The MAX Blue Line is a light rail line serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system, it connects Hillsboro, Beaverton, Portland, and Gresham. The Blue Line is the longest in the network; it travels approximately 33 miles (53 km) and serves 48 stations from Hatfield Government Center to Cleveland Avenue. It is the busiest of the five MAX lines, having carried an average 55,370 riders each day on weekdays in September 2018. Service runs for 221⁄2 hours per day from Monday to Thursday, with headways of between 30 minutes off-peak and five minutes during rush hour. It runs later in the evening on Fridays and Saturdays and ends earlier on Sundays.
The success of local freeway revolts in Portland in the early 1970s led to a reallocation of federal assistance funds from the proposed Mount Hood Freeway and Interstate 505 (I-505) projects to mass transit. Among various proposals, local governments approved the construction of a light rail line between Gresham and Portland in 1978. Referred to as the Banfield Light Rail Project during planning and construction as a part of the Banfield Freeway redevelopment, construction of what is now the Eastside MAX segment began in 1983. The line was inaugurated as the Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) on September 5, 1986.
Planning for an extension of MAX to the west side began as early as 1979. Known as the Westside MAX, construction was delayed by nearly a decade due to funding disagreements. Originally designed to terminate at 185th Avenue near the border of Hillsboro and Beaverton, proponents for a longer line achieved a supplemental extension to downtown Hillsboro just before groundbreaking in 1993. The Westside MAX opened in two phases following delays in tunnel construction; the first section up to Goose Hollow opened in 1997 while the rest opened on September 12, 1998.
In 2000, the two distinct segments, already operating as a single through route between Gresham and Hillsboro, were unified in passenger information as the Blue Line after TriMet introduced a color coding scheme in preparation for the opening of the Red Line to Portland International Airport. The Blue Line currently shares its route with the Red Line on the west side, between Hillsboro Airport/Fairgrounds station and Rose Quarter Transit Center. On the east side, it shares tracks with both the Red Line and the Green Line, between Rose Quarter Transit Center and Gateway/Northeast 99th Avenue Transit Center.
- ^ "Banfield Light Rail Eastside MAX Blue Line" (PDF). TriMet. July 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 9, 2018. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^ "Westside MAX Blue Line Extension" (PDF). TriMet. July 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 2, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
- ^ Altstadt, Roberta (July 24, 2019). "TriMet to make MAX service more efficient with closure of three stations in Downtown Portland in March 2020". TriMet. Archived from the original on July 24, 2019. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
- ^ "September 2018 Monthly Performance Report" (PDF). TriMet. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 22, 2019. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
LRA-1994was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Sheldrake, Arlen; et al. (2012). Steel Over the Willamette. Portland, Oregon: Pacific Northwest Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-9851207-0-2.
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