-405), the Stadium Freeway was the first to start construction in 1963. Its route through
downtown Portland Downtown Portland is the central business district of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildi ...
led to condemnations that fostered one of the first grassroots opposition to freeways, which grew considerably as planning continued for the others. In 1971, the Portland–Vancouver Metropolitan Transportation Study (PVMTS), published a "1990 Transportation Plan". The plan, later adopted by the Columbia Region Association of Governments (CRAG) as a
regional transportation plan The Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) in the United States is a long-term blueprint of a region's transportation system.{{Cite web, url=http://equitycaucus.org/Library/CreatingHealthyRegionalTransportationPlans, title=equitycaucus.org, website=equ ...
, called for 54 new road and highway projects. That same year, an anti-freeway group called Sensible Transportation Options for People (STOP) was formed, while
Neil Goldschmidt Neil Edward Goldschmidt (June 16, 1940 – June 12, 2024) was an American businessman and Democratic politician from the state of Oregon who held local, state, and federal offices over three decades. After serving as mayor of Portland, Oregon, ...
ran a successful election campaign on freeway opposition to become a member of the Portland City Council and eventually, mayor. By 1972, local groups had filed lawsuits against the Oregon Transportation Commission to halt the Mount Hood and Industrial—by then called I-505—freeways. For I-505, a
U.S. district court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...
forced the Highway Department to conduct an appropriate
environmental impact statement An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An E ...
(EIS) after Northwest Portland residents alleged that
National Environmental Policy Act The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is a United States environmental law designed to promote the enhancement of the environment. It created new laws requiring U.S. federal government agencies to evaluate the environmental impacts of ...
guidelines were ignored. In 1973, a separate EIS prepared by
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill SOM, an initialism of its original name Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, is a Chicago-based architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings. In 1939, they were joined by engineer ...
determined that if built, the Mount Hood Freeway would only add more traffic to downtown Portland than the surface streets could handle. Then, on February 4, 1974,
U.S. District Judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district. Each district cov ...
James M. Burns rejected the freeway plan after finding that the corridor selection process failed to follow the appropriate procedures.
Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland metropolitan area. The state's smallest and most populous county, it ...
and the City of Portland withdrew their support for the Mount Hood Freeway later that year, and in 1978, the City of Portland did the same for I-505.


Transitway planning and construction

With highway revolts similarly occurring in cities across the country, the
U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...
passed the
Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973 The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973 (Public Law 93–87; 87 Stat. 250) is legislation enacted by the United States Congress and signed into law on August 13, 1973, which provided funding for existing interstate and new urban and rural primary an ...
containing a provision that allowed state governments for the first time to transfer federal funds from withdrawn interstate projects to other transportation options, including
mass transit Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whi ...
. The Mount Hood Freeway and I-505 were officially removed from the Interstate Highway System in 1976 and 1979, respectively, but planning for the use of around $200 million from the Mount Hood Freeway and $154 million from I-505 on other projects in the Portland area started much earlier. In May 1973,
Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
Tom McCall assembled a
task force A task force (TF) is a unit or formation established to work on a single defined task or activity. Originally introduced by the United States Navy, the term has now caught on for general usage and is a standard part of NATO terminology. Many ...
to determine alternative uses for the highway funds. The task force, in turn, recommended a network of "transitways". The task force was subsumed into CRAG in 1974, and CRAG incorporated its recommendations in an "Interim Transportation Plan" (ITP) adopted in June 1975. The ITP identified three corridors for potential funding using the highway funds: Banfield,
Oregon City Oregon City is the county seat of Clackamas County, Oregon, United States, located on the Willamette River near the southern limits of the Portland metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 37,572. Established in 1829 ...
/Johnson Creek, and
Sunset Sunset (or sundown) is the disappearance of the Sun at the end of the Sun path, below the horizon of the Earth (or any other astronomical object in the Solar System) due to its Earth's rotation, rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth, it ...
(Westside). In 1976, CRAG moved forward with a detailed study of the Banfield Corridor and put planning for the other corridors on hold. Among five alternatives developed by the Highway Division, including the removal or extension of an existing
high-occupancy vehicle lane A high-occupancy vehicle lane (also known as an HOV lane, carpool lane, diamond lane, 2+ lane, and transit lane or T2 or T3 lanes) is a restricted traffic lane reserved for the exclusive use of vehicles with a driver and at least one passenger, ...
, a busway had been favored for the Banfield Corridor. Support for light rail on the corridor grew following the mode's inclusion as a sixth alternative in a 1977 EIS, though there was also opposition. Notable opposition came from the East County Concerned Citizens; 5,400 individuals signed a petition against any alternative involving light rail for costs and lack of presumed ridership. The group endorsed a plan to add an HOV lane and general lanes to Banfield instead. This opposition was notable, especially in comparison to the 340 individual comments received during a discussion period in 1977–1978. In September 1978, TriMet became the first jurisdiction to adopt a resolution supporting a combined light rail and highway expansion plan. Remaining local jurisdictions each announced their support by November, and the State Transportation Commission approved the project in 1979. The Banfield light rail project received federal approval for construction in September 1980. Plans for a 27-station, line, running from Southwest 11th Avenue in downtown Portland to just east of Cleveland Avenue in Gresham, were produced by Wilbur Smith Associates. The project estimated a budget of $225.5 million (equivalent to $ in dollars), of which $146.9 million went to light rail. Planners selected the
Steel Bridge The Steel Bridge is a through truss, double-deck vertical-lift bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States, opened in 1912. Its lower deck carries railroad and bicycle/pedestrian traffic, while the upper deck carries ...
to carry the alignment over the
Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward ...
because it had been designed for the use of the city's former
streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...
s. In the east side, planners routed the line through a former Mount Hood Company interurban right-of-way, which occupied the median of East Burnside Street between 99th Avenue in Portland and Ruby Junction/197th Avenue, along which interurban service had ended in 1927. From Ruby Junction to Cleveland Avenue, planners assumed acquisition of a two-mile (3.2 km) section owned by the
Portland Traction Company The Portland Railway, Light and Power Company (PRL&P) was a railway company and electric power utility in Portland, Oregon, Portland, Oregon, United States, from 1906 until 1924.Thompson, Richard M. (2006). ''Portland's Streetcars'', pp. 57 and 9 ...
(PTC). In August 1983, PTC agreed to surrender this segment as part of a longer abandonment up to Linnemann Junction, a total of of right-of-way, which TriMet bought for $2.9 million in December of that year. Anticipating 42,500 riders by 1990, TriMet purchased 26 light rail vehicles from Bombardier, with each car costing $750,000. Bombardier started their production in 1982 and began delivering them in 1984. Zimmer Gunsul Frasca designed the line's stations and overpasses, earning the firm a Progressive Architecture Award in 1984. The groundbreaking ceremony took place at Ruby Junction Yard, which would house a maintenance and operations building, in March 1982. Light rail construction, which progressed largely east to west, commenced the following year in April, on the two-mile (3.2 km) section between Ruby Junction and Cleveland Avenue. The Ruby Junction facility opened as the system's first maintenance complex later that July. By January 1984, work had reached East Burnside Street. To minimize the cost of the Banfield Freeway segment, track right-of-way excavation and freeway widening took place simultaneously. Construction along this segment nonetheless slowed due to late material deliveries, particularly between Northeast Union and 39th avenues. Track work in downtown Portland, the final section to be built, began in March 1984 and involved utility relocation,
cobblestone Cobblestone is a natural building material based on Cobble (geology), cobble-sized stones, and is used for Road surface, pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Sett (paving), Setts, also called ''Belgian blocks'', are often referred to as " ...
paving, and tree planting across 36 downtown blocks. The line's use of the Steel Bridge necessitated a $10 million rehabilitation that started the following June. System testing followed the completion of electrification work. This included the validation of the new light rail cars, which initially encountered electrical braking glitches, by putting each of them through of on-track testing. On July 28, 1986, an eastbound car conducting a test run struck and killed a man who had trespassed onto the light rail tracks near Northeast 68th Avenue. The Steel Bridge reopened in May 1986 after encountering a nine-month delay caused by structural problems and late deliveries. The bridge's owners—the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads—added to the delay by insisting on the replacement of the bridge's 64 lift cables, which TriMet claimed had not been in the original contract.


Inauguration and later improvements

On September 5, 1986, the $214 million (equivalent to $ in dollars) light rail line—now called Metropolitan Area Express (MAX)—opened for service. Its new name was selected through a public contest held by ''
The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...
'' and TriMet in June 1986. TriMet designer Jeff Frane, who attributed inspiration to his son Alex, made the winning suggestion. As the planning of an extension to the west side progressed, this line came to be referred to as the Eastside MAX. Freeway transfer funds provided $178.3 million, or 83 percent of the total cost. The project was completed $10 million under budget. An estimated 250,000 people attended the opening celebrations which spanned three days. Downtown retailers, many of whom had opposed light rail, reported substantial increases in sales following the line's opening. Nine new bus lines were created and six existing bus routes were modified as feeder routes. MAX trains initially operated between 5:00 am and 1:30 am, with
headway Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise definition varies depending on ...
s as short as seven minutes. Fares ranged $0.85–$1.30 to travel up to four paid zones. Rides were free within
Fareless Square 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 ...
from opening day until 2012. Originally, MAX trains did not automatically stop at every station, if no one was waiting to board when a train approached a given stop. MAX cars were equipped with stop-request bell cords (as are commonly found on American
transit bus A transit bus (also big bus, commuter bus, city bus, town bus, urban bus, stage bus, public bus, public transit bus, or simply bus) is a type of bus used in public transport bus services. Several configurations are used, including low-floo ...
es), which passengers needed to pull to signal the operator that they wanted to get off at the next stop. However, after finding that the times when a train could pass a station without needing to stopbecause no one was getting on or offwere mainly limited to late-night hours and a small number of less-used stations, TriMet removed the bell cords in November 1994 and changed its operating practices to have trains stop at every station at all times. From 1986 to 1996, most of the line's easternmost two miles (3.2 km), beyond the Ruby Junction maintenance facility, operated as bidirectional single-track. Trains traveling in opposite directions were unable to pass in these sections, resulting in delays when service ran behind schedule. In early 1996, a second track was laid and a second platform was constructed at Gresham Central Transit Center, making the section
double-track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lin ...
and eliminating the only remaining single-track on the Eastside MAX. The new track was brought into use in May after a three-month suspension of MAX service east of Rockwood/East 188th Avenue station; it had been replaced by shuttle buses to allow the work to be carried out. Since the inauguration of MAX, TriMet has added four
infill station An infill station (sometimes in-fill station) is a train station built on an existing passenger rail, rapid transit, or light rail line to address demand in a location between existing stations. Such stations take advantage of existing train ser ...
s to the original alignment. In March 1990, the system opened the Mall stations—their names referring to the Portland Transit Mall—to coincide with the opening of Pioneer Place shopping mall in downtown Portland. After operating for 30 years, these stations closed permanently in March 2020, owing to low ridership and to speed up train travel times across the city center. In September 1990, the Oregon Convention Center opened to the public with MAX service from Convention Center station. Work on the line's newest station, , started in 1997 as part of the Civic neighborhood development, but was delayed for approximately twelve years due to a lack of funding. Construction resumed in May 2010 and the station opened on December 1, 2010. In 2015, TriMet began renovating fourteen of the system's oldest stations, between Hollywood/Northeast 42nd Avenue Transit Center and Cleveland Avenue. The project includes the installation of new windscreens, shelter roofs, digital information displays, lighting, and
security camera A closed-circuit television camera is a type of surveillance camera that transmits video signals to a specific set of monitors or video recording devices, rather than broadcasting the video over public airwaves. The term "closed-circuit televisi ...
s. Three stations—, , and —have been renovated as of February 2019.


Westside extension


Early planning and delays

On September 30, 1908, an
interurban The interurban (or radial railway in Canada) is a type of electric railway, with tram-like electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. The term "interurban" is usually used in North America, with other terms u ...
rail service ran for the first time between Portland and Hillsboro. It was operated by the
Oregon Electric Railway The Oregon Electric Railway (OE) was an interurban streetcar, interurban railroad line in the U.S. state of Oregon that linked Portland, Oregon, Portland to Eugene, Oregon, Eugene. History Service from Portland to Salem, Oregon, Salem began in ...
(OE), which built a
branch line A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located ...
from its Garden Home depot to Forest Grove. The
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
and the rise of the
automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
in the 1920s led to the closure of the Forest Grove Branch in 1932. The
Burlington Northern Railroad The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States–based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroad ...
(BN) later acquired much of this alignment and used it for freight service. It abandoned a segment between Orenco and central Hillsboro in 1977. In 1979, plans to restore passenger rail service from Portland to the west side emerged with a proposal to extend MAX to 185th Avenue, near the Hillsboro– Beaverton boundary. In 1983, Metro (the successor to CRAG) selected light rail as the preferred mode alternative, and the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) released $1.3 million to begin a preliminary engineering study. That same year, newly appointed Hillsboro Mayor Shirley Huffman began lobbying for the line's extension to downtown Hillsboro. She traveled frequently to
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
to lobby
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
and UMTA. The project was later suspended by TriMet amid conflict with UMTA, who wanted the former to develop a financing plan before it released funding for preliminary engineering work. By the time planning resumed in January 1988, significant changes in the Westside Corridor, including the conversion of of vacant Washington County land into
mixed-use Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions ...
urban areas, required a re-evaluation that was completed in May 1991. As planning continued on the route between Portland and 185th Avenue, alternative routes through Beaverton included alignments along the Sunset Highway (U.S. 26), the BN right-of-way, and the
Tualatin Valley Highway The Tualatin Valley Highway No. 29 (see Oregon highways and routes) is an Oregon highway which passes through the Tualatin Valley, between the cities of McMinnville and Beaverton. Between McMinnville and Forest Grove, the highway is signed ...
(TV Highway). A consultant recommended the BN alternative to TriMet in December 1988, and the agency's board ultimately selected that recommendation. The terminus station would have been along the BN right-of-way near 185th Avenue and Baseline Road. Meanwhile, the Portland City Council formed an advisory committee to determine whether the route through downtown should extend west from 11th Avenue on Southwest Morrison and Yamhill streets or run through the Portland Transit Mall on 5th and 6th avenues. The locally preferred alternative ultimately adopted a continuation of MAX along Morrison and Yamhill streets. The efforts of Huffman and others regarding the proposed Hillsboro extension led to a supplemental study in April 1993, which evaluated options to extend the westside light rail project, among other mode alternatives, to the Westside Commons or downtown Hillsboro. Alternative routes up to downtown Hillsboro included the abandoned BN segment from 185th Avenue to 10th Avenue, Baseline and Cornell roads, and TV Highway. In July of that year, TriMet approved an extension of the initial light rail line, farther west to downtown Hillsboro using the abandoned BN route. This brought the project's new total distance to (some sources say 17.5 km). At the time, the line was scheduled to open as far as 185th Avenue in September 1997, and downtown Hillsboro by the end of 1998.


Funding and construction

Funding for the westside extension proved difficult to obtain under the
Reagan Administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following his landslide victory over ...
, which sought to reduce federal expenditures by delaying existing light rail projects and declining to approve future planning. As members of their respective appropriations committees, U.S. Senator
Mark Hatfield Mark Odom Hatfield (July 12, 1922 – August 7, 2011) was an American politician and educator from the state of Oregon. A Factions in the Republican Party (United States)#Moderates, moderate Republican Party (United States), Republican, he se ...
and U.S. Representative Les AuCoin secured preliminary engineering and environmental review grants in 1989 by withholding funds from the head of UMTA's office. In 1990, Congress adopted legislation requiring the federal government to cover a 75 percent share of transit projects approved within the fiscal year. Voters subsequently rejected a measure to permit the use of local vehicle registration fees for public transit, which would have covered Oregon's 25 percent share, defeating it 52 percent to 48 percent. With a year-end deadline approaching the 25 percent local-share stipulation, TriMet introduced a $125 million local bond measure in July 1990. Portland area voters overwhelmingly approved the ballot measure, which earned 74 percent average approval the following November. This marked the region's first successful vote approving public transportation. The Federal Transit Administration (the new name for UMTA) completed the funding package in 1991, granting $515 million to build the line up to 185th Avenue. It provided another $75 million in 1994 following the approval of the Hillsboro extension, which covered one-third of the segment's $224 million additional cost. Construction of the Westside MAX began in August 1993 with the excavation of the Robertson Tunnel. Several alternative alignments through the West Hills were studied, including an all-surface option along the Sunset Highway, an option with a half-mile-long (0.8km) "short tunnel", and an option with a "long tunnel". TriMet chose the "long tunnel" in April 1991. Frontier-Traylor, the project's general contractor, used conventional
drilling and blasting Drilling and blasting is the controlled use of explosives and other methods, such as gas pressure blasting pyrotechnics, to break rock for excavation. It is practiced most often in mining, quarrying and civil engineering such as dam, tunnel ...
techniques to dig through the west end. On the east segment, a
tunnel boring machine A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...
was used to drill for two miles. Highly fragmented rock initially made machine excavation difficult, delaying the project for nine months. The $166.9 million tunnel was completed in 1997. It houses the Washington Park station, currently the system's only underground station and the deepest transit station in North America. Work along Oregon Highway 217 started in March 1994. Initially planned to run alongside freight trains through Beaverton and Hillsboro, the alignment was replaced with light rail following TriMet's acquisition of the BN right-of-way in June. The horseshoe tunnel below Sunset Highway was completed in July 1995 and all highway work ceased in December. Track work commenced west of 185th Avenue around the time the Elmonica Yard opened in January 1996. It was built to accommodate some of the 39
Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
cars TriMet procured. The model SD660 low-floor cars, jointly developed by TriMet and Siemens, became notable as the first low-floor light rail vehicles in North America. The final
rail spike A rail fastening system is a means of fixing Rail profile, rails to railroad ties (North America) or sleepers (British Isles, Australasia, and Africa). The terms ''rail anchors'', ''tie plates'', ''chairs'' and ''track fasteners'' are used to r ...
was driven on Hillsboro's Main Street Bridge in October 1997. System testing took place in June 1998.


Opening

Owing to delays caused by tunneling work, the line's planned September 1997 opening up to 185th Avenue was postponed by one year. On August 31, 1997, the Westside MAX opened its first section, a two-station extension west to the Civic Stadium and Kings Hill/SW Salmon Street, in conjunction with the entry into service of the first low-floor cars. Grand opening celebrations for the entire $963.5million (equivalent to $ in dollars) line took place on September 12, 1998. Ceremonies were held at various stations and speeches were delivered by local and national dignitaries, including
Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...
. Twelve TriMet bus routes, which had operated between the west side and downtown Portland, were reduced to five, replaced by light rail. The line immediately drew strong ridership, exceeding projections for 2005 less than two years after it opened. In September 2000, TriMet adopted a color coding scheme to differentiate its trains operating between Hillsboro and Gresham from those that were going to serve the Airport MAX extension, assigning the colors blue and red, respectively. The line-identification system was implemented shortly before the Red Line's opening on September 10, 2001.


Proposed extension to Forest Grove

In February 2006, local government officials proposed an extension of the Westside MAX from its Hatfield Government Center terminus to Forest Grove. City leaders approached a former TriMet engineer to conduct a feasibility study and develop a plan to get the project included in Metro's Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation list of priority projects. The six-month study, completed in October, estimated a cost of about $200 million to build the segment. The study identified a best route option using existing tracks between Southwest Adams Avenue in Hillsboro and Douglas Street in Forest Grove. The tracks, which were formerly owned by OE, are currently state-owned with operating rights assigned to the
Portland and Western Railroad The Portland and Western Railroad is a Class II railroad serving the U.S. state of Oregon, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of shortline and regional railroad holding company Genesee & Wyoming Inc. The PNWR includes a subsidiary, the Willamett ...
. Metro proposes a high-capacity transit extension to Forest Grove as part of its 2018 Regional Transportation Plan for 2040 but does not specify the type of high-capacity transit, which could either be a bus or a rail option.


Route

The Blue Line operates along the Eastside and Westside MAX segments, which combined total to . Its western terminus is in Hillsboro, on the corner of West Main Street and Southwest Adams Avenue. From there, the line heads east along the median of Southeast Washington Street and continues east on a former BN—former OE—right-of-way between Southeast 10th Avenue and Northwest 185th Avenue, traveling mostly at-grade except at
grade-separated In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights ( grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tr ...
crossings—notably, the Main Street Bridge and Cornelius Pass Road—until it reaches Beaverton Transit Center. It then turns north, running adjacent to Oregon Highway 217 to Sunset Transit Center. From there it continues eastwards along the north side of the Sunset Highway before entering the Robertson Tunnel for Washington Park station. After leaving the tunnel, the line passes below the Vista Bridge and enters downtown Portland, continuing along Southwest Jefferson Street before turning north onto the median of Southwest 18th Avenue. Near
Providence Park Providence Park (formerly Jeld-Wen Field; PGE Park; Civic Stadium; originally Multnomah Stadium; and from 1893 until the stadium was built, Multnomah Field) is an outdoor soccer venue located in the Goose Hollow neighborhood of Portland, Oregon ...
, the tracks diverge eastbound onto Southwest Yamhill Street and westbound onto Southwest Morrison Street, crossing the
Portland Transit Mall The Portland Transit Mall is a public transportation, public transit corridor that travels north–south through the center of downtown Portland, Oregon, downtown in Portland, Oregon, United States. It comprises a one-way pair, pair of one-way ...
near the Pioneer Courthouse and
Pioneer Courthouse Square Pioneer Courthouse Square, also known as Portland's living room, is a public space occupying a full city block in the center of Downtown Portland, downtown Portland, Oregon, Portland, Oregon, United States. Opened in 1984, the square is bound ...
. The tracks reconnect on Southwest 1st Avenue and head north, traversing the
Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward ...
via the Steel Bridge into the Rose Quarter. The line runs along Holladay Street in the Rose Quarter and the Lloyd District, passing the
Moda Center Moda Center, formerly known as the Rose Garden, is the primary indoor sports arena in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is used for basketball, rodeos, circuses, conventions, ice shows, concerts, and dramatic productions. The arena has a capa ...
and the Oregon Convention Center. It enters its grade-separated segment along the north bank of the Banfield Freeway at Sullivan's Gulch. The line then travels over the Interstate 84 and Interstate 205 interchange towards
Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center Gateway Transit Center is a multimodal transport hub in Portland, Oregon, United States. Owned and operated by TriMet, it comprises Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center, a bus transit center and light rail station serving the MAX Green ...
. From Gateway Transit Center, tracks head south along the east side of I-205. A single-track junction south of Gateway Transit Center marks the start of the Airport MAX segment while a double junction south of Southeast Glisan Street splits into the I-205 MAX. The Blue Line turns east and enters the median of East Burnside Street at East 97th Avenue. At Ruby Junction/East 197th Avenue station, the line leaves the street and heads southeastwards until it reaches Cleveland Avenue station, its last stop, near the corner of Northeast Cleveland Avenue and Northeast 8th Street in Gresham. The Blue Line shares much of its alignment with the Red Line. Between 2001 and 2003, they used the same tracks from the 11th Avenue loop tracks in downtown Portland to Gateway Transit Center, where Red Line trains diverge towards
Portland International Airport Portland International Airport is a joint civil–military airport and the largest airport in the U.S. state of Oregon, accounting for 90% of the state's passenger air travel and more than 95% of its air cargo. It is within Portland's city li ...
. Since 2024, they have shared the same route between Hillsboro Airport/Fairgrounds station and Gateway Transit Center. The Green Line joined a part of this shared alignment in 2009, entering from the Portland Transit Mall just west of the Steel Bridge, diverging at Gateway Transit Center, and continuing south towards Clackamas.


Stations

The Blue Line serves 48 stations. The 27 stations built as part of the inaugural line between Gresham and downtown Portland opened on September 5, 1986. The Mall stations on Southwest 4th and 5th avenues were added in conjunction with the opening of Pioneer Place in March 1990, followed by the Convention Center station and the Oregon Convention Center in September. The Westside MAX opened in two stages due to delays in construction. The first two stations, Civic Stadium—now —and Kings Hill/Southwest Salmon Street, opened on August 31, 1997. The remaining 18 stations opened during the segment's inauguration on September 12, 1998. The newest station is Civic Drive, which was opened on December 1, 2010. On July 24, 2019, TriMet announced the permanent closure of the Mall stations, as well as a one-year pilot closure of Kings Hill/Southwest Salmon Street station, in an effort to speed up travel times. The closures took effect on March 1, 2020. Transfers to the Yellow Line are available at the Pioneer Square and Mall stations and Rose Quarter Transit Center, while transfers to the Green Line (beyond the shared Eastside MAX alignment) and the Orange Line can be made at the Pioneer Square and Mall stations. Additionally, the Blue Line provides connections to local and
intercity bus service An intercity bus service (North American English) or intercity coach service (British English and Commonwealth English), also called a long-distance, express, over-the-road, commercial, long-haul, or highway bus or coach service, is a public t ...
s at various stops across the line, the
Portland Streetcar The Portland Streetcar is a streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, that opened in 2001 and serves areas surrounding downtown Portland. The NS Line runs from Northwest Portland to the South Waterfront via Downtown and the Pearl District. Th ...
at four stops in and near downtown Portland, and a transfer to
WES Commuter Rail The Westside Express Service (WES) is a commuter rail line serving parts of the Portland metropolitan area's Washington County, Oregon, Washington and Clackamas County, Oregon, Clackamas counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. Owned by TriMet and ...
, which runs from Beaverton to Wilsonville during the morning and evening commutes on weekdays, at Beaverton Transit Center.


Transit-oriented development

In an
Institute for Transportation and Development Policy An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes c ...
study conducted in September 2013, the Blue Line was credited with generating $6.6 billion in
transit-oriented development In urban planning, transit-oriented development (TOD) is a type of Real estate development, urban development that maximizes the amount of Residential area, residential, business and leisure space within Pedestrian, walking distance of public t ...
investment.


Service

From Monday to Thursday, the Blue Line runs for 22 hours per day. The first train goes westbound from Elmonica/Southwest 170th Avenue station at 3:31 am and the last trip goes eastbound from Rose Quarter Transit Center to Ruby Junction/East 197th Avenue station at 1:29 am the following day. Additional late-night trips are provided on Fridays, with the last trip going eastbound from Hatfield Government Center station to Elmonica/Southwest 170th Avenue station at 2:01 am. Except for additional late-night trips on Saturdays, weekend service runs on a slightly reduced schedule. The first trains run westbound from Ruby Junction/East 197th Avenue station at 3:35 am and the last trains run eastbound from Hatfield Government Center station at 1:51 am and Rose Quarter Transit Center at 1:33 am, respectively. Select early morning trains operate as
through service A through service is a concept of passenger transport that involves a vehicle travelling between lines, networks or operators on a regularly specified schedule, on which the passenger can remain on board without alighting. It may be in either of th ...
s of the Red Line and the Yellow Line. End-to-end travel time is approximately 105 minutes.MAX Blue Line schedules: *For weekday, westbound to Portland City Center and Hillsboro: *For weekday, eastbound to Portland City Center and Gresham: *For Saturday, westbound to Portland City Center and Hillsboro: *For Saturday, eastbound to Portland City Center and Gresham: *For Sunday, westbound to Portland City Center and Hillsboro: *For Sunday, eastbound to Portland City Center and Gresham: TriMet designates the Blue Line as a "Frequent Service" route along with the rest of the light rail system, ensuring service runs on a 15-minute headway for most of each day. Blue Line trains run most frequently during weekday
rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English, Indian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice e ...
s, operating on headways as short as five minutes. During the early mornings and late evenings, headways increase to 30 minutes.


Ridership

During the Eastside MAX's construction, the line was projected to carry 12,000 riders per day. It averaged around 22,000 during its first four days of regular operation and had leveled at 18,000 by December 1986. In June 1987, TriMet's general manager, James Cowen, claimed MAX ridership had grown to a point where it was "a peak all day" with a
farebox recovery ratio The farebox recovery ratio (also called fare recovery ratio, fare recovery rate or other terms) of a passenger transportation system is the fraction of operating expenses which are met by the fares paid by passengers. It is computed by dividin ...
of 50 percent. Two years after the opening of the Westside MAX, the system had been recording over 71,000 daily riders, a figure that was not anticipated until 2005. To relieve overcrowding, TriMet extended the Red Line further west to Beaverton Transit Center on August 31, 2003. From 2004 to 2007, TriMet recorded 18 percent and 27 percent increases in utilization between Hatfield Government Center station and Beaverton Transit Center during morning and evening rush hours, respectively, prompting the agency to add three Red Line trains running up to Hatfield Government Center on March 2, 2008. In the first three months of 2017, the Blue Line recorded an average 55,233 rides per weekday, a drop of 2.9 percent from the same period in 2016. TriMet attributes the drop to lower-income riders being forced out of the inner city by rising housing prices. The Blue Line is currently the busiest line in the MAX system, carrying 18.9 million passengers in 2015. It averaged 55,370 riders on weekdays in September 2018, up from 55,330 for the same month in 2017.


Notes


References


Sources

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External links

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Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). It administers three programs established to document historic places in the United States: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American E ...
(HAER) documentation, filed under Beaverton, Washington County, OR: ** ** {{Portal bar, Oregon, Trains 1986 establishments in Oregon Historic American Engineering Record in Oregon Blue Line Rail lines in Oregon Railway lines opened in 1986