IN THE SAME week that TriMet rolled out its painful cuts and fare hike, the Portland Streetcar rolled out a preview run of its new $148 million Eastside Loop, which will open for service on September 22.
About 10,000 people ride the streetcar on an average weekday, compared to more than 324,000 who take TriMet. While the more widely used transit system is shrinking, the streetcar is adding a 3.35-mile loop of track that runs over the Broadway Bridge and down NE MLK to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and back up SE Grand. And while a sleek downtown billboard proclaims the eastside loop will “unite Portland,” our relationship with the streetcar is probably best summed up as “it’s complicated.”
LOVE: It’s cheap! A streetcar-only ticket will cost just $1, making it the cheapest transit across the river now that TriMet’s axed the Free Rail Zone.
HATE: It’s incredibly expensive! The new loop costs more than $44 million per mile (though that’s cheaper than the MAX Green Line, which cost $69 million per mile). The feds picked up half the tab for the expansion, but most of the rest comes from state lottery funds ($20 million), local urban renewal money ($27.6 million), property taxes on buildings near the line ($15.5 million), and the cash-strapped city ($6 million).
On last week’s preview ride, the streetcar’s executive director, Rick Gustafson, responded to criticism over the cost by noting the deal to build the line was struck in 2008. “We’re committed to it, we’re obligated to build it. Yes, we have ups and downs in our economy, but long-term it’s going to mean a great benefit to the city.”
LOVE: It’ll help development! The line runs past surface parking lots and under-utilized land in the central eastside. It’s easy to see how the area is ripe for the dense housing development the streetcar aims to facilitate. The current streetcar line is said to have helped spur $2.3 billion in development downtown, including 7,000 housing units.
HATE: It’s not so good as actual transportation! Cars on the new line will arrive only every 18 minutes, and it will take 32 minutes to get from OMSI to the Pearl—five minutes slower than on existing bus lines. Biking the same distance will get you there twice as fast.
LOVE: The streetcars are manufactured in Oregon! Clackamas-based United Streetcar built all the cars on the line, creating an estimated 90 jobs.
HATE: American-made is more expensive! The Oregon plant failed to meet its deadlines and ran over budget, so the new line has only five cars ready, instead of six, making waits between trains longer. (The plan is still to eventually run all six.)
LOVE: It cuts car traffic! For a number of reasons both quantifiable and mysterious, people who don’t usually use public transit will ride the streetcar. Those new riders are projected to reduce car travel in the region by 28 million miles a year.
HATE: The tracks attack cyclists! A 2008 study showed that 70 percent of Portland cyclists have crashed on streetcar tracks at least once. With more than three new miles of track, expect more broken collarbones.
“For a number of reasons both quantifiable and mysterious, people who don’t usually use public transit will ride the streetcar.” Super true. I think there’s some safety in knowing that it will only ever go exactly where it is designed to go. No thought, no fuss. If you’ve ever gotten lost on the bus system while drunk (thank you), you can appreciate where reliability is an attractive quality.
The problem is that if you get on the streetcar drunk, and ride to OMSI, you may end up as part of the next Body Worlds exhibit. But you didn’t hear it from me.
One note on the OMSI to the Pearl time complaint: It’s not about getting from OMSI to the Pearl. Those people have cars. As it stands, the closest TriMet stop is on the Hawthorne Bridge. If you’ve ever humped a stroller up those stairs at Water Ave because you didn’t want to go the long way and, aw fuck, that’s more stairs than it looks like on googlemaps… Anyway, a Streetcar ride from OMSI that connects to a bus line without having to drag a tired toddler up those fucking stairs will be a godsend.
Breeder complaints aside, it seems like the maim purpose of this streetcar is basically to take you across the river. Which would apparently take more than half an hour. And if this thing connects to soo few bus lines, well… hmmm.
Maybe i’m wrong, but it seems like the new streetcar is meant to [primarily] serve folks who live in the immediate area it runs through. But most of these people already have bikes, if not cars.
Breeder-haters gonna breeder-hate. All I’m saying is that every carfree breeder who wants to take their kids to OMSI is about to have a new, convenient option for getting the hell out of there at the end of the day. Sometimes just getting your ass on something that moves can be more important than moving quickly. Bikes rule, but that slow, sideways elevator they call the Streetcar rules, too.
Anyone notice anything about where the Streetcar goes vs. the Max?
Max goes to Rockwood, Hillsboro, NoPo, Clackamas.
Streetcar goes to the Pearl, SW Waterfront, South (but not north) MLK, and a planned extension to Lake Oswego.
Does anyone see a pattern here? Anyone? Anyone at all?
If you have a kid and don’t have a car, you’re a bad parent, and an irritating transit passenger.
Trainwreck, you just might be onto something!
Yeah, the pattern is that the MAX goes a lot faster than the Streetcar. You really want to be able to take the Streetcar from Clackamas to downtown? LOL.
No, you’re way off. AND missing the point entirely.
I thought the streetcar was for tourists…
How dare you use the term “breeder”? I don’t use anti-gay slurs, so shut your pie hole if you can’t avoid slurs like “breeder.”
Until Congress legislates a law or provision granting BREEDERS protected status on par with Gays, Blacks, etc. you can bet i will CONTINUE to use the term freely and as i see fit! You can suck it, breeder.
When the new light rail bridge is done, the streetcar will go from OMSI back across the river and connect with the line going back to NW PDX. And you will also be able to connect with the new Max line going to & from Milwaukie.
I used to help build them…I would never ride one! If you saw the shortcuts taken and the Jerry-Rigging being done to them, just to make them functinal, you would ride them either. American made…most of the major components are from oversees. They are American assembled. Even that’s debatable, when you cross-section the labor force they use.
Jesus. Just knowing a half-educated-sounding individual like Look Out PDX had a hand in the construction of the new street car should be cause for alarm alone. Please tell me you didn’t have a very important job.
Wow, this thread is full of idiots trolls. Amazing how eager you children are to go off topic and whine about yourselves. It’s a streetcar. It takes you from one place to another. It does it for cheap. If you want to go faster, you whiny children have plenty of other choices.
@jake – The server isn’t censoring your messages. It’s just a server error, or more likely, idiot human error.
@DamosA – Shut Up Faggot
@Trainwreck – Did you think that maybe the streetcar doesn’t go to those place BECAUSE THE MAX ALREADY DOES! Idiot.
@Look Out PDX – Please, for the love of god, stay under the rock you call home and let the rest of us normal, grateful people ride the streetcar. Redneck.