[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 80 (Wednesday, June 22, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          WESTSIDE LIGHT RAIL

                                 ______


                          HON. ELIZABETH FURSE

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 22, 1994

  Ms. FURSE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to an article 
which appeared in this month's Transit Connections magazine. Mr. 
William Middleton authored an article which appeared regarding the 
Westside Light Rail project in my district.
  Ensuring that Westside Light Rail becomes a reality has been one of 
my top priorities here in Congress. I am proud that the legislation 
passed by the House last week, H.R. 4556, includes record funding for 
the Westside project. I am equally proud that H.R. 4556 marks the 
second straight year of record funding in the House for the Westside 
Light Rail project. These funding increases are critical at this time 
because the project is at its most expensive phase of construction.
  The article, entitled ``Portland: Light Rail Helps Shape Urban 
Growth,'' clearly states why the Westside project is key to my region's 
future, and is an outstanding review of the success we have had in 
Oregon with light rail. I commend it to my colleagues' attention:

             Portland: Light Rail Helps Shape Urban Growth

                       (By William D. Middleton)

       Opened for service in September 1986, the Tri-County 
     Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon's MAX 
     (Metropolitan Area eXpress) light rail line at Portland 
     quickly established itself as another success story for 
     modern light rail transit. Rail/bus coordination is a key 
     element of that story.
       Located in the Banfield Corridor on Portland's Eastside, 
     the 15-mile line links downtown Portland with suburban 
     Gresham. MAX ridership, now at a daily average of just over 
     24,000, has consistently exceed Tri-Met's original 
     projections, and has proved to be a key tool in helping to 
     shape the kind of urban growth and development that Portland 
     wants.
       The solid success of the city's new rail line has made 
     light rail the preferred mode for a network of regional 
     transit corridors that could eventually bring MAX LRVs to 
     virtually every part of the Portland metropolitan area. 
     Construction began last year for the initial section of an 
     18-mile, $994 million Westside MAX project that should have 
     trains operating to S.W. 185th Avenue by September 1997, and 
     all the way to suburban Hillsboro by 1998. To be linked with 
     the initial Eastside line, the Westside project will create a 
     33-mile, 43-station route.
       Work began late in 1992 on a South/North Transit Corridor 
     study that is considering light rail transit for a corridor 
     of as many as 35 miles extending from Clackamas County, south 
     of Portland, through downtown Portland and across the 
     Columbia River to Vancouver, Wash. Now at the alternatives 
     analysis stage, the study could lead to a construction start-
     up as early as 1999, with a service startup around 2005. 
     Looking beyond this extensive development, the regional Metro 
     agency has identified still more light rail development.


                    For buses, a big supporting role

       Much of MAX's success is owned to an extensive 
     restructuring to Tri-Met's Eastside bus services that has 
     made light rail a ``trunk line'' route fed by a network of 
     connecting bus routes. Bus transfers are available at a 
     number of light rail stations, and major timed transfer 
     points are established at five light rail/bus transit 
     centers. At the Gateway Transit Center, for example, MAX 
     trains connect with a dozen bus line. In downtown Portland, 
     the rail line intersects the city's highly successful transit 
     mall, where connections are available with Tri-Met routes 
     serving all parts of the region.
       Portland's first LRT was only one part of a transit 
     development strategy designed to help reinvigorate downtown 
     Portland and to encourage development along transit corridors 
     (see sidebar below). Tri-Met's bus system was rebuilt into 
     one of the best in the nation, and in 1977 the city completed 
     its hugely successful 11-block downtown transit mall. Such 
     strategies as zoning restrictions on downtown parking 
     development, and the establishment of a 300-block downtown 
     ``Fareless Square,'' within which unlimited free transit 
     service was provided, helped to more than triple Portland 
     transit ridership over little more than two decades.
       In the eight years since it opened, light rail has proved 
     to be a major force in advancing the city's development 
     objectives. Since the decision to build light rail was made, 
     some seven million square feet of development valued at over 
     $9 million has been completed or is under development along 
     the MAX route, and plans for some $440 million more have been 
     announced. Almost $400 million of the development completed 
     thus far along the light rail line has been in the downtown 
     area. Portland's new convention center, completed in 1990, is 
     located in the Lloyd Center area east of downtown, adjacent 
     to a new MAX station, and a new 20,000-seat downtown Oregon 
     Arena for the NBA's Portland Trailblazers will open next year 
     on an adjacent site.


                      the tri-met articulated lrv

       Tri-Met operates with a fleet of 26 articulated vehicles 
     built by Canada's Bombardier, and outfitted with propulsion 
     equipment supplied by BBC-North America, a Brown-Boveri Corp. 
     subsidiary (now part of ABB). These are 87-foot vehicles 
     capable of accommodating a total of 211 passengers (76 seated 
     and 135 standing). Given the line's ridership success, some 
     extraordinarily heavy demands have been placed on this 
     vehicle fleet. In 1993, for example, the 26-vehicle fleet 
     operated a total of 1.56 million revenue vehicle-miles, a 
     monthly per-vehicle average of 4,650 miles that was more than 
     double the industry average for light rail vehicles. Despite 
     this intensive utilization, Tri-Met reports an availability 
     rate for the Bombardier vehicles that has ranged from 96% to 
     100% since the line opened in 1986.


                         the new westside line

       With its first light rail route up and running well, Tri-
     Met turned its attention to the development of a second major 
     route in what was perceived as a regional light rail system 
     that could help to maintain mobility in a Portland 
     metropolitan area expected to grow by half a million over the 
     next two decades. The Sunset Corridor extending west from 
     downtown Portland was a natural for rail development.
       Here, an extensive and fast-growing area of decentralized 
     commercial and suburban residential development in Washington 
     County was linked to downtown Portland by only one major 
     route, the severely congested Sunset Highway (U.S. 26) 
     through the West Hills, just west of downtown. The area that 
     would be served by the new rail route was also one with 
     significant potential for further development. This gave the 
     region an unparalleled opportunity to develop coordinated and 
     mutually supportive land use and transit planning for the 
     corridor.
       The Portland metropolitan area governments chose light rail 
     for the corridor as early as 1983, but the project did not 
     move ahead until after the initial Eastside light rail 
     project was completed. Initially, the project comprised a 12-
     mile line from downtown Portland to S.W. 185th Avenue, but 
     has since been expanded to add a six-mile extension to 
     suburban Hillsboro. The $688 million budget for this project 
     includes $516 million in 75% federal matching funds, with the 
     balance coming from a combination of Oregon lottery, Metro-
     area bond measure, and local government funds. Another $256 
     million is budgeted for the Hillsboro extension.
       The most challenging feature of the new line will be a 
     three-mile twin bore tunnel that will carry trains through 
     the West Hills, together with an underground station that 
     will link the tunnel with Washington Park.
       In downtown Portland, trackage in Jefferson and 18th 
     streets will link the tunnel's east portal with the Morrison 
     and Yamhill streets couplet used by the Eastside line to form 
     a light rail ``cross mall'' to the downtown transit mall used 
     by Tri-Met buses. Tri-Met plans to through-route the two rail 
     lines.
       West of the tunnel, the Westside line will follow the 
     Sunset Highway to a new Sunset Transit Center in Cedar Hills, 
     and then will parallel Oregon Highway 217 southward to 
     Beaverton, where it will follow a new alignment to reach the 
     existing Beaverton Transit Center and a new Beaverton Central 
     station. The initial section of the line to S.W. 185th will 
     have 13 stations, while the Hillsboro extension will add 
     another eight.
       Much like the earlier Banfield corridor project, the new 
     Westside MAX line is being built in tandem with major 
     improvements to the parallel highway system. Sunset Highway 
     interchanges will be reconstructed, a section of the highway 
     through the West Hills will get an extended westbound 
     climbing lane, and major segments of both the Sunset Highway 
     and Highway 217 will be widened to six lanes.
       Initial construction activity for the Westside line began 
     in mid-1993, while major work on the West Hills tunnel, which 
     is on the project critical path, began early this year. The 
     line's Washington Park station, located 260 feet below ground 
     on the tunnel section, will represent the deepest transit 
     station in North America. Four 30-passenger high-speed 
     elevators will be capable of getting passengers between 
     ground and platform level in only 35 seconds.
       A 200-foot platform and trackway for each tunnel will be 
     placed on a mined cavern with an internal radius of 16 feet. 
     Short passageways at 45 degree angles will provide access to 
     elevator lobbies at either end of each platform. In order to 
     minimize excavation costs, most of the station head house 
     facilities will be placed at ground level, where the 
     architects, Portland's Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, have 
     designed a station that will be integrated with a plaza and 
     outdoor amphitheater, and with entrances to the Washington 
     Park Zoo and other major visitor facilities in the park.
       Planning for the six-mile Hillsboro extension is now at the 
     final environmental impact study stage, with approval 
     anticipated shortly. As soon as an anticipated $75 million of 
     federal Section 3 funding is obtained, and an FTA letter of 
     no prejudice issued, Tri-Met expects to ``fold in'' the 
     project to the original contract with FTA. Construction 
     should start in 1995, and the extension should open late in 
     1998.
       Parsons Brinckerhoff has been the principal consultant for 
     Portland light rail development since 1980, when the firm was 
     selected to develop an alternatives analysis and draft 
     environmental impact statement for the original Banfield 
     Corridor project. Most recently, PB has been the final design 
     consultant and construction manager for the Westside project, 
     with Minneapolis-based BRW, Inc., and the Zimmer Gunsul 
     Frasca Partnership, a Portland architectural firm, as 
     principal subconsultants.


                          the south/north line

       Next on Portland's light rail agenda will be a South/North 
     line that will link suburban Clackamas County, south of 
     Portland, through downtown Portland, with the urbanized area 
     of Clark County, Washington, north of the Columbia River. 
     Depending upon the specific alignment chosen, this line could 
     be anywhere from 25 to 35 miles in length. Initial studies 
     begun several years ago considered this and an alternate 
     corridor that would have followed the north-south Interstate 
     205 corridor east of downtown Portland, with a link to 
     Portland International Airports.
       In April 1993, Oregon's Metro Council, together with 
     Washington's C-Tran Board, selected the South/North line as 
     the region's next high capacity transit corridor, and adopted 
     the single broad corridor through downtown Portland for 
     study.
       Several alternate alignments, as well as alternate 
     terminals at both ends of the route, will be studied. Oregon 
     City, Clackamas Town Center, and Milwaukee are all candidates 
     for the southern terminal, while the northern terminal could 
     be located in downtown Vancouver, Wash., or any one of three 
     alternate sites in suburban Clark County.
       ``We are taking advantage of the Westside construction 
     period,'' says Metro Service District (the regional planning 
     agency) Planning Director Andrew C. Cotugno, ``to advance the 
     south/north project through the alternatives analysis, 
     preliminary engineering, and environmental studies work, and 
     to put the funding together. When the full Westside line 
     opens in 1998, we hope to be in a position to start the 
     South/North line.''
       An alternatives analysis for the South/North corridor 
     started in 1993 should be complete by late 1995, with the 
     completion of preliminary engineering and development of a 
     final environmental impact statement to follow two years 
     later. The region hopes to have a funding contract in place 
     by 1998, with construction to start the following year. Start 
     up of Portland's third light rail route would come by about 
     2005.


                      Expansion planning continues

       Looking beyond completion of a south/north light rail line, 
     Portland area planners have identified additional high 
     capacity corridors that are likely candidates for light rail. 
     A north-south line in the Interstate 205 corridor would link 
     the Portland airport with the Eastside line at the Gateway 
     Transit Center, and with the South/North line in Clackamas 
     County.
       A second north-south line in the Highway 217 corridor west 
     of downtown Portland would link the Westside line and 
     Beaverton with the fast growing suburban communities of 
     Tigard and Tualatin, while two projected radial routes from 
     downtown Portland would also reach the latter communities. 
     Still other projected light rail additions would extend the 
     current Eastside line beyond Gresham to Troutdale, while the 
     new Westside line would be extended another seven miles 
     westward from Hillsboro to Forest Grove.

                          ____________________