Light Rail Transit Association   URBAN TRANSIT NEWS 2004

Portland - Yellow line to open: On Saturday 1st. May TriMet will open the Interstate MAX Yellow Line with celebrations taking place between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. with free travel on the Yellow line between Portland City Centre and the Expo Centre on Saturday, May 1, and Sunday, May 2.

The new USD 350m 5.8 mile line which runs through North Portland between the Rose Quarter and the Portland Expo Centre benefited from earlier experience and used an improved bidding process and now stands out as a model of efficiency, being completed four months earlier than scheduled and USD 25 million below original estimates.

The Yellow Line represents a fragment of a USD 2.85 billion, 25-mile route once proposed to run from the Hazel Dell area north of Vancouver to Clackamas Town Centre which failed to get voter approval. The new line brings light rail within a mile and a half of downtown Vancouver and may well cause pressure for further extension.

Details of the yellow line can be found on the TriMet MAX System Overview page.

30 April 2004 (Links updated 25 September 2004)