I lived in Milwaukie at the time of the Orange Line construction, a common talking point was "it's gonna decrease property values". In reality, the opposite happened because Milwaukie became more desirable. Also, Milwaukie generally supported the Orange Line, it was unincorporated Clackamas county that was opposed.

Glad to see the MAX system get some more attention. Definitely a diamond in the rough amongst the larger, more prosperous systems of Ameicas big cities.

Now that it’s actually been built, they should really just rename the whole thing the Yellow Line (or Orange Line). The lack of clarity honestly might turn away more riders than it attracts.

That Powell's City of Books is no joke! To put things into perspective, it's 68K square feet with over 3,500 different sections! And kudos to Portland for building that cool Tilikum Crossing, it's great to see a bridge that's just for transit, bikes, and pedestrians, especially one that's cable-stayed! NYC has an aerial tram too, the Roosevelt Island Tramway! It's the tramway shown at the end of the first Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movie. Before the aerial tramway, there used to be a streetcar line that ran on the Queensboro Bridge, and it stopped in the middle of the bridge at an elevator that took passengers down to the island. Today, the elevator storehouse is now a visitor kiosk next to the tramway station. After the NY state government leased the island from the city in 1969, they opted to build large housing developments and transform it into a transit-oriented community. A new subway station would be built to serve as the centerpiece. However, the Roosevelt Island station that was proposed was delayed. So the temporary solution was to build an aerial tramway! The tramway would open in 1975. The subway station ended up opening in 1989, however it was decided to keep the tramway open!

Portlander here - the FX is a joke BRT - no off board ticketing and separate lanes. It also gets held up by an at grade freight rail crossing in inner SE Portland

I honestly feel like the whole "all it does is transport them damn criminals to new areas to rob" sentiment is why cities like baltimore have terrible transit. I'm hoping that changes soon because reliable public transit is crucial for those who can't afford a car or don't have a place to park one. There's a lot more to it but that's one of the more prominent things about it.

Keep Portland Weird was based on Austin's Keep Austin Weird and was brought to Portland in 2003 by Music Millennium owner Terry Currier. Portland has a cool flag! It was designed in 1969 by longtime Portland resident, noted graphic designer R. Douglas Lynch who passed in 2009. The flag used to have a dark blue canton with the city seal, which was added despite Lynch's objections, but was finally removed in 2002. Green stands for the forests, yellow for agriculture and commerce, and blue for the city's rivers. The blue stripes radiate from a hypocycloid that represents Portland being at the confluence of the Willamette River with the Columbia River. Willamette is believed to derive from the French pronunciation of Wallamt, which means "still water", and was a village of the Clackamas band of Chinook. The Columbia River on the other hand got its name because of the Columbia Rediviva, a private American ship led by Captain Robert Gray from Boston that became the first non-indigenous vessel to enter the river in May 1792.

Yes, pretty much a marketing exercise. At least the current "A Better Red" project really is a better Red Line, and will allow for 1 seat riding from where I live in Hillsboro to the airport rather than transfer lines at some point between Beaverton and Gateway.

Thanks for promoting our city’s MAX system! It gets a lot of hate locally, but those of us who use transit regularly know how important it is. Hope you had a great time!

I work for TriMet and the real reason they are two “seperate” lines. Is because that was the only way to get a federal grant for funding for the tilikum crossing. I was told originally it was just supposed to be a yellow line extension but they wouldn’t have been eligible for the grant

Hello Thom, I'm a local and I really loved this video, I like when transit youtubers at least acknowleged a big part of transit construction and expansion which is politics, and I was surprised at your includsion of it in this video! kudos! As for the two Lines the consensus here is that the marketing of a new line is 100% the reason why its this way, I also want to add that the funding for an extension of the Green line to where I live was voted down in 2020 in part because it was marketed as an extension when they could have just called it a new line. I also want to add that according to our 20240 regional growth plan A high capacity transit route is included to run along highway 26 in the Tualatin valley, I imagine this would be an extension of the Yellow Line which would run through downtown how it used to and follow the Blue and Red through the west hills. As for the Orange I know the plan is to eventually extend it to Oregon City but there is no official rumors about extending it anywhere North out of Downtown where it currently "ends". Right now the priority is to get the Southwest Corridor funded and then start planning for putting all the MAX lines into a couple Tunnels under Downtown.

The issues you mentioned have also delayed rebuilding the I 5 bridge into Vancouver Washington. Some want dedicated transit and others are fiercely opposed. The bridge is a disaster when an earthquake hits and no solution is forthcoming. Nice video on MAX.

As someone else said, pre-pandemic, some Orange lines in morning and some in the afternoon would turn at Union Station and head south back to Milwaukie. Originally, the Orange and Green lines were going to be extended further south to Oregon City, and meet up. Clackamas County and others fought it. Just like the Green Line was supposed to go down 82nd Ave originally, similar to how the Yellow Line goes up Interstate. Easier for people to get to businesses, but that fell through too. "Purple" Line was going to connect at Jackson area with Green/Yellow/Orange, and go to Tigard, but fell through. Next up, would be extending Yellow into Vancouver, most likely the revitalized Vancouver waterfront.

Was finally in Portland and got to ride the MAX earlier this month. When you're in the central core of the city, the coverage is impeccable. The Streetcar does a great job extending that coverage. I was really impressed with how speedy the MAX was despite being a street-running system. Hopefully someday Portland will get a tunnel for the MAX to really get it running quickly and be the true Metro system it was to be

Facinating history! And, yes, Northwest Portland. What a nice place to visit or live.

Living in Portland since before Max, I can tell you that the color coding of the lines has been beneficial to visitors by simply telling which line to take to get to your destination. Need to go from the airport to Milwaukie? Take the Red Line to downtown and switch to the Orange Line. Need to go from Hillsboro to Gresham? Just stay on the Blue Line. By following the maps. It is very easy to navigate in Portland.

A Portland resident myself, always really enjoy your videos on the MAX system. One thing I'd love to see for the MAX is a line entirely on the east side, similar to where the 75 bus route is. I'd love a quicker way to get from central SE to NE/N! A girl can dream.

Like you said back in the 80s there was just 1 MAX line which ran from downtown out to Gresham and when it was extended out to Hillsboro and the red line was up and running that's when Trimet named the Gresham/Hillsboro run the blue line serving 2 different areas, so the reason they claim for the extension down to Milwaukie makes no sense, it needs to be renamed either the yellow or the orange line.

During construction of the orange line, an abandoned interurban car was discovered in a building that needed to be demolished to make way for the route.

This anti lightrail activism painfully reminds to the BS which went down a few years back in Wiesbaden, Germany. Wiesbaden is the state capital of Hessen and next to Mainz, the state capital of Rheinland-Pfalz. Divided mostly by the river rhine. Mainz has a small, but functional tram network, which has been extended a few years back and will (hopefuly) see more extensions in the near future. Wiesbaden on the other hand fuly relies on buses for the the local public transport. There were plans to build a tramline from Mainz to Wiesbaden. But rich idiots from Wiesbaden (which don't even use public transport) blocked that initiative. The buses between the 2 cities are always packed and taking the train is a hassle. And the project would have been 90% financed by the federal and state government. I totally see what you are taking about Thom. Also, great video, as always!

Thanks for posting on the Max system. I live ~100 or so miles from Portland upriver on the WA side. I've given up driving to Portland, too much hassle. We have a rural bus line that connects to Amtrak in Kelso, and multiple Amtrak trains every day to Portand....Amtrak just added more Cascades runs. Easy to get around Portland on the Max. btw.... that FX2 articulated bus line is an easy way to get from Union Station to points east as far as Gresham. Its terminus is same place the Max blue line terminates in Gresham.

Here in Helsinki this is actually increasing, the 2 & 3 used to be a loop but was opened up at the outskirts of the city and extended, the 7 becomes the 9 and at weekends they have extended the 1 to become the 8 at also at the ferry terminal to increase capacity and destinations without a large increase of trams or having to have turn arounds.

Yes, I agree it’s dumb. (I worked at TriMet for 6 years). However, before the pandemic, they *did* have 3-4 trains during AM rush hour and 3-4 during PM rush hour that did turn around downtown and go back to Milwaukie. Having a train leave Park Ave and announce “yellow line to Union Station” causes too much confusion for people (you know, the few that actually listen to the announcements) because all they hear is “yellow” and then tune out and miss the rest of it. It would say “Orange line to Portland city center.” So that part does make sense. However, since runs got cut at the beginning of Covid, there haven’t been any trains that are scheduled to flip a u turn and go back south. It only happens now in cases of delays or service disruptions.

As far as I'm aware it was required to get federal funding. Funding was available for new lines, but not extension of old ones. At least that's the scuddle bud among the local transit folks I've heard from, I could be wrong. (Portland based here)

I'm just happy you two were able to visit the PacNW when it wasn't raining.

People from one area now being able to travel easier to another area works both ways-- gentrification often occurs where there is transit being built or has existed already (think, the 14th St.-Canarsie, Brooklyn-Queens Crosstown, and the Myrtle-6th Avenue lines in Northwest Brooklyn). That raises a different set of issues.

They still had a few type 1 cars in service when I went on my Portland trip that I mentioned in your Coast Starlight video. I even rode on one returning from my quick out and back to Wilsonville on the WES.

You blew my mind that we have a “commuter rail” despite living in Portland for a few years. Apparently only 400 daily riders, what a waste

I am an office owner in the PDX suburban hoods and riding the TriMet trams have become the norm for me. Trimet is one of the most notable transit agencies in the world. It’s reliable and quicker than other transit agencies around the world. I never rode the orange and yellow line but have seen some bus services do the same thing. In San Jose, CA we used to have 8 bus lines that did the same before 2019. Trimet buses sometimes practice this because there are 2 routes on certain printed schedules. As you already know I’m a frequent WES rider when in the suburban hoods. You should also consider the transit oriented development in the suburban hoods of Portland, it feels really great

I don't think I've ever ridden transit that had sponsored announcements

Love to see more US west-coast rail videos! Especially NW (Portland&Seattle) train content. And I love that this is footage of you physically riding the transit.

It’s simple. I see a TAA notification, and I watch TAA.

The WES regional rail line in suburban Portland is actually a former interurban electric railway. However, so is much of the Blue Line, with the exception of the major tunnel into Portland. So a better way is to look at WES is as a diesel-powered LRT branch from the Blue Line.

It's kind of crazy how different the ridership is between the beginning and end of 2023 (at least to me).

I've been there long time ago,was surprised about the Skoda Cars and the phantastic Bookshop, too!

I just knew that Portland has a light rail system but I never knew too much about it. I’m glad to know that the transit system entirely goes by tri met which I think is a cool name. I’ve heard of it when I knew about the single car diesel operated trains. I’d like to ride every type of transportation in that system, including those.

Thanks for sharing, great and relaxing tour of Portland, love the city's rail system

I remember when the Orange line was first opened.

If your still in the PDX area or will be again - let me know!!! I am a TriMet bus operator and always carry TriMet swag with me!

It’s weird (yet common) to couple high floor and low floor light rail vehicles together!

They've been repainting all the max trains over the last few months. By the time you visit again we might have the whole fleet (except the type 1's) all repainted in blue and orange

4:44, i wish! they're still running the type 1's!

The white, blue and yellow livery reminds me of Metronom Eisenbahngessellschaft in Germany

cool video! i was always so confused why the orange line exists

Thanks for explaining Portland's light rail system (systems?). When I last visited Portland, I was amazed by the five quarters that the street numbering system has (no light rail yet). I thought that was complicated enough! Great job Thom and Lindsey!

I have not watched the video yet but is one and it should be called the yellow line

Well technically there’s another. The red and Blue line pretty much occupy the same track line too. The red line (which would go out east to the PDX airport) is now extended western to connect to the Hillsboro Airport. Very close to being the same line

Oh man.. had you crossed the rail/bike bridge there's a fantastic little railroad museum. Also really good pizza across the street from that. Also where'd you get the chicken sando from? My favorite is the ruben goose hollow inn.

1:40 looks like the train on Madrid’s C-9, which is meter gauge and serves a ski town called Cotos

In my country (the Netehrlends), there is a simular situation in The Hague, where tram routes 15 & 16 are operated as a single line

also another reason for this is that when new light rail lines are being built the federal government gives more money to help fund those projects than light rail extensions, so that also factored into it slightly'

Great video sir.

You gotta do a video on the Washington Park station next time you're in town.

Ahh dude, some of your video content is like a HUGE nostalgia trip. A quick summary of my life: I grew up in Southern California, visited the Bay Area in 1974 and rode the cable cars, then in 1978 went back and rode the BART from Hayward to Powell St. in the city (both times with my parents). I was 8 years old and amazed that we were in a train that went under the bay (MIND BLOWN). Years later in 1996 I got a job back in the Bay Area. I lived in Berkeley for a year and rode the BART to S.F. then rode the Caltrain to the Belmont stop, then I moved to San Mateo and rode the Caltrain to Santa Clara. (in the interim I moved to Chicago for a brief year and half as a contractor and rode Metra and the El on the weekends). I ended up in Portland in 2004, and my company gave me a annual TriMet pass, so I rode the MAX almost every day up until the pandemic. When my kids were little I'd take them into town every weekend and we'd ride the streetcar. When the (edit) aerial tramway and the WES first opened I took the kids and we rode the thing back and forth for free. I could go on and on about my train adventures, but you're already experiencing that stuff! NICE!!! Keep up the travels!

I enjoyed the video👍👍

I’m curious what my city is going to do in the future with the new line/ extension dilemma. They are currently working on building a new line 5. Since it’s part of a masterplan, there’s even already a line 6, so they seem to plan on using this number and the project is always referred to as line 5. But from everything I’ve read it’s planned to be operated as an extension of line 4. Currently the lines 3 and 4 terminate at central station and line 5 would also terminate there coming from the opposite side. The way the turnaround loop is set up I don’t think it would even be possible for the line to turn around. So I’m curious if they’ll do the same thing and have the trams change number at the central station or scrap the „line 5“ name at the end and just call it line 4.

Love it when channels like yours show case our transit! I like the history you presented which included some things I didn’t know. Hope you get the chance to come back again! Cheers!

That's interesting. "RMTransit" has today publicated a video about Portland Transit too.

i know something similar. in taipei, when the tamsui line opened, it was in two separate lines: Tamsui-Xindian (Green), and Beitou-Nanshijiao (Yellow). After 2004 (i don’t know the exact date), both lines were changed to be colored red north of Guting station, so if you were traveling from Taipei Main to Xindian, before Guting you would be on the red line but after Guting you would be on the green line. After 2014 the extension of the green line to songshan opened, ending that monstrosity of the Tamsui line, which was renamed to Tamsui-Xinyi line as an extension of that line to taipei-101 and xiangshan which had opened in the same year served xinyi anhe station.

I just began watching this channel (first your video from Mexico, and then this one), and I found your videos quite informative! Now, I know why the Yellow Line and the Orange Line in Portland is labeled as two "separate" lines, but runs as one: branding! Thanks for the videos! I'll subscribe!

Glad to see more Portland transit videos!! I’ve walked past that hostel and been curious about it, it’s in my favourite part of town, definitely a good place to stay.

I have stayed at Northwest hostel many times. Very nice

Though it's pretty gentrified and whiter now, North Portland and the Yellow Line corridor is the historic core of the African-American community in Portland. The areas to the south and along the Orange line are much wealthier and historically white.

You're right, marketing is everything.

Depends if the line is the actual line or the trains themselves or a bit of both.In many metros you get joint running on part of the system usually the centre of it .I suppose the beginning/end are what makes a line so if they don't share a beginning/end then you could regard them as separate lines although even then you have the problem of branches off the main line.

Interesting my guy!

I've actually seen these engines in person (I think it's lovely how the older models run alongside newer ones instead of being immediately ditched) and somehow missed out on that one streetcar with a pride flag.

“Probably the best bridge in the country.” 😊

Assume they remain two separate lines until the city can get money for the southwest extension.

and we're STILL waiting on the Type 1s to be retired.

A bit of history from someone who lives in Portland. Lightrail lines represent a very small minority of all public transit in Portland, yet costs orders of magnitude more to intstall than simply operating bus systems. The introduction of the yellow line was also opposed with good reason; Interstate Avenue lost two travel lanes with the introduction of that line, creating a very serious travel chokepoint which has only been exacerbated by population increases in the intervening years. Likewise, the Tillikum Crossing bridge cost over $100 million to build, was paid for in large part by (federal) taxpayer funds, and represents a depressingly poor percentage of overall ridership. While it does offer an alternative route across the Willamette River, the reality is that Portland desperately needs more auto infrastructure, prioritized publicly to at least the same level as public transit.

"Local news can only report on what people say and not what's in their souls."

Remembering what that other guy said about Muni Metro's looks... I'm going to see, we got nothing on Portland. 😁

So one fun thing you can do transit wise in PDX is going all the way to Mt Hood via transit. Take the blue line to Gresham then take the Tri Met bus to Sandy and hop on the Mt Hood express bus to Timberline Lodge. You'll also notice the Mt Hood bus has a huge bike trailer on the back during summer and they pick up a bunch of mountain bikers in Rhododendron, that's because there is a 15 mile long downhill bike trail running through the forest from Timberline Lodge to Rhododendron.

Also numerous Oslo tram routes change their number and carry on through. 2 of my cousins independently found their way to Portland a good while ago, so MAX has been on my radar ever since - thanks for your sensitive handling of the topic \m/

There is a reason why Happy Valley has such limited transit connection and it absolutely does relate to racism. A pattern of "I don't want the crime train here" often stems from retirees or those who don't want a certain group of people being able to freely move in and out of town without a personal vehicle. Its so unfortunate because the orange and green line could've been built as far as oregon city and connect up together there but we can't have that over a few people that never stepped on a train in their life.

I ride the orange line all the time!

Where are you going next? Should I expect some rural/regional transit systems with a lot of Gilligs?

What type of train is type 1? I have never seen that one

It's the racism. The south side didn't want to be associated with the traditionally black, latino and poor-white neighborhoods along Interstate Ave.

"Yorrange line."

Thanks for showing the very same station where I was assaulted last week. As I was trying to get off the train at Union Station a guy turned around, threatened to beat me up, spat directly in my face, then blocked the door telling me to get off the f-ing train so he could kick my ass. This was right in front of three Tri-met employees, the ones wearing day-glow jackets who go around the train checking people to make sure they haven't overdosed on Fentanyl. They told me they couldn't do anything to help me and I waited 40 minutes but the police never showed up.

orange line ridership being lower than the other lines is probably the long tail of NIMBYs crying about the "crime train" they cut night time service for the orange line MAX and use buses instead. the plan to connect the green and orange line terminuses was cancelled decades ago, eliminating any possibility of creating an actual transit network in the suburbs. instead of alignments that go through neighborhoods where there are actual riders in the catchment area, or along main roads with business frontage, the line sneaks through back alleys in industrial areas and the stations are placed on massive stroads behind a moat of a parking lot, so good luck encouraging anyone other than commuters. and the line terminates abruptly before heading into the mcloughlin blvd corridor which has badly need improvements for many, many years now

A little surprising to see that much anti-transit sentiment in the Portland area, tbh. I mean...it's Portland.