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Portland Orange Line opening date announced
As a four-decade resident of Portland, I’ve watched TriMet go against the wishes of taxpayers time after time expanding the very costly and inefficient Max system. It may be fun for a tourist to ride Max (once they figure out how to buy and validate a ticket from TriMet’s trouble-plagued ticketing system), but the system has been a financial disaster for residents, most of whom must use some other form of transportation to get to/from Max. TriMet’s labor contracts will ultimately bankrupt the agency. Their attempted solution is to simultaneously raise payroll taxes, reduce bus service, and increase fares.
The last paragraph of this article hints at the typical Portland greenie social engineering at its finest, force taxpayers to build the first new major bridge over the Willamette River in the last forty years, but deny them use of that bridge if they have the audacity to use a private motor vehicle! Of course, taxpayers were not allowed to vote on expanding Max or building the bridge, because they might have voted NO!
This is NOT progress.
Jerry is correct about Tri-Met’s labor and retirement benefits potentially ruining the agency. (In Oregon, that is true of almost any public agency including schools, county governments, fire/police, etc).
However, I have to disagree about the usefulness of MAX. I live outside of Portland, but rarely bring my own vehicle when doing business in Portland.
Last fall I had convention meetings downtown, but found the best deal on a hotel out at the Airport. Max reliably took me to and from my meetings.
As oil again seems determined to stay above $100/ barrel, cities need more energy efficient ways of transportation if they hope to remain competitive in the 21st century.
As a Portland tourist I can truthfully say that I had no problem buying tickets for and riding TriMet. Beats the heck out of renting a car and then driving and parking in a strange city. In fact TriMet is a major reason for vacationing in Portland.