Portland Tri-Met MAX

[RussNelson]

The Portland MAX light rail system is being expanded with a north-south line. I caught some pics of them installing the diamonds downtown on the east-west line. That's why they had the MAX shut down this weekend. Anybody want to see the pics?

[wigwagfan]

The Portland MAX light rail system is being expanded with a north-south line.

You're referring to the Portland Mall (5th/6th Avenues) that will allow Green and Yellow Line trains (Green being the I-205 line under construction; Yellow being the Interstate Avenue line to the Expo Center currently in operation) to reach Portland State University.

Had you gone to the south end of the construction near between Montgomery and Hall Streets on the PSU campus, you would see the original narrow gauge trolley tracks poking out from the end of the pavement cut, lined in brick. Since I work a few blocks away, it'll be interesting (and I'll try to get pictures) when they start to dig away and expose the original trolley tracks before they are ripped out entirely.

[lpetrich]

Checking on http://portlandmall.org/ they're in the final stages of constructing the trackway; they've largely moved on to constructing sidewalk and station stuff. It has a nice photo album, as does I-205 Light Rail. That latter one runs in a right-of-way that was set aside when that freeway was built, which was some nice foresight. Both sites have some nice photo albums, which you can study to follow the construction progress.

Tri-Met has a master index page describing its various construction projects and plans. These include plans to extend the light-rail system across the Columbia River into Vancouver, WA, and also from the south end of Portland Mall across the Willamette River and southward to Milwaukie (that's -ie, not -ee). There are also plans to extend the Portland Streetcar across the Willamette River into eastern Portland.

This under-construction extension will have a station a block from the Portland Amtrak station, which will be welcome. On MAX's existing lines, the closest station is now 9 blocks or 0.4 miles away. So next year, the Amtrak Cascades train will be a block away from two light-rail stations, one in Seattle and one in Portland.

And as to airports, MAX goes to Portland's, and Seattle's light-rail line will be built to Sea-Tac airport.

[RussNelson]

And as to airports, MAX goes to Portland's

Yeah, I wish they would coordinate the last run with the last airplane arrivals. Three times now I've gotten in late from the east coast and missed the last run. So instead of being able to pay $2 to my hotel, I get to pay $30 for no faster a trip.

[SteelWheels21]

Russ, that happened to me the last time I flew home. Thought I could catch the last train but the walk, wait for baggage and ticket purchase time got me to the platform 20 minutes late. Luckily I have a sympathetic wife.