User:Truflip99/sandbox/Archive 2

Background and partnership agreement
While revisiting the initial designs of Interstate 205 in 1975, Portland city planners led by Chief Transportation Planner Doug Wright recommended downsizing the freeway to include a right-of-way for future transit, later fulfilled as the I-205 Transitway. In 1979, newly-established regional governing body, Metro, adopted an urban growth boundary, and, in the following year, drafted a Regional Transportation Plan proposing the construction of a light rail system in the Portland metropolitan area. During the construction of the Banfield light rail in the mid-1980s, regional transit plans called for an eventual extension to Portland International Airport, although anticipated to be built decades into the future.

In the late-1990s, Portland International Airport became one of the fastest growing airports in the United States. Air passenger traffic more than doubled from six million passengers in 1990 to 14 million in 2000. Anticipating this growth, the Port of Portland embarked on a 20-year, $300 million airport expansion project in November 1991. Built in phases, the project expanded the airport's main terminal and provisioned for a light rail station near the baggage claim area. However, by 1994, parking lots operated at 90 percent capacity as projections failed to meet the surge in demand. Growing traffic near the terminal also became a problem, prompting the Port to fast-track its master plan and seek alternative solutions to alleviate congestion. Meanwhile, Tri-Met had been preoccupied with the construction of the Westside MAX, and had plans to build the North-South line before it would consider extending light rail to the airport.

In 1997, Bechtel submitted an unsolicited proposal to design and build the extension. A tentative agreement primarily between Bechtel and the Port was reached in December for the company to fund a portion of the line in exchange for development rights to the 120 acre Portland International Center. Led by officials from the city of Portland, Metro, Trimet, the Port, and Bechtel, a decision was made to speed up the project by excluding Federal Transit Administration funds, instead pursuing a public-private partnership.

To be used

 * http://www.transportation-finance.org/pdf/funding_financing/funding/local_funding/Airport_Max_Case_Study.pdf

WES
The WES Commuter Rail (for Westside Express Service) is a commuter rail line near Portland, Oregon, United States. Owned by TriMet and operated by Portland and Western Railroad (P&W), it serves five stations across the cities of Beaverton, Tigard, Tualatin, and Wilsonville. The line spans 14.7 mi and travels along the western side of Oregon Highway 217 and a segment of Interstate 5 on a north to south route. The WES operates on weekdays during morning and evening rush hours on a 30-minute headway. In May 2018, it carried an average 1,590 riders. The line connects to the Blue and Red lines of MAX Light Rail at Beaverton Transit Center.

Planned since the mid-1990s, passenger rail service opened in February 2009. From the start of the first serious discussions of the idea, it took thirteen years and $166 million to get WES operational.

Yellow Line lead
The MAX Yellow Line is a light rail line that is part of the MAX Light Rail system in Portland, Oregon, United States. The 7.6 mi line, which is owned and operated by TriMet, runs north–south from the Portland Expo Center to the southern end of Portland State University, connecting North Portland to Portland City Center. Also referred to as the Interstate MAX, it serves 17 stations, ten of which are located on an exclusive, 5.8 mi segment that predominantly occupies the median of North Interstate Avenue, traveling bidirectionally from Expo Center to Interstate/Rose Quarter. The remaining seven stations sit on the Southwest 6th Avenue alignment of the Portland Transit Mall, a 1.8 mi single-track line which the Yellow Line shares with the Green Line and on which, since 2015, it has run northbound as a through service of the Orange Line from PSU South/Southwest 6th and College Street to Union Station/Northwest 6th & Hoyt Street. Conversely, most southbound Yellow Line trains, which had served the other half of the mall on Southwest 5th Avenue, through operate into the Orange Line from Union Station/Northwest 5th & Glisan Street to Southeast Park Avenue in Milwaukie. The Yellow Line is the fourth-busiest in the MAX system, carrying an average 13,270 daily weekday riders in May 2018.