TriMet/Metro Southwest Corridor Planning (Portland to Bridgeport Village)

[green_man]

As presented, the funicular concept looks much more enticing and user-friendly than the series of elevators/tunnels/walkways proposed in the other concepts. I also like the option of the parallel staircase.

As for the potential loss of vegetation, IIRC that whole swath of forest is being choked out by invasive English Ivy, which is seemingly a larger threat to the health of that patch of land than clearing a single fairly narrow ROW. Wholescale removal of the ivy would hopefully more than offset any loss of trees and shrubs removed to make way for the people-mover.

[MarkDaMan]

https://www.oregonlive.com/commuting...hort-list.html

Inclined elevator connecting future MAX line to Marquam Hill remains on TriMet’s short list
Today 3:45 PM
By Andrew Theen | The Oregonian/OregonLive

A group of Portland-area politicians and transportation leaders blessed the idea of building a rare inclined elevator to connect riders at a planned TriMet expansion to the medical campuses atop Marquam Hill.

The decisionmakers on TriMet’s Southwest Corridor Steering Committee – a collection that includes elected officials from Portland, Tigard, the Metro regional government, Washington County and Tualatin – voted Monday to move forward with studying the potential $45 million inclined elevator, or a combined pedestrian bridge and elevator, as options for the Southwest Gibbs Street station on a planned rail line along Barbur Boulevard.

What’s not on the table? A second aerial tram. The committee decided to ditch that option as well as a prohibitively expensive tunnel and elevator beneath the hill. Estimates for the tunnel topped out at $125 million.

...(continues)

[MarkDaMan]

https://expo.oregonlive.com/news/g66...-max-line.html

OREGONLIVE.COM
7 things to know about TriMet’s proposed Southwest Portland
MAX line
By Andrew Theen | The Oregonian/OregonLive | Posted June 12, 2019 at 03:16 PM | Updated June 12, 2019 at 03:25 PM

Leah Robbins has worked at TriMet for 25 years and helped the transit agency design and engineer light rail projects through downtown Portland and into Milwaukie, but her current assignment is a different challenge.

Robbins is TriMet’s project director for its proposed light rail extension through Southwest Portland to Bridgeport Village in Washington County.

“Everything is bigger,” Robbins said while on a media tour Wednesday of the proposed 12-mile transit extension. The estimated $2.7 billion light rail line would transform a swath of Southwest Portland and the Tigard/Tualatin area. The trip between Bridgeport Village and Portland State University's southernmost station is projected to take 30 minutes.

MAX light rail trains will run down the center of Barbur Boulevard for a five mile stretch (Noble Guyon/The Oregonian)
Leah Robbins has worked at TriMet for 25 years and helped the transit agency design and engineer light rail projects through downtown Portland and into Milwaukie, but her current assignment is a different challenge.

Robbins is TriMet’s project director for its proposed light rail extension through Southwest Portland to Bridgeport Village in Washington County.

“Everything is bigger,” Robbins said while on a media tour Wednesday of the proposed 12-mile transit extension. The estimated $2.7 billion light rail line would transform a swath of Southwest Portland and the Tigard/Tualatin area. The trip between Bridgeport Village and Portland State University's southernmost station is projected to take 30 minutes.

Everything is a bit more complex, too. The 13 stations between downtown and the suburban shopping center traverse undulating and occasionally meandering terrain. The route goes through suburban industrial zones, residential neighborhoods and adjacent to railroad tracks. The light rail line will be elevated above existing roads or creeks at times and cross Interstate 5 twice at various sections before running down the middle of Barbur Boulevard and into downtown Portland.

While touring the area, it’s difficult to envision it all. It’s also likely years away. If all the money is approved, construction would begin in 2022 and finish by 2027.

Here are some things to know today:

...(continues)

[green_man]

Tigard Mayor's Statement on SW Corridor
https://www.tigard-or.gov/city_hall/...ridor_plan.php

But our focus in Tigard has always been about our downtown – and that’s been a place of consistency. It’s in our Authorizing Ordinance, in our LPA resolution and was in the ballot title that our voters voted on – that the project was to serve our downtown. The alignment to Bridgeport barely meets that test, given that the downtown station is not in downtown, but adjacent to it in an industrial district. A great downtown station would not be outside our mixed use zoned land, on the far side of a state highway and next to noisy freight rail tracks. It would be close to our new mixed use housing development project, our planned public plaza, our Main Street and our existing transit center.

Personally, I'm fine with truncating the route in downtown Tigard for the time being as long as it doesn't preclude an extension to the south in the future (i.e., the tracks don't end at ground level perpendicular to the WES line or something like that).

[MarkDaMan]

Originally Posted by green_man

Tigard Mayor's Statement on SW Corridor
https://www.tigard-or.gov/city_hall/...ridor_plan.php



Personally, I'm fine with truncating the route in downtown Tigard for the time being as long as it doesn't preclude an extension to the south in the future (i.e., the tracks don't end at ground level perpendicular to the WES line or something like that).

We need to do it right, the first time. It will only be more expensive to extend the route in the future. I hope a line to Bridgeport is a minimum, not a maximum destination on our 2020 transportation tax referendum. Along with a subway downtown, as well as MAX to Vancouver and extension to Forest Grove.

[urbanlife]

It is good to see Tigard and its mayor advocating for getting light rail to run to where it needs to go to help their downtown. This is really important support that should be followed through with because it will benefit everyone and make this new line worth it from end to end.

[dubu]

i don't think forest grove needs light rail, theres so many small cities around portland and they don't need to get big unless theres a second big downtown in portland. portland really needs one because the river splits portland up.

[MarkDaMan]

Originally Posted by dubu

i don't think forest grove needs light rail, theres so many small cities around portland and they don't need to get big unless theres a second big downtown in portland. portland really needs one because the river splits portland up.

From Cornelius to Forest Grove you have almost 40,000 residents in a pretty compact area due to the Urban Growth Boundary. A line up some of those defunct train tracks wouldn't be overly expensive and could draw pretty strong ridership.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by dubu

i don't think forest grove needs light rail, theres so many small cities around portland and they don't need to get big unless theres a second big downtown in portland. portland really needs one because the river splits portland up.

It actually makes a lot of sense to run light rail out to Forest Grove. If I were to plan that route, I would have it start in Forest Grove, stop in Cornelius, then stop in downtown Hillsboro. From there have it go down and follow the TV Highway through Aloha to Beaverton, at that point it could run along Farmington and stop in downtown Beaverton. It would then head to 217 and run up to Canyon Rd where it would follow that road all the way to 26 where it would enter a tunnel and connect in with the zoo tunnel and head into downtown.

That would make for a good new line or a real extension of the Red Line.

[green_man]

https://www.oregonlive.com/commuting...ions-loom.html

Barbur light rail project faces $462 million funding gap, tough decisions loom
Andrew Theen | The Oregonian | Aug 23, 2019

Southwest Corridor leaders say the 12-mile route expected to terminate near Bridgeport Village in Washington County is now projected to cost $2.87 billion to build, about $462 million more than the amount TriMet plans to request from a combination of federal, state, regional agencies and metro area voters. Newly revised labor and construction costs helped to drive price estimates upwards. The region had banked on about half of the project cost, $1.25 billion, coming from the federal government.

The financial uncertainty comes early in the years-long design period, when engineers map out the rail line, and how the 13 stations and surrounding bike and pedestrian infrastructure will look and feel. It also presents officials from TriMet, Portland, the state, Metro, Washington County and suburban cities with tough decisions to trim costs -- including one option that is anathema to most members: terminating trains in downtown Tigard instead of Bridgeport Village until more money is available.

[NOPO]

Originally Posted by green_man

https://www.oregonlive.com/commuting...ions-loom.html

We need to fight for this MAX line to terminate at Bridgeport village. I’m tired of seeing our transit projects cut down again and again. How can we overcome this cost barrier? Could we could pass a new bond measure for metro?