Opening of the new Portland Streetcar Line

Had the opportunity to attend the grand opening of the new Portland CL line this past Saturday. This is the third new rail opening I have attended, the first being the opening of the original TRAX line in 1998, the second was when I was invited on the VIP run of UTA's Front Runner commuter rail service between Ogden and Salt Lake City, and finally the opening of the this new streetcar line.

My first ride on the new line occured before the actual ceremony as I rode the new CL line from 11th and Jefferson to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) which I happen to be a member of.

The MC of the event was the mayor of Portland Sam Adams who will be leaving office at the end of his term in a few months. He took time to blast a attack article in the Oregonian and pointed out there is already investment going on along the streetcar line.

Another speaker during the ceremony was Neil McFarlane who is general manager of TriMet. For anyone who follows transit blogs in the Portland area, they will know that he is often blasted and called some rude names in many circles including on a blog run by a disgruntled former bus driver. 

He actually rode the same streetcar that I did from the Portland State University area and will have to say that I found him to be very approachable and talk to several people on the streetcar. 

There was several other excellent speakers during the ceremony including one of the people responsible for the streetcar itself Michael Powell who happens to own a bookstore of some notoriety that is served by both of the streetcar lines now.

After the ribbon cutting the VIP's boarded the Oregon Iron Works prototype car that was making its inaugural run in revenue service. There has been some complaints about Oregon Iron Works because they are behind in production of the cars by a couple of months but one of the speakers noted that the previous cars were 8 months behind in arrived so Oregon Iron Works is actually doing pretty good. 

I rode the next streetcar to the Lloyd District and took these pictures of that streetcar returning to OMSI. The area I took this picture is pretty desolate because the area is surrounded strictly by high rise non-mixed use office buildings that are ghost towns on weekends. You may also notice in the picture above that to the right there is a Honda Accord parked in the bike line which is supposed to be the lane on the right with parking to the left of the bike lane. 

After grabbing a bite to eat I made a point to catch this streetcar on its next trip back to downtown. The car had a minor problem with its wheelchair ramp that was quickly taken care of and the we had a good trip back to 10th and Clay where I got off.

The line is currently U-shaped but in less than three years will become a true loop when the new bridge over the Willamette River is completed by TriMet and the streetcar will use it along with TriMet light rail trains.

It will be interesting to see how this line performs over the long haul. Right now frequencies are not what is needed and the area is no Pearl district however that may actually be a good thing. Do we really need lots of new high rises that bring the suburbs to the urban center, or should we see development that is more human scale? There is plenty of potential along the new line and time we tell what will be made of it.

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Streetcar Basics

The interior of a Portland Streetcar. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: A car of the Portland Streetcar system at the eastbound Portland State University stop, on Market Street at the South Park Blocks. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A few years ago the thought of streetcars returning to our streets was a fantasy. Today several cites have either installed new streetcar lines, constructing lines, or in the advance planning stages. I support streetcars as I feel that they are a great step between basic bus service and full light rail service (notice I did not include BRT - Badly Repackaged Transit). 

The question is, what should be the priorities of new streetcar lines. The most famous new streetcar line is off course the Portland Streetcar. To be honest, I rode it on Monday but overall I rarely do. Now that I spend more time downtown at Portland State I most likely will be riding more especially to head to Powell's Books. 

People opposed to the streetcar line say is nothing but a subsidy to developers. It is easy to call it that, after all it goes through a part of town that was about to rapidly development. On the other hand the same people who make those kind of comments turn a blind eye to all the subsidies suburban sprawl developments get every day of the week. We could quarrel all day about the that, but instead lets see what the streetcar does do. 

1. The streetcar provides service along a corridor that has never had service. While the two ends of the network (in the northwest side of town and south of PSU), the bus service was not in direct competition with 

Tri-Met buses. In fact the one line that follows the streetcar in the northwest will be rerouted in September in a budget cut move that actually eliminates duplicate service. 

2. The streetcar provides an alternative form of transportation that makes that part of the Portland much more livable. While I don't go to Powell Book's everyday, maybe once a month at the most, it is much more convenient to take the streetcar than trying to drive and find a parking spot. 

The question is, what should the priorities be for a streetcar line? The problem with making a blanket statement is that every city has different priorities so what is important for Portland, is different for Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, Atlanta or any of the other cities that have projects in progress. 

While Portland is a great example here is some things that could improve the current Portland system and any future extensions: 

1. One problem was that the system was designed only to have single cars. From my understanding this was a compromise to ensure support along the line. However, one of the benefits of rail transit is when you add additional cars to a train to make it more efficient and carry more people. Any future lines should have the capability to run multiple car trains. 

2. There is no private right of way. The streetcar gets stuck in traffic. While in an ideal world the streetcar would have its entire right of way reserved, we know in the real world this is just not possible. However, I see no reason why on 10th/11th Streets the streetcar cannot have its own reserved right of way in stretches and other areas to. 

3. The streetcar should have signal priority plus priority at the four way stops like Couch and 11th were the streetcar gets stuck for extended periods of time. 

In September Portland will open its new East side streetcar line. Until the loop is completed with the opening of the Milwaukee MAX line in 20515 I am not overly enthusiastic about how well this line will do but we shall see. 

That brings up a good question, for a city looking to extend a streetcar line or put a new one in, what should the priorities be? As I said early every city has its own most important priorities but this is some general guidelines. 

1. The first priority of a streetcar line should be to provide an essential transportation function. If the city already has a light rail or rapid transit system, the streetcar should function as a feeder between the major rail line and important business and residential sectors. Salt Lake City is a perfect example of this. The streetcar will provide service from all three light rail lines to the Sugar House district which is currently a major retail center and will have high density housing going in. 

In a way the east side streetcar in Portland will provide this function also as it will connect from the Lloyd District light rail stations to the Pearl District offering customers an alternative to the current ways to get to the Pearl. 

Once the Milwaukee MAX line is completed, the Portland streetcar will provide an excellent feeder from that line to the northwest part of town that is not currently available because of the alignment of bus service (31.32,33 and 99) and the streetcar line. 

Another good route in  Utah would be from the Ogden Transit Center to Weber State University which is being studied at this time. This would create a feeder from the Front Runner Commuter trains to busy 612 bus line on Washington Blvd and onto the University replacing route 603. 

2. Another important priority would be to supplement a overburdened bus route along a busy corridor. In its transit plan Portland is looking to supplement bus service with streetcars in such corridors as Sandy Blvd. I mentioned this at one time where it will allow the 12 route to become limited stop along this section of route speeding up Trimets longest route (which is being split up in September and won't be so long anymore). 

Another good example would be the Barbur Blvd/Capitol Highway corridor. Currently there are in the study phase on this project for Badly Repackaged Transit or Light Rail, but as I see it know there is a slim chance of a good system being built. Chances are some half baked BRT plan will get built that will end up not having a major impact. 

You could run the streetcar down Barbur and Capitol Highway to the Hilsdale area. This would allow TriMet to cut routes such as the 45 at Capital/Sunset and make routes such as the 44 and 12 faster through the area speeding up bus rides for those through travelers. 

When it comes down to it, streetcars can function both as a feeder from major rail routes to major employment and dense residential areas. It can also be a relief valve for busy bus routes along major dense corridors. What it comes down to is that streetcar routes need to be done right the first time. No matter how successful the route would be there will be naysayers, however if a route is well designed and does the job it is easier to counterbalance the CAVE (citizens against virtually everything) types. 

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News On Sugar House Trolley

Image via Wikipedia

Sugar House streetcar? It may be closer to reality than you think

Its just to bad that the center of Sugar House nothing but a big empty hole right now but maybe something will happen before the trolley is running.

Articles

Image via Wikipedia

Here is a bunch of articles from the last week.

Salt Lake City plans for bicycle transit station

Bikestation to assist Davis commuters

Plan for reversible lanes getting mixed reviews

Public comment sought on routes

Bountiful seeks ‘streetcar named desire’

Bills address roads, rails, ruins

Streetcar plan gets reviewed

Proposal Still Needs Final Approval

Blog Entries of Note...

Image via WikipediaFrom the Stephen Rees Blog comes:

Citta Slow

How walking, streetcars (trams), and bicycles will play an important roll in the future. We need to change our priorities to build our future.

Economy has builders eyeing a return to rental apartments

Interesting perspective on the rental laws in British Columbia and comparing them to the rather landlord friendly laws here in Utah.

From the Denver Infill Blog comes:

Lessons from Detroit

What lessons can be learned from the problems of Detroit? Detroit is the ultimate example of what happens when the urban core is abandoned in favor of automobile suburbs.

Both sides of my family comes from the Detroit area so I can attest to all the problems that Detroit has and it can be largely contributed to the abandonment of the urban core.

From the Xing Columbus Blog:

LEED-ND

Should a building built in a car dependent area be able to get LEED certification? Currently the answer is yes, but should it be?

From the Trains for America Blog:

Seattle Times: A coming rennaisance for intercity rail?

State politicians talking about HSR, but still directing stimulus towards roads

As I have stated before, I will believe we will have change in the philosophy in transportation when I see it happen. Too often there is more talk and little action.

From the Overhead Wire blog:

Prop 13 Hangover

Prop 13 which cut property taxes to existing homeowners has some unintended consequences which is discussed in those post.

Replay 10.16.07: Vienna's Ringstrasse

Great information about how Vienna's multi-modal transportation network is put together in the downtown area.

From Streetsblog.org:

Who’s Really Footing the Bill for Roads?

From the Seattle Transit Blog:

Colorado Railcar Gone: What is next?

Colorado Railcar who was the only builder of DMU's in the United States that built an FRA compliant self propelled rail vehicle has shut down operations.

Thank God For Walkable Neighborhoods

Especially when you live in Seattle and it gets on of its infrequent snow falls that shut down streets and highways.

From the Light Rail AZ Blog:

A "Grand" Opening, indeed

Yes, another Meca to the automobile has fallen to light rail. Phoenix opened their first light rail line last weekend with an estimated 90,000 people ridding that first day. Now maybe Phoenix can start rebuilding their downtown area and make it more livable.

From the Jacksonville Transit Blog:

PHOENIX GETS IT - FLORIDA DOESN'T

While Phoenix gets its light rail system up and running many cities in Florida are still behind the 8 ball.

From the Intermodality Blog:

A new streetcar era?

Explains the difference between streetcars and light rail.

Nice Tram

Here is a Youtube Video showing an inauguration of Tram service in Nice, France.

What is interesting about the ice system is that while it has overhead wires over most of the route, there is three short sections in extreme historical areas where the trolleys run on a battery power. The reduces performance substantially but it is an interesting concept.



Here is another short Youtube Video showing the arrival of one of the Nice trams at the end of the line.