The MAX Yellow Line: A Look Back After 15 Years

Cascade Policy Institute ^ | September 12, 2019 | Rachel Dawson

[Twotone]

TriMet’s MAX Yellow Line first opened 15 years ago in May 2004. The Yellow Line’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) made a myriad of predictions for the year 2020, which makes now the perfect time to reflect on what officials promised and what taxpayers and transit riders have since received.

Yellow Line History

The Yellow Line originated in 1988 as a 21-mile project connecting Vancouver, Washington with Downtown Portland and Clackamas Town Center. This plan was scrapped after Clark County voters defeated a proposal to raise $236.5 million in 1995 and Oregon voters turned down a $475 million regional ballot measure in 1998.

Not to be deterred by a lack of voter support, officials developed a shorter alternative in 1999 that would run from the Expo Center to Downtown Portland along Interstate Avenue. This alternative cost $350 million, 74% of which came from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).

The construction of the new alternative was not put to a public vote. Portland officials instead expanded an urban renewal district to include the Interstate Avenue Corridor. Doing so allowed them to appropriate $30 million in tax increment funds to finance the rail that otherwise would have gone to other tax-collecting jurisdictions, including Multnomah County. The county commissioners opposed expansion of the urban renewal district, but the Portland City Council approved it anyway.

Looking back after fifteen years, we find that key promises made in the FEIS were never kept:

1. Frequency of Service

What We Were Promised: TriMet promised FTA in their Full-Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) that peak-hour trains would arrive every ten minutes and off-peak trains every 15 minutes. The promised service according to the FEIS was supposed to reach eight trains during peak hours in 2020.

What We Received: Instead of having 10-15-minute headways between trains...

[Rebelbase]

Surprised the Asian population of Vancouver didn’t object to the name.

[Glenmore]

Portland traffic is impossible, and there is little room to build more roads where it is the worst; mass transit makes good sense and should help. Maybe it does help, I don’t know, but Portlandians are certainly green enough ... (though why they had to be underhanded in implementation perplexes me.)

[GailA]

Noise pollution and Higher Taxes. I lived less than half a block from a train line, City of New Orleans would go through twice a day and it was running at high speeds for a residential zone. All the other trains did too.

[goodnesswins]

Oregon ping...good article...bottom line...support more BUS Service, NOT light rail

[jimtorr]

I’ve had to take my brother to the VA Hospital a few times, from the South, from Albany. Impossible traffic, indeed. Even the surface streets are faster that I-5 during the rush hours.

[bjglad12]

IT SHOULD NOT BE CALLED LIGHT RAIL , IT SHOULD BE CALLED THE CRIME TRAIN . WHERE EVER THEY PUT THAT THING CRIME GOES UP !!