Portland > MAX Light Rail
Orange Line

MAX

The Green Line opened in September of 2015.

It starts in Milwaukie/Oak Grove at Park Avenue. It follows the original Portland to Oregon City Interurban Right-of-Way for little bit before heading into downtown Milwaukie. From there is parallels the Union Pacific Right-of-Way for most of it length towards OMSI, going by the Center Street shops of Trimet's bus division. Ironically the Center St Shops was the location of the shops for the old city streetcar system under Portland Traction.

The line then uses Tilikum Crossing to enter the eastside of Portland and downtown. This bridge over the Willamette is a transit, pedestrian, and bicycles only bridge. The Orange Line shares tracks with the Portland Streetcar Loop A&B lines on the bridge. Sadly there is no cross platform transfers between the streetcar and MAX, I think that is a missed opportunity. Although the transfers are not that bad with a stations only a few meters apart on each end of the bridge. The bridge trackway is also used by busses.

From the bridge the line climbs the hill to Lincoln and then joins the current Green/Yellow lines along the transit mall. The Yellow and Orange lines are through-routed. Why they didn't just call the Orange Line the Yellow southward extension, is beyond me, except for there was something political about it.

I think the Orange Line is a great line into Portland. Travel time from Milwaukie into downtown Portland is very competitive, and easily wins during rush hour.

 Orange Line Stations (see index for all stations)