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Portland transit links

General transportation

• Portland Transport and Portland Transportation History blogs
• Stuff from the City of Portland Office of Transportation:
  • Area Walking Maps
  • Transit Preferential Streets Report
  • Historical pictures and a timeline
• Also see historical maps from the Bureau of Planning, as well as digital copies of the 1988 Central City Plan and the 1972 Downtown Plan
• Ernie Bonner’s history of Portland planning and Center for Transportation Studies seminar videos from Portland State University
• Oregon Sustainable Community Digital Library, featuring historical documents about transportation and other projects, including Environmental Impact Statements, design reports and hearing transcripts for the Banfield Transitway Project as well as reports on Self-Service Fare Collection
• 1890 panoramic map of Portland
• 1955 plan of Portland Interstate highways
• A personal essay about the Mt. Hood Freeway
• How Portland’s Power Brokers Accommodated the Anti-Highway Movement of the Early 1970s: The Decision to Build Light Rail
• Willamette Week’s anniversary Highway to Hell article about the Mount Hood Freeway (also see the 25th anniversary version)
• Topo map from before I-205 and aerial photo of pre-Pearl District rail yards
• Historic Photo Archive featuring transportation-related and other old pictures
• Picture of Portland State University’s Urban Center/Plaza before streetcar construction
• An archive of news from the I-5 bridge closure and the Portland Business Journal on it leading to a commuter rail line
• Other PBJ articles about the remodeling of Pioneer Courthouse Square offices and a debate about growth
• Exhibit on the auto-oriented/suburban Sandy Boulevard in the 1940s/1950s, including a postcard of Portland’s old bus depot, and a picture of I-205 Tualatin River bridge construction from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s "America on the Move"
• Articles on MSN showing that Eugene and Salem spend some of the least amount on gas and that costly gas may doom suburbs

misc TriMet

• Chapter 267 of the Oregon Revised Statutes regarding mass transit and transportation districts
• CNN article showing that 13.3% of Portland commuters take transit, according to the U.S. Census Bureau
• Oregonian slide show about lateness of Line 95
• TriMet photos on Flickr, including one of a ticket machine error
• Dave Stubblefield’s excellent bus site, including detailed fleet lists (in Photo sections): old and new versions
• A neighborhood page about the changing of Line 39
• A couple of older transit passes
• Information about design awards for Tri-Met Passenger Shelters, 1970s and the transit mall, from Stumptown Confidential
• TriMet TV commercials produced by Dodge Schmitgall, inc
• Videos of TriMet from Google, including a better version of one of the above ads and ones from the Oregonian
• A TriMet prototype bus stop sign, from The Bus Stops Here page
• WorldChanging on Open-Source Public Transit Mapping, which led to Google Transit
• Pictures articulated buses-turned-fake MAX trains on webshots

Print articles

• Portland Tribune stories about TriMet, including one about a bus operator’s hard job and one noting how a parking garage was built at the very epicenter of the system
• Articles mentioning TriMet from Google News Archive Search
• Tri-Met on Find Articles
• Willamette Week articles about:
  • the "Best Tri-Met Driver" of 1998
  • the "Best Traveled Bus Driver" of 2000
  • Best Fare Inspectors of 2002
  • the end of the PGE Park transit pass program
  • tall fareboxes
  • Crony Express and the ability to fire people
  • the battle to control the transit union
  • Al Zullo’s lack of brain oxygen
  • Rose Quarter trash cans
  • Trouble Express and loans made to union officers
  • union streetcar operators
  • the lack of late night New Year’s Eve service
• The San Francisco Examiner on how TriMet is better managed than Muni
• Reports mentioning TriMet from the Transportation Research Board
• An interview of Fred Hansen by The Daily Journal of Commerce
• David Bragdon’s 1974 bus rider’s manual
• Transit Gazette
• Portland Business Journal on Tri-Met’s role in Multnomah Athletic Club/Civic Stadium parking issues
• A list of transit articles in the Clackamas Review from Milwaukie’s Ledding Library

Online stuff

• Main official site, including a list of publications
• TriMet’s general history of itself
• LiveJournal community of riders on "America’s Best Transit System" (to see older posts, click the last link in the orange bar)
• PDX Bus blog
• Reviews of TriMet on Yelp and Travel + Leisure
• Commissioner Sam Adams worked at TriMet cleaning buses
• Google’s blog announces Google Transit; discussion on Google Groups and on Slashdot
• Announcement on Usenet of the opening of TriMet’s website
• "Brass Key" announcements mentioning TriMet
• 1985 mention of TriMet on Usenet
• A TriMet trip report and a summary of it.
• Often negative debates about TriMet on Usenet (Google Groups) including a complaint that Westside MAX is slow

MAX Light Rail

• Pictures and detailed line descriptions from nycsubway.org
• Older pictures of MAX on their site: 1, 2, 3 (note the single track), 4, 5 and 6
• Mark Kavanagh’s section on Portland rail transit
• Another person’s gallery on webshots
• Washington County’s Westside MAX sub-site
• The SubwayNuts, featuring more station and train pictures
• MAX routes overlaid on Google Maps
• South/North MAX photo simulations, some of which have been re-used in the mall project
• Water color of MAX on the Steel Bridge
• A person’s map of MAX
• Willamette Week on South/North MAX, including the placement of a new Willamette River bridge; also see their opinion on the difference in participation between Senators Smith and Wyden
• Their article on how MAX has changed Portland
• A good history of rail control operations in PDF, as well as a study of issues in building Interstate MAX
• Portland Tribune’s Stumptown Stumper on the naming of MAX
• Their articles about Portland Mall plans leaving people in the dark and putting MAX in a tunnel
• Current Daily Journal of Commerce article about a Milwaukie MAX line
• Metro’s pages about a MAX line to Milwaukie
• Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 391 regarding Mass Transportation, including the Columbia River Light Rail Transit Compact (and Authority); also see 1995 Regular Session Senate Bill 1107 and 1996 Special Session House Bill 3479
• 1, 2, 3 (2/3rds down) articles touting TriMet (mainly MAX)
• And a video of a Las Vegas delegation’s visit
• 1996 Measure 32, regarding the South/North Light Rail project
• 1994 and 1998 Multnomah County General elections, including 2 other votes on South/North (check the voter’s pamphlets)
• Old Town blogger’s view of MAX on the Portland Mall and an update
• AORTA’s view on turning MAX into rapid transit
• One person’s view on a South/North Light Rail alternative
• Another person’s views on improving MAX
• A LEGO MAX train
• Fake MAX trains used in the movie The Hunted
• An article on how MAX helped reshape Portland
• Portland Business Journal articles
  • Tri-Met purchases green power – 2001-01-15
  • Light-rail proponents lick wounds, look ahead – 1996-11-25
  • Westside MAX ready to roll, but will the scheme work? – 1998-08-03
  • Two views on light rail to the airport – 1998-02-16
  • Hillsboro co-exists with light-rail project – 1996-12-02
  • Pork-barrel light-rail measure an incredible waste of money – 1996-10-21
  • PDX light rail may lead to south-north line – 1997-12-22
  • Simpson lines up apartments along westside light-rail line – 1997-02-10
  • Hillsboro hopes to ride the light rail to prosperity – 1998-08-03
  • Hatfield breathes life into Portland streetcar venture – 1996-08-05
  • RT envisions light rail lined with retailers – 1999-04-05

Streetcars/trolleybuses

• A chronology of Portland transit routes as steam dummies, electric streetcars, trolleybuses and motorbuses, as well as an overview of street railway companies
• A (partial?) list of trolleybus routes
• Off Line Too Soon: Portland’s Electric Buses and details of almost century-old streetcar track remnants
• Oregon Electric Railway Society’s pictures of old streetcar remnants
• A Usenet thread about Portland streetcar track sightings
• Portland Traction Co. Streetcar and Coach Map, c.1943 from the city Bureau of Planning (10.22MB PDF)
• A streetcar track map showing "Center St Shops" and a line down Corbett, Nebraska and Virginia (part of today’s Line 43)
• Portland Vintage Trolleys site, showing the following trolley lines that exist today as TriMet bus lines:
  • Broadway (part of today’s Line 9)
  • Council Crest (part of today’s Line 51)
  • Fulton (part of today’s Line 43)
  • Irvington & Jefferson (part of today’s Line 8, which also turns on Jefferson St)
  • Mount Tabor (part of today’s Line 15, which also goes to NW)
  • Mountavilla (today’s Line 19, which has a very similar interurban connection at the end, except farther east).
• tinzeroe’s Historical Trolley Lines on Platial
• 1 and 2 sets of Portland trolleybus photos. The 2nd set has a picture of a bus with the destination of "CAR HOUSE". Buses don’t go to car houses…streetcars do.
• A companion site featuring lots of Portland trolley pictures, including many color ones
• The New Electric Railway Journal article and photos about the Portland Vintage Trolley

Old routes

• Portland Tribune’s Stumptown Stumper on the logic behind the original line numbering (note: the question is technically about how the vehicles are numbered)
• Pre-Westside MAX bus system map (click on route labels for individual maps)
• Arial photo of the Cedar Hills TC bus pullouts (replaced by Sunset TC across US 26)
• Cedar Hills, Hillsboro and other transit center maps
• List showing Lines:
  • 5-Interstate
  • 11-Interstate Pavilion
  • 13-Multnomah Expo Center
  • 16-Portland Meadows Race Track
  • 23-Multnomah Greyhound Park
  • 37-North Shore
  • 40-Tacoma
  • 41-Capitol Hwy & 41-Fremont
  • 44-King City
  • 83-Hollywood/47th Avenue
  • 84-Sandy/Boring
  • 87-Airport/Gateway Holiday Express
  • 98X-PCC Sylvania Express
  • 150-Sunnyside Area Shuttle
  • 201-Airport Way Shuttle
• 21-Merlo Garage Shuttle (I don’t know if this is related to a shuttle bus that ran between these two points about a month before this page was posted)
• 23-San Rafael-182nd Avenue
• 2 newer versions of the Airport-Gateway Express/PDX Airport Holiday Express
• 41s-Hawthorn Farm
• 42s-Orenco
• 49s-Willow Creek (later 49s-Quatama)
• 50-Hart-170th Ave
• 50-Cornell Oaks
• 79-Clackamas County Fair
• 83-OMSI
• 86-North Gresham
• 87-181st Avenue
• 97-Gateway TC Shuttle
• An older version of the 154-Willamette
• 158-Stevens Road
• An older version of the MAX page
• There’s also listings of Special Services for March 97, September 97, 1998 and 1999
• Line 63 and Line 10 pages showing Morrison Bridge detour map, Line 14 page with regular and detour route descriptions
• Map to Metro Regional Center showing Lines 41 and 91X
• An old map of downtown transit service found on someone’s PSU page

Old buses

• The November/December 2004 Rider Insider had a picture of what appeared to be a high-floor bus labeled as a low-floor one
• Dave Stubblefield’s pictures; he also has some old buses on his rosters
• A nice photo galley of old TriMet buses, and another one
• The former link above also has some drawings of some (mostly) older buses
• The Metro Washington Park Zoo bus (retired #600) (not to be confused with
  Art the Cultural Bus, #1701)
• Supposedly, the EPROM chip in
  this bus’s destination sign was for test purposes and came from OCTA (Orange Co. Transit Authority)
• The official artic and 300 photos
• The 300′s info page (some of them lasted an amazing 27 years, according to this page)
• Another picture of 300 series bus (Note: next photo is of a 700)
• 2 old buses at a transit center
• A roster including older buses

Other stuff that used to be on trimet.org

• 1996 version of the home page. NOTE: If it says that a page does not exist, copy the link that brought you to the error page, paste it in to the address bar and take out the – (hyphen) in tri-met.org. Many of the oldest pages are archived under the trimet.org domain, but have links set to go to the tri-met.org domain. This is counterintuitive, since the official domain was tri-met.org until the 2002 makeover. You can also replace the string of digits (a timestamp) after "/web/" with 1995 to get the oldest version of the page.
• 1996 fact sheet (PDF version)
• Westside MAX Grand Opening, including an operational plan and other events
• Pictures of Westside MAX construction
• Hawthorne Bridge Closure Operations Plan
• Ross Island Bridge Closure Operations Summary and detour details
• 1998/2003 Strategic Plan and Mission & Goals
• Inside Tips for Riding Smart
• The reasons why TriMet schedule pages have headings on the side
• A person’s critique of an old version of their web site
• South/North MAX (also see info from Metro and the phone number from Google)
• Supposedly, nobody was able to Guess This Route
• Bus Dispatch System (BDS) Customer Fact Sheet (older version)
• MAX at 10
• Press Releases: 1995-1997, newer 1997
• Older-looking picture of Elmonica bldg
• Recent TriMet Service to Union Station listing Line 58-Sunset, which ended when Westside MAX opened (which is also listed)
• More pages here and here

By Jason McHuff, rctmail@jasonmchuff.net | General Comments►