[PRCo] Re: Portland Green Line

[Edward H. Lybarger]

22 mph isn't so bad when you figure that a New York express train does maybe
17 or 18.  You have to look at the number of stops and the dwell time, which
has increased most places because of the need to accommodate the handicapped
patrons.

Ed

-----Original Message-----
From: pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org
[mailto:pittsburgh-railways-bounce at lists.dementia.org] On Behalf Of Joshua
Dunfield
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 6:40 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Portland Green Line

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.