September marks the launch of the new Eastside Streetcar loop. I predict much fanfare. Martinis, confetti cannons, dance crews. Huzzah!
Amid the celebrations, no one is slated to sound a low, sad death knell for Portland’s less-loved rail line: The Free Rail Zone is dead as of September 1st. No more parking in the Lloyd Center and taking the train for free to downtown, no more hopping on in Old Town and riding to Portland State, no more encouraging tourists to take the train over the river without needing to buy a ticket. This has been a long time coming, but after 37 years, Fareless Square is dead. Goodbye, friend, you were good to us.
Let us welcome instead the new era of “Go Anywhere Fares” (somehow, “Citywide 19 Percent More Expensive Fare” didn’t have the same chipper ring to it). Starting September 1st, it will cost $2.50 to take the bus or train anywhere in the city, making public transit the only thing that is more expensive in Portland than in New York.
Now instead of walking across the Hawthorne to PSU or hopping on a bus, you can take an hour long train ride tour down MLK! Yay!
I feel bad for the poor or mentally ill who relied on Fareless Zone to get them around downtown, to work, or to necessary services.
I don’t feel the least bit bad for the shitbirds who essentially use MAX as a rolling mall, i.e. the people who make MAX legitimately feel less safe for the people actually paying fares.
It would also have been nice to keep the fare to 2$ flat and knock off all these nickel and dime increases.
“I feel bad for the poor or mentally ill who relied on Fareless Zone to get them around downtown, to work, or to necessary services”
It’s called the “Honored Citizen Pass” These people use that and in most cases don’t pay for said pass. Keep an eye out for how many people use them, legitimately or not. The fare chane won’t really affect them.
So, I was really active in trying to prevent the cuts to the bus system (see the link below picture). I remember reading the comments by Graham & Atomic & others about “Why does this matter?” “It’s only the buses, who cares?” and then I flashed back to my testimony about how this is only the first step towards the complete removal of Fareless Square, and how that has been trimet’s plan for a long time. I remember the media being totally disinterested in that perspective, and here it is, this week, coming true.
Fuck you, half-brained Portlanders. You get what you deserve.
If you’re paying full price for TriMet tickets, you’re doing it wrong.
You can get some sweet deals right now with hoarders trying to unload their 2-zones and then trade them in at the TriMet office for all-zones. That’s what I ended up doing (I bought 35 books of 2-zones for $4 each, traded them in for 31 books of all-zones).
2-zones are for suckers . . .
Yay! No more long bilingual announcements about the Free Rail Zone on MAX! o/
On the right there in that picture: Tim Koch, former co-worker, former Portlander, guy who gave a shit. I’m not sure where he is these days.
I knew everyone in that picture, all of them were exceptional people. I truly believe Socialism would work if everyone was like Tim, but he easily outshines his peers. Tim Koch was probably my favorite ISO person ever to work with.
We traded real transportation for something that’ll look good on postcards. That pretty much sums up the last decade in Portland.
[i will love this shirt-sign combo forever and ever.]
I prefer the guy on the right…
“What’s the deal with this guy’s body? His face makes me want to say: ‘Eat a sandwich,’ but his STOMACH makes me want to say: ‘Is it a girl or a boy?’
I’ve tried to go down to the TriMet ticket office twice now to upgrade my old zone 1 tickets and the lines have been so ridiculous that I left.
They really need to either give people more time to exchange their tickets or have more locations available to do so.