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Portland opens new streetcar line to controversy, difficulties
It would help if Portland’s streetcars had dedicated right-of-ways simular to light rail. Therefore, blocked passages can be averted due to parked motor vehicles and traffic gridlock.
Granted that the accessibility ramps should be height-adjustable for just such a reason, I am still amazed at the number of city drivers who don’t realize that springs compress under load and have to ask their passengers to exit while they move the car away from the curb so they can close the doors without scraping the sidewalk!
These people who are in charge of planning these things tell us they can see the "big"picture. Ordinary people like us can’t even begin to comprehend things like this, we are told!!
So TRI-MET is building a line to Milwaukie OR…
Can anybody say “Portland Traction”?
So far United Streetcar has had very little to do with the new east Side line. The lead construction contractor (as ever) which was so efficient in installing the entire extension is the estimable Stacy & Witbeck. We need to wonder why United Streetcar, which as had several years experience as a licensee builder for the Czech Republic-based Skoda is woefully behind schedule now that it has gone “independent.” Portland’s newest cars are to be delayed until December, and those for Phoenix and Washington DC until January and March 2013. This is serious and suggests that United Streetcar has extremely poor leadership and has too great an edge with the federal government. Not that I decry the feds’ involvements and fiscal encouragement, but a builder has to be qualified to handle an order start to finish. We have seen this same nonsense with Colorado’s defunct Rader Railcar that built TriMet’s extremely troublesome DMUs and couldn’t even deliver those without TriMet taking over the company long enough to ensure delivery before the factory closed down for good.
Additionally, having ridden the new East Side line the other day, it needs some major attention toward diredcting unfamiliar riders to their on-foot destinations (audio announcements are incomplete and not well written) while the curbside tickets machines are needlessly complex, arcane and don’t take cash!
So far United Streetcar has had very little to do with the new east Side line. The lead construction contractor (as ever) which was so efficient in installing the entire extension is the estimable Stacy & Witbeck. We need to wonder why United Streetcar, which as had several years experience as a licensee builder for the Czech Republic-based Skoda is woefully behind schedule now that it has gone “independent.” Portland’s newest cars are to be delayed until December, and those for Phoenix and Washington DC until January and March 2013. This is serious and suggests that United Streetcar has extremely poor leadership and has too great an edge with the federal government. Not that I decry the feds’ involvements and fiscal encouragement, but a builder has to be qualified to handle an order start to finish. We have seen this same nonsense with Colorado’s defunct Rader Railcar that built TriMet’s extremely troublesome DMUs and couldn’t even deliver those without TriMet taking over the company long enough to ensure delivery before the factory closed down for good.
Additionally, having ridden the new East Side line the other day, it needs some major attention toward diredcting unfamiliar riders to their on-foot destinations (audio announcements are incomplete and not well written) while the curbside tickets machines are needlessly complex, arcane and don’t take cash!
The front of that trolley looks like a ‘smiley face’!
The front of that trolley looks like a ‘smiley face’!
Mayor Sam Adams is an example of “the kind of trash we have to deal with every day” from politicians whether in Portland Oregon or Portland Maine. $75 million of federal taxpayers hard earned money being used for a streetcar for commuters in Portland Oregon. Let them pay for it themselves if they want it and let the rest of us keep more of our paychecks.
This streetcar certainly had an overwhelming opening day success, and Portland is well ahead of the game in most major growing cities in developing transporatiom.
For folks like Jeff who do not properly understand transportation issues, I’ll be glad to give him an earfull on docksprings, since I’ve worked many years in the traukcing industry, and what he’s talking about is not so perfect either. Size, weight, wheel location, bridge length on the vehicle have a lot ot play in getting those things right, as well as what kind of surface it’s on.
on saturday
last time I checked Saturday is a proper noun and is supposed to be capitalized
What a piece of junk of a train. They can’t even design it properly so a wheel chair ramp can cover the space between the rail car and the platform? So I will tell you how to do it. Go and check out any modern warehouse with hydraulic self leveling dock bridge plates. Those things have about a foot of travel from center and will handle any truck or trailer of standard height. For $148+ million, half paid for by the rest of the country’s taxpayers, you would think these government workers could figure out that much. But then, we are talking about government workers. I suppose I shouldn’t expect much from the welfare sector. After all, if they screw up royally, they still get paid for life, unlike the private sector.
A couple of points… The bridge plates would work properly under normal loading. Perhaps they could have practiced fully loading the cars during the trials but in any case, they are unlikely to have the same conditions occur again.
Second, the cars are not built by government workers. It is the private sector that designed the cars (in the Czech Republic and in the US) and a private US company that builds the cars.
Kudos to Portland Streetcar and United Streetcar for the successful completion of the new line.
Portland is a forward thinking community in regard to public transportation. It has to be since driving through downtown on a Sunday proved to be a nightmare.
I am not surprised that Mr. Craghead’s article began with the negatives and ended with the positives. That fits the style he has exhibited in writing for Carstens.
A few hiccups, but this will be a great addition to Portland’s lightrail system. I’ll be riding this very line when I’m visiting Portland in six weeks. Remember that the current southern terminus of the Orange line is also the stop for the new Oregon Rail Heritage Roundhouse!