MAX Orange Line
The MAX Orange Line is a light rail service in Portland, Oregon, United states, operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. It connects Portland City Center in the north to Portland State University, Southeast Portland, Milwaukie, and Oak Grove in the south. The service originates near Portland Union Station running southbound only along the Portland Transit Mall on 5th Avenue. From there, it serves the Portland–Milwaukie light rail segment through the South Waterfront, across the Willamette River into Southeast Portland, then south to Oak Grove, just outside of Milwaukie proper in unincorporated Clackamas County. The line serves 17 stations between Union Station/Northwest 5th & Glisan and. It runs for 21 hours daily with a minimum headway of 15 minutes during most of the day.
The $1.49billion Portland–Milwaukie light rail project was the second part of a two-phase plan known as the South Corridor transportation project, which expanded light rail to Interstate 205 and the Portland Transit Mall in its first phase. This MAX extension, which followed years of failed light rail plans for Clackamas County, began construction work in mid-2011. As part of the project, TriMet built the first major "car-free" bridge in the country, known as Tilikum Crossing, over the Willamette River. The line opened on September 12, 2015. It carried an average of 11,500 daily weekday riders in September 2019.
The Orange Line operates as a southbound through service of the Yellow Line from Union Station/Northwest 5th & Glisan station, sharing its transit mall alignment on 5th Avenue with the Green Line. From PSU South/Southwest 6th and College station, the Orange Line through operates into the Yellow Line as a northbound service of the transit mall on 6th Avenue and bound for Expo Center station in North Portland.
History
Early proposals to Oregon City
In 1975, the Columbia Region Association of Governments proposed a series of "transitway" corridors in the Portland metropolitan area amid calls to transfer federal assistance funds from the canceled Mount Hood Freeway project to other projects in the region. This proposal, which CRAG adopted in an interim transportation plan, envisioned several busway corridors emanating from various parts of Portland and a light rail corridor running from downtown Portland to Oregon City in Clackamas County, with a spur line from Milwaukie to Lents, both primarily along old Portland Traction Company rights-of-way. Indecision regarding the exact use of the transfer money, as requested by the Federal Highway Administration, led to a delay in acquiring the funds. That November, TriMet lost its option to purchase used PCC streetcars from Toronto, which it had hoped to use on the proposed Portland–Oregon City line, after the Toronto Transit Commission declined to renew TriMet's hold.The following year, the Portland City Council separately approved the addition of a busway component to I-205, which had been under construction at the time in Portland's east side; this corridor would later be known as the I-205 Transitway. The I-205 Transitway's realization led TriMet to redirect priority to developing the Banfield Transitway, a stretch of I-84 connecting I-5 in downtown Portland with I-205. The Banfield Transitway project, originally poised to become another busway, was ultimately built with light rail, after Multnomah County and Trimet officials insisted on the mode's inclusion in an environmental impact statement. Portland's first light rail line—the first segment of what would become the Metropolitan Area Express, or MAX—began operating between Gresham and Portland on September 5, 1986.
Several months before the inauguration of MAX, Metro regional government renewed talks regarding an extension of light rail from Portland to Milwaukie and up to Oregon City via McLoughlin Boulevard, as well as proposed another line between Portland International Airport and Clackamas Town Center via I-205. During this time, TriMet had already been planning for a westside extension of MAX to Hillsboro in Washington County, which the agency wanted to prioritize. Noting that federal funds could only be spent on one light rail project at a time, Metro's Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation placed the I-205 light rail line as its second priority, due to the existing I-205 Transitway right-of-way, and a Milwaukie line to third priority. Despite this, both Clackamas and Washington counties vied for the region's next light rail line and disputed over the federal money. To settle the dispute, Metro released a regional transportation plan that reasserted the westside line's priority in 1989.
Failed South/North Line
Metro's plan, however, commissioned studies for the I-205 and McLoughlin Boulevard light rail proposals, the latter up to Milwaukie. In September 1989, Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield and Washington Senator Brock Adams, who were members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, helped get approved a $2million financing package from the federal government to assess both segments. At the request of the two senators, a segment further north to Vancouver and Clark County, Washington became part of the proposals. As the studies analyzed various alternative routes, the project's advisory committee increasingly favored an alignment closer to downtown Portland along the busier I-5 and Willamette River corridors. In 1994, Metro finalized a route that ran from Hazel Dell, Washington through downtown Portland to Clackamas Town Center, which TriMet officially called the South/North Line.That November, "nearly two-thirds" of voters in the Oregon part of the Portland metropolitan area voted in support of a $475 million bond measure to provide the local-area share of the project's estimated $2.8 billion cost. However, three months later, a majority of voters in Clark County rejected a sales tax and vehicle excise tax that would have provided that county's $237.5 million share of the project's funding, leading eventually to those plans being shelved.
Planning for light rail connecting Portland with Clackamas County later resumed. After public meetings it was decided that the first MAX line to Clackamas County should be along Interstate 205 freeway, from Gateway to Clackamas Town Center, but that this would be phase 1 of a two-part expansion of the MAX system, with a Portland–Milwaukie line as phase 2. The I-205 line opened in 2009, as the MAX Green Line.
Revival and funding
Meanwhile, planning for the Portland–Milwaukie line continued, including study of, and public input on, several different alternatives for the exact route. In 2008, the Locally Preferred Alternative was chosen. The MAX Light Rail to Milwaukie would terminate at Park Avenue station rather than Lake Road, as originally planned in 2003.On April 5, 2011, the Federal Transit Administration approved the start of the project's final design; at that time, design work was roughly thirty percent complete and projected to be finished in about a year. The approval meant that TriMet could begin purchasing right-of-way and some construction materials.
Construction began on June 30, 2011, initially limited to work at the site of Tilikum Crossing over the Willamette River, but right-of-way preparation work began in the southern part of downtown Portland in late September 2011. During planning and construction, the new bridge being built for the line used the temporary name of Portland–Milwaukie Light Rail Bridge, but in April 2014 it was officially named Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People.
In July 2013, the project reached 50-percent completion. The line was tentatively scheduled to open on September 12, 2015.
As part of construction, safety improvements were made at the SE 8th, 11th, and 12th avenues crossings in Southeast Portland, and the SE Mailwell Drive, SE Harrison, Monroe and Washington streets, and 21st Avenue crossings in Milwaukie. This allows these crossings to be designated quiet zones, where Union Pacific Railroad, Portland and Western Railroad and MAX trains do not have to use their horns when going through an intersection.
As construction finished in March 2015, the line was under budget in the range of $10 million to $40 million. After a petition from Jeff Merkley, the Federal Transit Administration approved the addition of switch heaters, catenary ice caps, and additional station shelters, totaling $3.6 million, which were deferred from the original plans during the funding agreement with the FTA. However, the remaining 50% matching funds from the FTA must be returned, leaving the excess local funds in the range of $5 million to $20 million after the funding process is complete in 2019. These TriMet bond funds can only be used for capital projects, due to the conditions under which they were raised.
on opening day
On May 15, 2015, the first trips run with passengers at regular operating speed along the full Orange Line carried around 500 people, including Governor Kate Brown and Senator Jeff Merkley.
On August 30, 2015, test trains began running along the entire Orange Line route, in advance of the September 12 opening date. The line opened for service on September 12 at 11 a.m.
Route
The Orange Line originates at a three-track stub terminal at Park Avenue and McLoughlin Boulevard in Oak Grove, just south of Milwaukie proper. The line runs at grade alongside McLoughlin Boulevard until it reaches 22nd Avenue. Here, the line leaves McLoughlin Boulevard via an elevated viaduct called the Kellogg Bridge. The viaduct takes the line across Kellogg Lake, and into the next stop at downtown Milwaukie. From here past the location of a proposed infill station at Harold Street, the Orange Line runs parallel to active Portland and Western and Union Pacific Railroad rights-of-way and McLoughlin Boulevard. At Southeast 17th Avenue, the Orange Line turns north, and runs in the median of 17th Avenue, with stops at Holgate Boulevard and Rhine Street. After passing Pershing Street, the line leaves the median of 17th Avenue and again runs alongside the Union Pacific tracks until just southeast of OMSI, making an intermediate stop at 12th Avenue and Clinton Street.After stopping at OMSI, the Orange Line tracks merge with those of the Portland Streetcar's Loop Service and cross the Tilikum Crossing bridge. After the MAX station at South Waterfront, at the southwest end of the bridge, the Streetcar tracks split off and join the tracks of that system's North/South Line. Leaving the station, the Orange Line crosses Moody Avenue and ascends toward and onto an elevated viaduct taking it over various streets and gradually turning west to enter Southwest Lincoln Street at Naito Parkway. The line runs in the median of Lincoln Street to a stop at SW 3rd Avenue and then continues along Lincoln to 5th Avenue, where it and enters the Portland Transit Mall at the PSU South station. Northbound trains pass through the MAX terminal loop adjacent to the PSU South station en route to 6th Avenue, the northbound transit mall street.
Stations
The Portland–Milwaukie extension consists of ten stations between Lincoln Street/Southwest 3rd Avenue and Southeast Park Avenue. Of these ten stations, two are situated within and just outside of Milwaukie in Clackamas County. The Orange Line is the only service that serves this Portland–Milwaukie segment. It also serves seven stations in downtown Portland along the southbound segment of the Portland Transit Mall on 5th Avenue; these are shared with the Green Line. Transfers to the Yellow Line, which runs northbound from PSU South in downtown Portland to the, can be made at any of the seven stations along the transit mall's 6th Avenue alignment, although most northbound Orange Line trains through operate into the Yellow Line. Transfers to the Blue Line and the Red Line are available at Pioneer Place/Southwest 5th station. The Orange Line also provides connections to local and intercity bus services at several stops across the line, Amtrak near Union Station/Northwest 5th & Glisan station, and the Portland Streetcar at the PSU Urban Center/Southwest 5th & Mill and OMSI/Southeast Water stations.Operations
The Orange Line is interlined with the Yellow Line. Upon arrival at Union Station, southbound Yellow Line trains become Orange Line trains before they travel along the Portland Transit Mall. Likewise, inbound Orange Line trains become Yellow Line trains upon arrival at the PSU South MAX stations before traveling north on the Portland Transit Mall. Thus, on northbound Orange Line trains, the colored square denoting the route color flashes yellow and orange, and the destination sign flashes "City Center - Expo Center," indicating that the train will become a Yellow Line train upon entering the Transit Mall. The reverse happens on southbound Yellow Line trains.During peak hours, some Orange Line trains do not become Yellow Line trains and instead loop back along the Transit Mall to return to Milwaukie. This is due to higher projected ridership along the Orange Line than the Yellow Line.
A new bus line 291-Orange Night Bus runs south from downtown to Milwaukie, shadowing the Orange Line route, after 11:30 p.m. The purpose of this was to allow the last Orange Line trains to return to TriMet's Ruby Junction maintenance and operations facility earlier, preserving the existing early-morning window that TriMet uses for maintenance work on the system.