Transit to the MAX - A Portland History: Episode 15

Portland, the urbanist mecca of the Northwest, has long been famous for being ahead of similar cities in building out transit, walking, and cycling infrastructure. Take a tour of Portland's transit history, and see their future be guided by a successful and strong-to-this-day freeway opposition movement. We discuss the present MAX light rail system and how Portland will address its issues with the upcoming MAX tunnel project. Portland's future is incredibly bright. Don't forget to subscribe and become a real estate developer in the Portland metropolitan area. Links and stuffs Merch:https://shop.trlpod.com/ Twitter:@TheRedLine_pod YouTube channel:The Red Line Podcast Spotify:The Red Line Podcast Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/theredlinepodcasters Email:[email protected] Website:https://www.trlpod.com/ Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:36 The News 00:36 Amtrak Cascades returns to Vancouver[1] 02:11 HART begins testing[2] 04:05 Portland's population and geography 07:17 Fun facts about Portland 08:43 Homelessness 10:16 History [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [19] 10:25 The streetcar (of course) 12:19 Bridges 14:42 Electric streetcars 16:33 The Portland Railway, Light and Power Company 17:33 Gas tax 18:09 Fall of the streetcar 19:36 Streetcar ridership 20:15 Trolleybuses 20:42 Bus route naming 22:31 WWII 23:25 Robert Moses 24:50 Freeway construction 26:03 Highway removal on the Willamette 27:50 Mount Hood freeway 29:09 Transit-oriented thinking 30:23 Freeway opposition 33:50 TriMet 35:47 Improving service 38:05 The downtown transit mall[7] 39:06 Troubles in the '70s and '80s 39:39 The MAX 42:10 Westside MAX 43:45 Airport & Interstate MAX 45:25 Portland Streetcar & beyond 47:33 Today [14] [15] [17] 47:58 MAX Yellow Line 48:50 MAX Orange Line 49:46 MAX Green Line 51:28 The Steel Bridge 52:00 MAX Red Line 52:32 MAX Blue Line 53:28 The Streetcar 53:56 It goes everywhere 54:58 Ridership & modeshare[3] 56:11 FX2-Division[3] 58:44 Bus service 59:03 The Streetcar 1:00:44 A will to do better 1:02:06 Challenges 1:02:21 Ridership because of the pandemic 1:02:31 Crippling operator shortage 1:03:11 Safety for operators 1:04:45 Pay for operators 1:06:05 Steel Bridge capacity 1:08:14 Speed downtown[3] 1:09:33 Coverage in outlying areas 1:10:12 Connections to the north 1:11:01 The future [4] [6] 1:11:18 Southwest Corridor light rail[5] 1:12:26 Red Line improvement project 1:12:42 MAX tunnel[18] 1:15:27 Light rail plans 1:16:28 Streetcar extension 1:16:56 I-5 bridge 1:18:06 The future is bright 1:20:05 Outro References & notes [1]Mass Transit: Amtrak Cascades resumes service to Vancouver, BC [2] Mass Transit: HART begins trial running on Honolulu rail line [3]PBOT: Enhanced Transit Corridors Plan [4]BikePortland: In bid for federal funding, Metro shares list of regional transit project priorities [5]TriMet: Southwest Corridor Light Rail Project [6]TriMet: Unified Service Enhancement Plan [7]American Planning Association: 5th and 6th Avenues – Portland Transit Mall: Portland, Oregon [8]TriMet: History [9]TriMet: Making History (interactive) [10]TriMet: Making History (PDF) [11]The TriMet Story [12]Oregon Encyclopedia: Portland streetcar system [13]Portland Streetcar: Streetcar History [14]Wikipedia: MAX Light Rail [15]Wikipedia: Portland Streetcar [16]Wikipedia: C-Tran (Washington) [17]WES Commuter Rail [18]Metro: The MAX Tunnel Study [19]Wikipedia: TriMet [20]C-Tran [21]C-Tran: The Vine Schedules