Imagine! With this technology a light rail disruption would only be a minor inconvenience cause they could just take the train right onto the street!
#trimet could hook 5 of these together per train and the light rail disruptions would be a thing of the past pic.twitter.com/6YGb0BGbeQ
— AL M (@AlYourPalster) August 1, 2014
Even worse, TriMet could have implemented something like this for dirt cheap between Portland and Gresham, using the Portland Traction Company (which is now the Springwater Trail Corridor). Instead of building a massively new, overbuilt light rail line, we could have used the original interurban line between the two cities, that wasn't even abandoned until the early 1990s (and in fact, it was used to deliver some of the original MAX cars to Ruby Junction).
ReplyDeleteYes, the track would have needed upgraded and replaced, but instead of spending hundreds of millions at one time it could have been done over the course of years (while providing service).
The problem is that TriMet is so enamoured with the megaproject, that it would rather wait for a billion dollars to show up, instead of smaller, incremental improvements to service.
The Springwater Corridor is not a good transit route or else it might be one today. It doesn't make sense to go south to the edge of Milwaukie to get to Gresham. And a lot of the land along it is either wetlands or industrial, which isn't a strong ridership base.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, the line couldn't serve any locations along the Banfield, which was the purpose of the MAX line.