Transit Sleuth

Based on experience and the experience of many others, do we really want police everywhere all the time?  Especially when they don't enforce actual laws but instead harass and irritate the populace instead?

Today I did my normal commute, which these days consist of a bicycle ride and sometimes I'll catch a bus.  Just to give some context, I ride a 20" bmx/freestyle bike.  For those of you that don't know, it is a trick bike.  Most people in this country think of this type of bike as a "kid's bike".  That's fine, I don't care, but overall people tend to treat you like you're a delinquent to boot, and that is - bullshit.  Just because I choose to ride a bike that I enjoy doesn't mean I'm vandalizing, defacing, destroying, or otherwise harming persons or vehicles on throughout the city, but the cops sure do seem to think I'm going to.

Over the last 3 weeks I've been riding to work, I've been harassed at least once each of these week.  I'm actually being conservative, it is more around 2-3 times a week I receive some form of harassment.

On the streetcar, after over two years of bringing bikes onboard I finally received a verbal demand to "stand your bike".  Whatever that means exactly I don't know but I got the point.  So instead of sitting, in a stable position, I stood awkwardly by the 20" bike.  Because of this thoughtless request the bike fell over because it is rather hard to hold while standing beside it.  The peg hit the ground hard and the handlebars just barely missed breaking one of the glass panes that holds advertisements.

This was NOT my fault but negligence of the Portland Streetcar and TriMet staff to realize that a 20" bike with an adult standing beside it is NOT more stable than a 20" being sat on.  I have NEVER fallen over sitting on my 20" on any TriMet or Portland Streetcar Vehicle UNTIL I followed that rather awkward and misplaced rule (or maybe it is just a demand).

Again today, a transit cop, acting more out of needing a testosterone fix or something than anything logical, demanded for a SINGLE stop (I was leaving Galleria and going to PGE Park) that I place my bike on the hanging rack.  There are several SEVERE issues with this.

1. I have 96 spoke rims for strength.  They DO NOT fit on the hoots because the balls are too big.  If the rim gets bent because of this TriMet owes me a new rim in my book, or at least a truing.  A new rim is about $105 dollar and a truing for a 96 spoke rim is about 20-30 bucks.  The reason I say this is the transit cops demanded at threat of force that I hang the bike.
2. There is nothing written to state you HAVE to hang a bike.  Matter of fact some bikes are downright DANGEROUS to hang.  Maybe TriMet should create a culture of knowledge among their enforcement instead of a culture of bullying police state mentality pushers.

Overall the last few weeks has been very rewarding.  I've learned of a discrimination I've long ago forgotten.  Of all places in Portland, a hatred for bicyclist.  Who'd have thunk it.

In addition it has shown me a hypocrisy in policy vs. practice of TriMet's culture and ideal of safety.  It has only gone to enforce my knowledge and awareness that it truly IS a branch and tool of the state.  This whole anti-bike spirit has really sent shivers down my spine and left me somewhat disenfranchised with Portland's faux attitude toward bicyclist.  Yes, Portland is bike friendly, but it is also very hateful in some ways and unreasonable in its behavior as evidence shows among Portland's transit options.

I digress, if the harrassment continues I will be forced to do one of two things.

1. Start taking my car.
2. Stop riding my bike.

Either way, because of the lack of integrity and the unreasonable behavior and rules of TriMet, I know these to be my only two real ongoing options in the future.  I'll probably settle down, unless the discrimination continues, and just start carrying on as if nothing happened, but so far I'm rather pissed by the hypocrisy, absurdity, illogical, and unreasonable behavior from TriMet Security and Staff.

I got my fingers crossed to a better next couple of weeks.

Just for reference:

http://www.trimet.org/tv/episode13/index.htm how to take your bike aboard MAX.

http://www.trimet.org/howtoride/bikes/bikesonstreetcar.htm (It doesn't even say you have to "stand your bike".  I would think they'd prefer the safest most stable position for a bicycle to be in.   ...and why am I getting harassed anyway, I don't even get on the Streetcar or MAX unless there is nobody standing.  If there are I don't even get on with my bike.

Ok, so maybe I'm just a person who likes people to respect each other.  Maybe I'm jumping the issue to think that police officers should be examples of respect and not those that need examples of respect.

Ok, so maybe I'm expecting too much of our officers?  Maybe I'm a little jaded since I've had to protect myself, defend others, and generally do things that police are supposed to and I have always been left hanging.  Don't get me wrong, I love that the police exist, I just don't expect much from them since they have a very poor running history with me.

Ok, so maybe you're wondering why I'm ranting about police on my transit blog?  Because the police obstructed the streetcar because of...  keep reading.

So when I was strolling down into town last weekend I stumbled upon this absolutely ridiculous disrespect the Beaverton Police paid to downtown Portlanders waiting for the Streetcar.  This police officer, who probably didn't need to be downtown in the first place - who knows - parked right in the tracks in a completely illegal way.  You might ask why did he park this way?  Well I'll tell you, it was because he parked here and strolled happily into the Pita Pit across the street.  Meanwhile the streetcar operator like a good little citizen sat there, not running the whistle and waited.

...in the police officers defense - sort of - he did charge back out and embarrassingly pull away to get out of the way of the waiting passengers aboard the streetcar.  No less than two laws were broken, no tickets issued, at least 20+ people delayed because an officer of the law wanted a pita pit sandwich.

I'm not sure about you dear readers, but I find that rather disrespectful.

So all these vehicles for TriMet are arriving without me being able to find out ahead of time the exact locations and stuff.  It seems I've fallen out of the loop.

Oh well, that happens sometimes.

This last week the new S/70 cars arrived.  The most impressive thing about these new light rail vehicles to me, is that that carry more people but weigh less.  So technically they should be more efficient in utilizing energy.  I spoke with some electricians and engineers a while back about how the light rail is actually very inefficient compared to what it could be.

They had brought up the viewpoint that if the electricity was transported by wire slightly different and utiilized by the vehicles differently the use could be cut by about a third.  I myself have no idea, as I am not well versed on the transport, conduction, or utilization of electricity in these things.

I do however know for a fact that a heavier vehicle is harder to move.  The new vehicles are 5500 lbs. lighter than the previous model series light rail vehicles Portland has been using.  I also am pretty sure they could have reduced that even more if it truly was a priority (and other motivations where put forth).  But I can be happy with a 5500 lbs decrease.  Over the years that could add weeks, maybe a few months even, of life span to the vehicles and prospectively the rails.

My ideal rail vehicle would be one of Toyota, Honda, or Nissan caliber.  Using a minimum amount of power, with a minimum amount of waste, and a maximum amount of speed for our dollar.  In all seriousness, light rail vehicles, if there was enough market to produce as much innovation as has been pushed with automobiles, should be:

1. At least 2x as efficient.  Most vehicles, albeit not SUVs, have increased gas mileage and the hybrid technology along with other technologies are pushing auto tech far past other modes.
2. Cost about 2/3 what they do.  Auto's haven't increased in cost anywhere near as much as these LRVs have.
3. These LRVs should be able to travel at least 70 mph or so between the long distance stops.  55mph is absolutely WEAK.
4. Handling - the LRVs, especially for the money, should be able to handle turns much better.  Maybe they should "tilt" like the Talgo.

That's it from me, as always, just imaging what could be if we actually tried.  Everybody have a good weekend.

I noticed the Oregonian as well as other sources have made mention of the arrival of the Colorado Car and DMU in Wilsonville.

Mentioned by the Tribune and The Times (publications of the same parent, same articles) that the vehicles had arrived.

I'm really wondering, it mentions they carry 70 persons, at least he DMU does.  So will we have standing room only?  I know there will be people riding, but it is still up in the air how many people will be riding.  There is some serious potential there if real ridership is accrued.  However, as with most politically motivated projects, I wonder if they could even handle excess demand.  This is Portland, and we are known for blowing the socks off of ridership records on transit.

I'm looking forward to checking it out and taking a ride sometime, regardless if I ever need to use it or not.  It looks like service that could definitely be expanded with ease, especially in comparison to the LRT MAX System, which costs about 5x the amount of money (of course it carries about 5x the amount of people too).

I'd really be stoked to see this sucker run, branching out from various points in Portland, to outer areas were it just isn't feasible or necessary to run the MAX.  It would be perfect for Vancouver, Battleground, Camas, areas between PDX and Troutdale, Corbett, Bridal Veil, etc.  I'm sure TriMet, or whatever type of operator would be needed, could extend the service to Salem with ease.  Connecting Fargo, Donald, Woodburn, and Salem would definitely get some serious ridership.

One thing the state could do, which would save Amtrak a ton of money and increase service along the area, is get rid of the southern stretch of Cascades service since it is the most money losing segment, and instead run the commuter rail from Beaverton down to Wilsonville as they are, then extend it to Salem.  At the same time run some Commuter Rail Service from downtown Union Station out to Oregon City and parallel the service.  The Oregon City stretch could then pick up any riders from Salem and continue on to Eugene.  This could be kept much closer to ridership demands, be much less expensive and lose less money than the Amtrak Cascades, and provide multiple avenues of ingress and egress from the Portland area.

Then we could bump up the frequency on the Portland to Seattle, and Seattle to Vancouver BC stretch of the Cascades.  This line could make money (yeah, PROFIT) instead of continually losing money as the southern stretch from PDX to Eugene does.  Most of this line doesn't even need re-worked like Beaverton to Wilsonville did.

The only question is, how will UP deal with it, and will Oregon make sure they don't screw UP out of hard earned freight movements.  They could definitely work together, but there would have to be new levels of cooperation.

Anybody got any ideas?

...but nobody rides it.  Just a few shots from back when I lived in Jacksonville, FL.  In their defense they built this system which connects various parts of downtown, just like the Portland Streetcar.  However nobody lives downtown there.  It is a standard dead American downtown.

The "People Mover" though is very efficient.  Frequencies of about 3-4 minutes between vehicles.  It is also vastly more economically efficient costing only about a few hundred thousand a year to operate.  There is no traffic congestion to deal with as it is raised.  Overall it is far superior to the streetcar systems that existed before, but the problem is its lack of connectivity to residential areas to bring people into the city.  The outer branches of it, if only about a 1/2 mile further on each end could connect to Riverside and other residential areas, which would provide massive ridership.

...anyway, enjoy the pictures.

If you're wondering, yeah, it is pretty much that empty ALL the time.  This was on a Saturday.  On the waterfront downtown there is actually a decent amount of activity.

One angle inside the vehicle...

...the other.

Leaving the southern most station.

One of the main streets of downtown, which during the work day is the cause of huge traffic lines and people strolling about for business activity.  The weekends and after work though, it is a ghost town.

The other side of that view coming into the southern end of downtown, still on the south side of the river.

Heading over the bridge into the core of downtown.  One can see the CSX headquarters on the left side.  The large black building is the Bank of America Tower, Bellsouth and Modis are also noticeably visible.

The above street cute through the buildings of downtown.

A quick shot of one of the monorail vehicles.

The stop right before the bus mall.  It is right next to the main little park downtown.

Another view.  Almost all of the businesses surrounding the park are empty, boarded, or barely subsisting off of the daytime business hours.

I made a new category on the blog for pictures, that have transit thoughts attached.  I'm dubbing it "Transit Porn n Pickles".  Ok, not really, I'll call it "Transit Pics & Conjured Thoughts".

If anyone has a better idea, leave a comment or five.

...and now for the pictures n' thoughts.  The theme is around right of ways into Portland.

The line that connected Portland for decades and provided the life blood of the city.  This line, built by private money, operated and maintained by private enterprise cost the taxpayers nothing.  Unlike the rail line, the Interstate beside it brought the destruction of thousands of homes, the forced relocation of many residents, the decreased home values along what was untouched still, and a vast and untouchable gulch that is anti-pedestrian, anti-person, and anti-bike.

The picture below shows just the right of way and the city in the distance.  Imagine no Intersate, just neighborhoods, maybe one more track to handle a commuter line, and interspersed connectivity throughout the area as it was before.  Vastly lower noise, pollution, desecration of land values, and the people could have kept their homes.  The taxes would not have had to increase to cover the Interstate, and we'd still be able to get in and out of the city without trouble.

This picture is of the southern line coming in on the east side of Portland and I-5.  The design and architecture here of the Interstate is a damned joke.  It takes up vast amounts of land, offers slow and disjointed connectivity, and is on what would be some of the most valuable land in the city.  This is an Interstate that by far, should be removed.  Either double deck the other section that tears through downtown, or just get rid of it period.

I used to think that it was insane to try and get rid of it, but now that I've realized and seen what San Francisco did and other places.  They destroyed parts of their Interstate or highways and in their place are vibrant, human based livable neighborhoods and communities.  I'll take a neighborhood and people living their lives any day over an Interstate.  That neighborhood will offer a lot more to society that some bastard politician taking my money to build these damn Interstates.

As I cross the bridge further I look down and catch another shot.  Another thought crosses my mind.  The Interstate does NOT make us competitive with China, India, and other up and coming countries.  The rail line does.  The highways and minor roadways are better at providing LOCAL trucking, the Interstate just makes it harder for us to use efficient long distance freight carrying capacity, aka trains.  The trucks get hand outs left and right, and freight railroads get squat, and usually pay in vast amounts for the land the railroad tracks are on.  The trucks on I-5 pay a mere paltry few percentage points of taxes on their cargo, do 80% plus of the damage on the roads, and then whine about fuel prices.  Come on guys...  how about we bring back a little honest competition...

since the freight train companies have to pay for their right of way, pay taxes on it, and all that while allowing passenger trains to run on their tracks, why not have the trucking industry pay for the Interstates from now on and let all the passenger cars and buses ride on the Interstate?  Wow, fairness would suck for the trucking industry...  oh but I digress.

Streetcar Rolling Down 10th through the Pearl.

A street corner in the Pearl.

Greatest Coffee in America...    ...brought to you by South American Farmers.

Another Pearl Building...

Another Pearlite Buiding

...and another...

...and this building is actually near the train station on Naito.  It has a twin building right beside it, and I believe is one of four buildings.  They seem to be building them in pairs though.

The Red Line heading into Old Town China Town from the Steal Bridge.

The Old Town China Town stop, Red Line meeting a Blue Line MAX.

Home to Office…

Driving: 32-40 minutes

Transit: 48-52 minutes

Walking: 1hr 24 minutes

Bicycling: 28 minutes

Simple fact, it's pretty damn stupid to try to drive in an urban environment.  It takes about 1-3 minutes to park a bike, and about 3-15 minutes to park a car too.  There really isn't much comparison in an urban environment, simply, cars are slow.

Since I've recorded various modes, when available, for every commute I've ever had I'll have a blog entry on that in the near future.  The numbers are interesting to correlate with various activities and possibilities.

I've been utilizing a ton of transit lately, but unfortunately haven't written a lick about any of my recent experiences.  It really kind of bums me out when I'm just too wrapped to write things up.

Of all the cool things I have to say I'm impressed by the on time and quickness of the #35 line from Portland to Oregon City.  I've not ridden past Nebraska & Macadam, but the bus gets me there quick.  The drivers have been top notch so far too, so hats off to you TriMet Drivers running the #35.  Thanks for keeping the route on time!

The one thing that sucks about the line is that it only runs every 30 minutes most of the day.  The other complaint I have is the bone headed numbering TriMet uses for the Greeley part of the #35 route and the Oregon City part.  One runs almost every 15-20 minutes, the Greeley Segment, and the Oregon City part runs every 30 minutes.  So I am teased once in a while when a "downtown only" Greeley #35 shows up.  I usually only notice the #35 and thus am let down when it isn't the one I want.  In all reality, they should have a better segmentation of this route in my humble, or not so humble, opinion.

I must say though, TriMet is meeting the demands of the customer base for this route, so I'm not asking them to run half full buses just so I could have 15 minutes service, 30 minutes is fine as long as they maintain decent ridership.  I can deal with it otherwise.

But I digress, overall my commuting as of late has rocked.  I've gotten a ton of work done, and some technical blog entries done while commuting.  When it all comes down to it, this is one of the main reasons I take transit vs. drive is because of how much more productive I am and how much "down time" I get rid of by not driving.  On top of all that, I generally am able to include part of the commute as actual work hours and thus keep my in office hours to a respectable amount.

The Streetcar Route Segment

Now let me hit on another thing that makes me absolutely furious about the ineptitude of logical operations here in Portland.  I think it also boils down to the spoiled brat nature of the American Populace, Portland's Populace even more so, and the wretched leech attitude that we shouldn't pay more than X for something even when it doesn't cover the costs.  The idea that others should pay for the bulk of a business so the masses can leech off of it disgusts me.

So let me rag on the Streetcar Fare Operations again.  Not the streetcar itself, but how fares are handled.  Instead of charging a mesaly $1.00 or something for the Streetcar it continues to stay in fare-less square for the vast majority of the line.

This causes two major problems that annoy the hell out of me, one of which they (the original perpetuators of the Streetcar) promised wouldn't happen.

1. Heavy overcrowding during rush hour.  There would be some, but not near as much if they charged a $1.00 a ride.  Also if they did this, they could AFFORD to run ALL of the bloody freaking Portland Streetcars during rush hour then which would ALSO decrease overcrowding.
2. There is a massive "free ride" college crowd that gets on every morning and parks for free over around the 18th-23rd Street areas.  This is EXACTLY what they (the Streetcar perpetuators) promised this wouldn't happen.  They promised to enforce and do X, Y, and Z to prevent this but they've failed - MISERABLY!

So we have these two MAJOR problems with no clear solution in site, basically because something as simple as charging a REASONABLE fare won't be done.

The other benifits of putting a fare on the Streetcar would be the elimination of the argument that the STreetcar is so expensive to operate.  With how many MORE riders the Streetcar carries during the course of the day vs. a bus line of the same frequency the Streetcar would cover a much higher percentage of operations with a mere dollar than a bus line would.

For some reason, Streetcar advocates don't seem to want a bolstered argument for their persective.  Instead they spiel on about how a "theoretical" invesment of X billions of dollars were invested in the Pearl.  Blagh blagh blagh goes the arguments, but heaven forbid the bolster the arguments that are valid.  Some of which would be;

1. Operating costs are much lower than a bus because of the drastically higher rider count which is enabled by the fact it can carry so many more people.
2. The Streetcar, even though we (Portland) has paid easily 2x what they should have, will actually achieve a very decent rider cost if utilized for a solid 30-40 years.  If used longer than that, they'll easily outpace anything out there that is combustion driven.  Especially with the ever increasing fuel prices.

So I'm done with my rants and compliments for the evening.

TriMet - keep up the good schedule operations on #35, operators keep rocking the line.  You're doing a great job.

TriMet - Get your heads on straight about the bloody fares and find some way to truly get rid of fare less square.  I'm sick of the inability to increase service to actually meet demand on the busy lines.  The lack of market correlation is sickening.  If I have to stay on a corner waiting for a bus as I have once or twice in the past because of the lack of service demand, which I know full well there are buses, MAXs, and even Streetcars to meet a higher demand - I WILL BE PISSED.  I might even do something dumb like go buy a big fat gas guzzling SUV and start driving everywhere with my pedal in the floor so I can burn as much fuel as possible...

...ok, so I wouldn't do such a thing, but the point is since TriMet is a monopoly I have no other choice, no competition, and no way to find an alternative EXCEPT to drive.  I do NOT want that to ever become a necessary choice.  It might become one though if there continues to be lapses in service (such as on the Streetcar portion of my trip).

Related Posts

So I've got a new office location I'm commuting to these days.  It is an interesting commute, which takes me through the city center and down Macadam.

Eventually I suppose this route will be much easier with the Streetcar.  Maybe.

It will also be - if they ever get it going - the first streetcar route that will be move at a relatively high speed (10-20mph average maybe?).  The only crux is, what are they going to do for the streetcars to reach over 30mph or will they?  The streetcars currently won't achieve anything over that speed.  The route I'm of course writing about is the South Waterfront to Lake Oswego.

The route will definitely have some very awe inspiring elements, mainly because of the right of way, but also because of the unique nature of the neighborhoods and such that are squished between the Willamette and the mountain.  There are already tons of businesses and such that could prospectively increase business with such a route also, there is however one problem that is even bigger than the others I just stated.  Which is what the title of this entry truly hits at.

Macadam

Macadam is disgusting for any advancement of quality of life.  It is not much more than a primary thoroughfare and it does that horribly.  The route is anti-pedestrian, anti transit, and in some ways, anti-business.

The parking is in direct conflict with the business space, the low density nature of the area causes what transit that travels the area to be less frequent and less demanded.  Overall the area is stuck in a crux.

When the streetcar is extended to the area (if it is) how will it improve the area?  Macadam will act almost as a barrier to a vast number of the businesses along the route.  As I stated before, Macadam is VERY anti pedestrian.  If someone thinks Burnside is bad, take a stroll down Macadam.  It is noisy, often pervaded with fumes from the heavy traffic, and the traffic travels fast exceeding 30mph regularly.  There are very few places to pass under light protection and risking to cross anywhere else is almost a death wish.

My current trip down Macadam isn't all that bad, but I can't help but think what it "could be".  My current route takes me via Portland Streetcar or the #17 to Harrison & 1st where I switch to either the #43 or the #35.  Both buses get me where I need to be equally fast, but I must say the #43 is a much better and entertaining ride.

I hope this area can be improved and brought to the level it could be.  I hope that Macadam could be broken up or calmed in some way to make it more livable and safe.  I hope that the local businesses can improve by making Macadam a more tolerable street.

With the South Waterfront continuing to move forward slowly but steadily I can imagine that by inference the southern reaches will begin to change too.  Here's to good fortunes and a good connected area - cheers.

Ok, not really.  As anyone in the know around the transportation industry knows, nothing fully pays directly for itself, even the famed auto mode.  So fare increases are coming that will cover a bit more of the multi-million dollar overruns TriMet has had to deal with.

But I digress, it appears that the $4.00 gas wasn't budgeted for by TriMet, not that I would have expected them to.  Instead they had budgeted $2.31 and now need to trigger a fare increase again.  They're actually looking at a rather substantial increase this time, instead of the normal nickel increase, which is a grand 0.20 - 0.25 cents!

I suppose our grand fares of $2.05 will not go to either $2.25 - $2.30 then, and figure the same for single zone tickets of $1.75 currently would hit $1.95-$2.00.  I personally have no issue with this, it seems exceptionally simple and straight forward enough to cover the cost and is still a negligible increase.

Overall though, a base fare of $1.75 is a bit steep though for a single zone trip.  If one looks at the fares of yesteryear vs. today we're getting close to ruining transit for short trips.  In all reality, transit is only good for truly short trips (< 2-5 miles).  If one exceeds that consumption of time generally becomes massive without express service.  Considering that transit is good primarily for short trips one would think the fare would be oriented for that, but in contrast $1.75 currently is oriented for 3+ mile trips, often not a "deal" by transit standards until someone hits mile number 4. 

So why do we not have a fare for the short trips?  Maybe we could get rid of the damnable fare-less square and just have dollar trips?  The amount of money that could be raised from that could be extensive.  It would absolutely cover the absurd costs of the additional fuel increases.  At a dollar we could almost pay the operations of the streetcar too.  It would be nice to literally state that the streetcar covers operations.

But in the end, it is sad, and Portland, TriMet, Metro, and the population of this fair city doesn't seem to care or think the moral honesty and integrity inherit in users paying their own respective fees for what they use and do would be a good thing.  I still have no honest grasp of this corruptive mentality, but it stands as is.  With that I'll be watching for that price increase to come down the pipe, and only because it's more efficient for the urban lifestyle I lead, I'll keep using transit with the hopes that it becomes an honest business again one day!

• June 1–August 30: TriMet buses will not use Steel Bridge; detours in place
• June 10–August 24: Bridge closed to all vehicles
• August 2–24: TriMet MAX will not cross Steel Bridge; shuttle buses provided

I'm still curious, if anyone knows, what exactly are the details of what will be done during this time.

I know the light rail will be attached to the existing line, and I've heard the rail gaps are supposed to be closed where there is currently some rather large 2-4 inch gaps, but what else is going to be done?

Also does anyone have confirmation of what the new travel speed for the LRVs will be once these changes are complete?  I believe the current speed is 5mph but have heard several different statements about what the new speed would be.  I personally think they should cruise onto that sucker at least at a solid 20-30mph.  Anything less is, well, absurdly slow.  That could shave off almost a half minute coming into downtown!  Now if we could just get rid of some of the excess stops downtown, or merge some or something, we could have reasonable cross town service (or toss some passing tracks and make some "express" trains through downtown in the rush hours.

This Sunday I took a trip out to the Best Buy by the airport.  It was a little later in the afternoon when I boarded the Red Line to the airport.  The interesting thing that I noticed was that the number of patrons riding the Red Line, on a lazy Sunday afternoon overcast with dreary weather, was rather numerous.  With the new shopping available the number of riders getting on and off in the once empty stations between the Parkrose Sumner Station and the Airport Station increasing the Red Line will most likely have record numbers this year.

The once unused portion of the Red Line, between Gateway and the Airport, is now heavily utilized.  Of course the original number of riders was nonexistent because of the September 11th Twin Tower Attacks.  With the airport shut down and the nation in shock, many didn't wonder far from home during the subsequent months.  Let alone head out on the Red Line to the airport.

But now things are much different.  Even with airline patrons dwindling and fuel costs sky rocketing for the airlines, the Portland Airport still pulls solid rider counts from the Red Line.  The Parkrose Sumner Stop routinely is filled to capacity with even more riders coming in from various bus lines (#15, #12, etc) that then board the MAX Red Line to downtown.  I'd even step out on a whim here and say TriMet might need to bump up the number of MAX LRVs being used on the line in the next 2-5 years.

Currently I understand the Red Line to be at 15 minute frequencies, with a double then single car consist.  That equates to approximately 6 cars per hour.  During rush hour I believe the number of double LRV consists increase, but I've not been able to confirm that yet.

Just for the sake of curiosity...

6 LRVs.  Maximum load (at crush) capacity of about 250.  6 times 250 gives us the throughput of about 1500 per hour.  Not bad considering the line is not even close to capacity.  If TriMet bumps the LRV car count up to 8 per hour we now have 8 times 250 giving the line 2000 per hour.  Keep in mind, that throughput number is for ONE DIRECTION.  If you include the 8 in and 8 out then you have a 4000 person per hour capacity.

Banfield Corridor at Maximum Throughput?

With the Red Line, Blue Line, and future Green Line all using the Banfield Corridor as the ingress and egress from downtown, that stretch will be almost at capacity.  Each line will have 4 frequencies, for a total of 8 LRV cars each per hour.  With three lines that will be 3 times 8, giving us 24 cars per hour.  This is technically, until TriMet and the city does something about the Steal Bridge, about the most cars into the city we're going to get.

Take 24 cars times 250 and you end up with a massive 6000 persons per hour.  Yup, you got it, a total of 6000 in per hour at crush capacity.  Far more than one is managed on a single lane of traffic on the Interstate, which continually decreases as lanes are added (if they could be on the parallel I-84).  Ah, the beauty of mass transit.

Light Rail Construction Impresses, Funding Depresses

I've been watching the the downtown Portland Mall Light Rail Construction with curiosity.  Impressiveness often comes to mind at the number of things that have been planned for, accommodated and altered slightly.  Overall the project, as light rail construction often goes, is succeeding according to the plan.

But let me take a step back again and just make some other observations from a high level.  Between the almost 2 miles of rail downtown and the 6 miles out on the green line section the cost of the project is over $500,000,000.  That is five hundred million plus dollars for a mere 8 miles of light rail.  Amazingly that isn't that bad, as the cost per mile for each passenger comes down pretty quickly once revenue service starts.

So we here in Portland have a $500 million light rail project getting us connected downtown to Clackamas Town Center and expanding future prospective throughput - sort of.

But what did the $500 actually cost us?  How much has the city paid?  How much did the feds?  How much bureaucracy did we have to pay to get that $500 million cleared.

I'll make a grand sweeping judgement and statement now.  I'd bet a solid grand (I sure would love the opportunity to at least) that NS, UP, BNSF, CSX, Bombardier, or any of the other experienced rail companies, if given a vested interest in the manufacture and success - AND ESPECIALLY the operations of the line - could have done it for less by the tune of about 10-20%.  I would even extend the distance I'm out on a limb here and say they could probably have given us more frequency of service to boot.

My final statement about this situation is, the Feds need to step further out of transportation planning and cut their taxes they take and let the states step back in and fill that gap.  At least until some time in the future when people take back their respective systems (something that could and most likely would happen at the state level, for many if not most states) and privatize them to create a more sustainable, customer driven, capable, and more intelligently managed systems (mind you, current management isn't bad, but their priorities are often the opposite of riders and often misaligned with actual demand).

Union Pacific Creates Magnificence

The Kate Shelley Bridge in Boone is being replaced with a new bridge.  At a small price (compared the the craziness of costs above) of only $43 million Union Pacific is building this new bridge that will be about 2600ft, about 180+ feet tall and handle traffic on two tracks at 70mph.  That is truly impressive.  When a company like this, builds something this massive, this great, and no cost to taxpayers and no interruption to daily life I am impressed, honored, and I offer my respect to these great men and women.  What they accomplish is what makes America great, what keeps our economic wealth going, and prevents our utter collapse that we Americans seem intent on creating these days.

For more information on this awesome bridge check out these links:

• http://www.atmos.ucla.edu/~cwhung/kate.html
• http://pa.photoshelter.com/gallery-show/G0000iv0rRVBYY2s/ (photos by Kevin Sanders)
• http://www.uprr.com/newsinfo/releases/capital_investment/2007/0907_boone.shtml
• http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BFW/is_9_103/ai_n20526180/pg_1

Hopefully we'll be on the right track again in the near future!  Hopefully. 

I was navigating around Amtrak's web site today and found a new little feature in relation to on time performance.  A roll up report based on the host networks on-time performance and interruptions.  Here's a quick screen shot, to find out more go check out Amtrak's site.

The little icon and "On-time performance..."  is what will get you info on the various routes historical on time performance.  The way you get here from the main page is by selecting the train number and destination or origination of the train you want information on.  When the screen to choose which train comes up the historical tool will show to the right.