[PRCo] Re: Portland Green Line

[Joshua Dunfield]

2009/9/16 richard allman <allmanr at verizon.net>:
> Guys-there is  FABULOUS on-line 80 page brochure about the new
> Portland Tri MAX Green line which I accessed via the Gogle news link
> indexed under light rail today. I think(in my 'umble opinion!) that
> Portland is far and away the best of the new LRT operations.
> Have a look and see what you think. RICH

I can't find it.  Can you post a link?

I lived in Portland for a few years (1997-2000); I've never been that
impressed with MAX.  It can't seem to decide if it's trying to be a
local streetcar system or a major rail system.  I don't think it can
be the latter until they run trains longer than two cars, but they
won't, because of street running downtown and Portland's short blocks;
and until they speed it up.

The Tri-Met website is trumpeting that it's only 39 minutes from
Clackamas TC to downtown.  By my calculation that's a whopping 22 mph
average.  And that's the fast part of the system.  *And* I'm comparing
it to the distance along I-205/I-84, rather than the crow-flies
distance.

If we accept that we can't have anything more than LRT, and that LRT
has to be slow and low-capacity, maybe MAX looks good.  But I don't
want to accept any of those things.

-j.