MAX Green Line

MAX Green Line
On the downtown Portland transit mall
Overview
Type	Light rail
System	MAX Light Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Portland, Oregon, U.S.
Termini	Portland State University (in downtown Portland) (west) Clackamas (east)
Stations	30
Daily ridership	21,630 (as of May 2018)[1]
Website	MAX Green Line
Operation
Opened	September 12, 2009 (2009-09-12)
Owner	TriMet
Operator(s)	TriMet
Character	At-grade and grade-separated
Technical
Line length	15 mi (24.1 km) (8.3 mi (13.4 km) of new tracks)[2]
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Electrification	750 V DC, overhead catenary
Route diagram ■ Orange Line to Milwaukie PSU South/SW 6th & College St PSU South/SW 5th & Jackson St PSU Urban Center/ SW 6th & Montgomery St  A  Loop &  NS  Line PSU Urban Center/ SW 5th & Mill St  B  Loop &  NS  Line SW 6th & Pine St City Hall/SW 5th & Jefferson St ■ Blue Line from Hillsboro ■ Red Line from Beaverton Pioneer Courthouse Pioneer Place ■ Blue Line to Hillsboro ■ Red Line to Beaverton SW 6th & Pine St SW 5th & Oak St NW 6th & Davis St NW 5th & Couch St Union Station Amtrak ■ Blue Line ■ Red Line Steel Bridge over Willamette River to Expo Center Rose Quarter TC I-5 Convention Center  B  Loop (NE Grand Ave)  A  Loop (NE 7th Ave) NE 7th Ave Lloyd Center/NE 11th Ave Hollywood/NE 42nd Ave TC NE 60th Ave NE 82nd Ave I-84 / I-205 Gateway/NE 99th Ave TC ■ Blue Line to Gresham │ ■ Red Line to Airport SE Main St I-205 SE Division St SE Powell Blvd SE Holgate Blvd Lents Town Center/SE Foster Rd SE Flavel St SE Fuller Rd Clackamas Town Center TC

The MAX Green Line is a light rail line of the MAX Light Rail system in Portland, Oregon, United States that extends from downtown Portland to the eastside communities of Clackmas and Happy Valley. Owned and operated by TriMet, the line is 15 miles (24.1 km) long and serves 30 stations. It is the only line that shares parts of its alignment with all four of the other MAX lines; it shares the Banfield corridor with the Blue and Red lines and the Portland Transit Mall with the Orange and Yellow lines. A Frequent Service route, the Green Line is the second busiest in the system; it carried an average 21,630 riders per day on weekdays in May 2018.

Construction began in early 2007,^[3] and the line opened on September 12, 2009.^[4] The average daily ridership in June 2010 was 19,500,^[5] increasing to 24,300 by April 2012.^[6]

Project details

The Green Line runs over a combination of previously existing and new tracks. New tracks were built in two projects:

• Portland Mall Revitalization Project: Added light rail tracks to the Portland Transit Mall on both Fifth and Sixth Avenues between Portland State University and Union Station, along with tracks connecting this section to previously existing tracks on the west deck of the Steel Bridge, a total length of 1.8 miles (2.9 km). The project was born of the need to relieve congestion on the existing downtown Portland MAX alignment on Yamhill and Morrison Streets. The new Portland Mall tracks first came on August 30, 2009, by the MAX Yellow Line,^[7] but the Green Line opened for service just 13 days later and also runs on this new alignment,^[3] traveling the 2 miles from PSU to Rose Quarter in 17 minutes.
• I-205 Light Rail Project: Constructed a new 6.5-mile (10.5 km) alignment between Gateway Transit Center and a new transit center at Clackamas Town Center. The majority of this alignment uses the grade-separated, previously-unfinished I-205 Transitway built at the time Interstate 205 was constructed, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.^[8]

The Green Line's I-205 section is served only by this line (unlike the I-84 and downtown segments). Most service uses older (pre-2005) rail cars, as they make up 83% of the fleet.

Heading south from the Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center station, the alignment passes under the Burnside St., Stark St., Washington St., Main St. (pedestrian) and Market St. overpasses on the east side of the freeway, then crosses under the freeway between the Market St. and Division St. overpasses. It passes under the Division St. overpass before going over Powell Boulevard and then under the Holgate Boulevard overpass. It then passes under the Steele St. (ped.) overpass and over Harold St., Foster Rd., Woodstock Blvd., and Springwater Corridor. The line then crosses Johnson Creek before an at-grade crossing at Flavel St. The line passes over the intersection of 92nd Avenue and Crystal Springs Boulevard, then returns to grade before traveling above Johnson Creek Boulevard on a 1,400-foot-long overpass, the longest new structure on the alignment. South of Fuller Road station the line dips under the pre-existing Otty Road and Monterey Avenue overpasses, before terminating at the Clackamas Town Center Transit Center, near Sunnyside Road. Because of the extensive grade-separation, trains are able to travel the 6.5-mile (10.5 km) distance from Clackamas to Gateway in only 16 minutes. Much of this segment parallels the I-205 Bike Path.

Connecting the two new sections is the following previously existing section:

• Banfield-Burnside Eastside MAX: Between the west end of the Steel Bridge, at the edge of downtown Portland, and the Gateway Transit Center, the Green Line uses a portion of the original MAX alignment, completed in 1986 and which is now part of the Blue Line. The Red Line has also used the same section since its opening, in 2001.

Finances

The MAX Green Line project cost $575.7 million, $345.4 million of which was funded by the Federal Transit Administration.^[9] The project received $32 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, an amount already committed to the project by the federal government but made available so that TriMet could retire debt earlier.^[9]

Future

Planned extension to Tigard and Tualatin

Southwest Corridor proposed route map
to Clackamas │ to Expo Center PSU South/SW 5th & Jackson St PSU South/SW 6th & College St to Milwaukie SW Gibbs St SW Hamilton St SW Custer Dr SW 19th Ave SW 30th Ave Barbur Transit Center I-5 SW 53rd Ave I-5 SW 68th Pkwy SW Elmhurst St OR 217 SW Hall Blvd SW Bonita Rd SW Upper Boones Ferry Rd Bridgeport Village

A planned extension dubbed the Southwest Corridor light rail project will add 13 stations over a new 12-mile (19.3 km) span and connect downtown Portland to the cities of Tigard and Tualatin. The extension will start from the existing Green Line terminus at Portland State University and travel southwest, running through the center of Southwest Barbur Boulevard and terminating at Bridgeport Village.^[10] Voters approved the light rail extension in a 2016 ballot measure.^[11] At an estimated cost of $2.6 billion to $2.9 billion, the project will be submitted in a regional transportation funding measure that will be voted on in 2020. If approved, it is expected to begin service in 2027.

Stations

Station	Opened	Connections[15][16]	Park and ride[17]	Secure bike parking[18]
Portland Transit Mall
PSU South/Southwest 6th and College Street (northbound)	2009		—	No
PSU South/Southwest 5th and Jackson Street (southbound)	2009		—	No
PSU Urban Center/Southwest 6th & Montgomery Street (northbound)	2009		—	No
PSU Urban Center/Southwest 5th & Mill Street (southbound)	2009		—	No
Southwest 6th & Madison Street (northbound)	2009		—	No
City Hall/Southwest 5th & Jefferson Street (southbound)	2009		—	No
Pioneer Courthouse/Southwest 6th (northbound)	2009		—	No
Pioneer Place/Southwest 5th (northbound)	2009		—	No
Southwest 6th & Pine Street (northbound)	2009		—	No
Southwest 5th & Oak Street (southbound)	2009		—	No
Northwest 6th & Davis Street (northbound)	2009		—	No
Northwest 5th & Couch Street (southbound)	2009		—	No
Union Station/Northwest 6th & Hoyt Street (northbound)	2009		—	No
Union Station/Northwest 5th & Glisan Street (southbound)	2009		—	No
Portland
Rose Quarter Transit Center	2009	4, 8, 35, 44, 77, 85 C-Tran	—	Yes
Convention Center	2009	6	—	No
Northeast 7th Avenue	2009		—	No
Lloyd Center/Northeast 11th Avenue	2009	8, 70	—	No
Hollywood/Northeast 42nd Avenue Transit Center	2009	66, 75, 77	—	Yes
Northeast 60th Avenue	2009	71	—	Yes
Northeast 82nd Avenue	2009	72, 77	—	Yes
Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center	2009	15, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 87	690 spaces	Yes
Southeast Main Street	2009	15	420 spaces	Yes
Southeast Division Street	2009	2	—	Yes
Southeast Powell Boulevard	2009	9	391 spaces	Yes
Southeast Holgate Boulevard	2009	17	125 spaces	Yes
Lents Town Center/Southeast Foster Road	2009	10 14 73	—	Yes
Southeast Flavel Street	2009	19	—	Yes
Clackamas
Southeast Fuller Road	2009	10 14 73	630 spaces	Yes
Happy Valley
Clackamas Town Center Transit Center	2009	29 30 33 34 71 72 79 152 155 156	750 spaces	Yes

References

External links

• MAX Green Line Project History (brief summary) on TriMet website.