MAX Orange Line

The MAX Orange Line is a proposed light rail route for the Metropolitan Area Express light rail system in Portland, Oregon, USA. The line is the second section of a two-phase transportation plan known as the South Corridor Project. Combined with the Portland Transit Mall Revitalization Project, the Orange Line will run between Union Station and Milwaukie. The route, as of September 2005, is in the initial planning stages. Assuming the project goes ahead as scheduled it should open around 2014.

The Orange Line will be built off the Green Line's southern terminus at Portland State University. Plans call for a new crossing of the Willamette River at SE Caruthers Street, taking the route into Southeast Portland. The proposed stations will serve the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the Brooklyn Neighborhood, and Milwaukie, Oregon through the McLoughlin Boulevard corridor. Part of the project includes moving the Milwaukie Transit Center off city streets and onto the former Southgate Theater property.

The designation of "Orange Line" may only be a placeholder name. Some transportation planners working on the project have indicated a preference for this transit line to be an extension of the existing Yellow Line.

History

In the early 1970s, a light rail line was proposed in this corridor. It would have run from Downtown Portland via the Hawthorne Bridge to Oregon City primarily along the old Portland Traction Company right-of-way. This route was to be the first of 5 light rail lines which would have run over existing rail lines in the Portland region. The hope was to get this Portland - Oregon City line running as soon as possible by using second-hand PCC streetcars from Toronto until brand new Boeing light rail vehicles could be obtained. The light rail line was shelved when the Mount Hood Freeway fell through in the mid 1970s and the region's transportation planning focused on the transit alternatives to the Mount Hood Freeway in the Portland - Gresham corridor.In the mid-1990s, light rail was planned again along much of this corridor as part of the proposed South-North Light Rail line which was to have run from the Clackamas Town Center to Milwaukie, into Downtown Portland then along Interstate Ave to Vancouver, WA. Later, in 2008, the Locally Preferred Alternative had been decided. The MAX Light Rail to Milwaukie will terminate at the Park Avenue station rather than Lake Road, as originally planned in 2003. According to the Oregon Metro website, the Milwaukie Line's opening date had been moved from 2014 to one year later, in 2015, which is 20 years from the South-North Light Rail project which got abandoned later on that decade, yet now it is the second half of the South Corridor project. Construction of this project begins in 2011, which is two years from the MAX Green Line's opening date. That year, the MAX Green Line's southernmost station in Downtown Portland will open.

Future plans

Although no official plans have been mentioned, the line may one day reach Oregon City. A branch may be built through the Powell Blvd./Foster Road corridor to the recently incorporated city of Damascus.

Proposed Stations

"Please note that routings, station names, and station locations are subject to change. Interchanges with proposed MAX lines and reroutings are italicized."

External links

* [http://www.trimet.org/projects/southcorridor.htm TriMet South Corridor Project page]