User:Truflip99/sandbox/History of MAX Light Rail

Early beginnings


At the height of local freeway revolts in the 1970s, state and local governments and agencies began studying "transitways" for the use of funds made available by the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973. These funds had been intended for the Mount Hood Freeway and I-505 projects, which were abandoned amid strong opposition from the Portland city government and neighborhood associations. In 1973, Governor Tom McCall assembled a task force that helped determine alternative mass transit options, including busways and light rail lines. Two years later, the Columbia Region Association of Governments (CRAG) announced an interim transportation plan that envisioned a pair of light rail lines from Portland to Oregon City and Lents, and busways for other corridors. In 1976, the Portland City Council approved the completion of Interstate 205 (I-205) with a busway component, pressing TriMet to prioritize the development of the Banfield Transitway, a stretch of I-84 that connected downtown Portland with I-205, with plans originally favoring another busway.

Following a cost and ridership assessment that concluded carpool lanes and buses would be more cost effective, the Oregon Department of Transportation eliminated light rail from further consideration. This move led to a protest from Multnomah County and TriMet to conduct its own light rail study. In 1977, CRAG reinstated light rail as one of six alternatives in an environmental impact statement. The proposal became known as the Banfield light rail project upon TriMet's approval in September 1978. Construction of the 15.3 mi, 27-station route between 11th Avenue in downtown Portland and Cleveland Avenue in Gresham began in March 1982. Inaugural service commenced on September 5, 1986. Less than two months before opening, TriMet adopted the name "Metropolitan Area Express" or "MAX" for the new line following an employee contest.



As the planning of a light rail line to the west side gained momentum in the mid-1980s, the original MAX line came to be referred to as the Eastside MAX to distinguish it from what would become the Westside MAX extension. Early proposals called for this extension to terminate just west of the Beaverton–Hillsboro city boundary on 185th Avenue in Washington County. A dispute between TriMet and the Urban Mass Transportation Administration over a financing plan suspended the project for several years but planning resumed in 1988 and studies were completed in 1991. Staunch lobbying by local and state officials led by Hillsboro Mayor Shirley Huffman forced an extension of the line further west to downtown Hillsboro in 1993. Construction of the 20-station, 18 mi line began that August with the excavation of the Robertson Tunnel.

The Westside MAX opened in two stages following delays in tunneling: the section from 11th Avenue to Kings Hill/Southwest Salmon Street was opened in 1997 and the section to Hatfield Government Center—the segment's current western terminus—was opened in 1998. The resulting 33 mi MAX line began operating as a single, through service on September 12, 1998. This service was renamed the Blue Line in 2001 after TriMet adopted color designations for its light rail routes.