Priorities for MAX Expansion (the ‘Rose Compass’ plan)
Right now the government is evil, construction red tape is impassable, boomers are having their last hurrah, and transit funding is down - but that won’t last forever. Humanism and progress will prevail, and the time will come again to look forward, toward a car-free future for more Portlanders. When we do, here are the most important things I think we should focus on.
1. A true Vancouver extension
Right now our planned Vancouver extension on the Yellow line - just two stops, cut down from 4 - only runs to the waterfront, rather than to CTRAN’s bus transit center further down, and the waterfront station will be comparatively quite inaccessible at 90 feet in the air. The name of the game is ease-of-use and capturing ridership, so the ability to connect easily from CTRAN or car parking to the MAX is nothing less than crucial for riders who aren’t able-bodied and/or don’t have cars, which are target markets for mass transit. We must build the original planned 4 stops, one on Hayden Island and three in Vancouver.
2. Orange line extension to Oregon City
I think Oregon city is an untapped market in the same way Vancouver is. Ease-of-use is everything. Having a waterfront station near/next to the current bus station down there and implementing pedestrian improvements like scramble crossings to make it a true Oregon City Transit Center would change how and which people are able and willing to use the system.
In between could be anywhere from 2-5 MAX stops, and these will heavily influence cost - to start with, one in Oak Grove’s downtown, certainly, and one between Jennings Lodge and Gladstone.
Green line can be extended to stop in Oregon City later as well, but orange has greater utility, especially in light of section 3.
3. Restore and expand interlining
I’ve seen many people decide to merge the Yellow and Orange lines in their hypotheticals, but I think this is a massive missed opportunity, and misunderstands what makes Red and Blue so great - frequency is freedom. Instead of combining them, we interline them - Orange running from Oregon City to Lombard Transit Center, and Yellow running from the proposed CTRAN transit center down to Milwaukie (which has room for a third track, necessary for a transit center), increasing the frequency to match the east-west corridor at 7.5m on peak and increasing the equitability of transit across all sections of the region. The Green line should be restored to run to Rose Quarter TC at the minimum. We might hit Steel Bridge’s limit if we try to run it back over with Orange and yellow interlined, and it might not be necessary if green runs to Oregon City, idk.
4. Pink Line From PDX to Cathedral Park TC Via Lombard
Lombard is reduced in width to 1 or 2 lanes along much of its length, and the other half becomes the alignment for a new Pink line, demonstrating a clear legislative will to culturally move away from car dominance. Single-tracking can be considered for some particularly narrow segments. At the 205 interchange the train diverts onto the current Red line alignment via a new ramp located between the Lombard car bridge and railroad bridge to its north. Because of road geometry here, road geometry at St
John’s bridge, and ease of potential acquisition of the empty strips of land along Union Pacific lines on Lombard, I personally recommend that the northern half of Lombard be chosen for the alignment to minimize conflicts.
From there it interlines with the Red line to create a first-impression frequency of 7.5m peak at PDX, and giving PDX travelers the ability to travel east, south, west and north to Vancouver more directly via Gateway TC and the now-vital Lombard TC. Alignment is at-grade but separated via low concrete barriers such as can be found on some segments of the Yellow alignment.
My best idea for Cathedral Park TC is, it avoids Lombard’s pedestrianized area and diverts at Philadelphia to sit on Ivanhoe one block to the south, halving some parking lots currently taking up space between Chicago and Alta for the station. If someone has a better take, I welcome it lol.
5. Union Station Transit Center
Against the odds, Cascades Service between Vancouver and Eugene is improving dramatically in frequency and quality, with brand new trainsets starting service now. WSDOT also has plans to improve track alignments and lower trip times to Seattle, creating a strong transit corridor. Incoming Portland legislators have communicated that preserving and upgrading Union Station is a priority for them. We need to make sure the connection between MAX and Cascades trains is as seamless as possible, to facilitate another component of a true car-free lifestyle - long-distance travel on trains.
I propose that the 6th and Hoyt stop be shuffled further south along the line for distance parity with the rest of the downtown alignments (3 blocks average), and that a beefy new Union Station stop be established on Irving. I also propose that block of Irving be closed to cars and the surrounding area be pedestrianized with signage and paint as much as possible and, with changes to concrete in the long term, form a ‘Union Station Transit Center’, with space for food or convenience vendors and public art installations and families hugging each other.
Together, these upgrades allow fast, frequent, comfortable and equitable train travel in every direction of the compass, even far afield - hence the nickname ‘Rose Compass Plan’. They make Tri-Met a true region-wide, multi-city transit system, useful for a huge percentage of the population of the state. They’ll cost money, but be well worth it, increasing the prosperity and wellbeing of our region by an enormous amount.
Let’s vote to build rail again, everyone. Cascadia deserves it.
ADDENDUM: Other possible projects
- redesign Rose Quarter TC, Providence Park TC, and Lombard TC around pedestrians and eliminate cars where reasonable
- SW Corridor MAX line (bumped in priority due to rejection by voters)
- downtown tunnel (bumped in priority due to costing the same as all other projects combined)
- WES to Salem via BNSF tracks?
- streetcar line to Hawthorne/Mt. Tabor?
- reopen skidmore fountain station, redevelop in conjunction with waterfront park to create direct connection from MAX to Saturday market and create stop distance parity?
- all streetcar alignments closed to cars
- all streetcars get TSP