The MAX Yellow Line is a light rail service in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, United States, operated by

TriMet TriMet, formally known as the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Created in 1969 ...

as part of the

MAX Light Rail The Metropolitan Area Express (MAX) is a light rail system serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Owned and operated by TriMet, it consists of five color-designated lines that altogether connect the six sections ...

system. It connects North Portland to Portland City Center and

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades ...

(PSU) with 17 stops from

Expo Center station Expo Center is a light rail station on the MAX Yellow Line in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is the last stop northbound on the Interstate MAX extension. This station is a large park-and-ride station located on the grounds of the Portland E ...

to PSU South/Southwest 6th and College station. The line travels from

Portland Expo Center The Portland Expo Center, officially the Portland Metropolitan Exposition Center, is a convention center located in the Kenton neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States. Opened in the early 1920s as a livestock exhibition and auction facil ...

in the north, south to the

Rose Quarter The Rose Quarter is a sports and entertainment district located in Portland's Lloyd District on the east bank of the Willamette River, just east of downtown. The Rose Quarter is bounded on the west by NE Interstate Avenue, on the north by NE Broa ...

through a light rail segment along the median of Interstate Avenue. From the Rose Quarter, it crosses the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...

via the

Steel Bridge The Steel Bridge is a through truss, double-deck vertical-lift bridge across the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States, opened in 1912. Its lower deck carries railroad and bicycle/pedestrian traffic, while the upper deck carries ro ...

and enters downtown Portland, where it operates as a northbound-only service of the

Portland Transit Mall The Portland Transit Mall is a public transit corridor that travels north–south through the center of downtown in Portland, Oregon, United States. It comprises a pair of one-way streets—6th Avenue for northbound traffic and 5th Avenue for ...

on 6th Avenue. Service runs for approximately 21 hours daily with a

headway Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system measured in space or time. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise defi ...

of 15 minutes during most of the day. After failing to secure funding for the Corridor project, which would have built a light rail line between

Clackamas County Clackamas County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 421,401, making it Oregon's third-most populous county. Its county seat is Oregon City. The county was named after the Native ...

and Clark County, Washington, Portland business leaders and local residents persuaded TriMet to revive the portion of the project within North Portland. As a source of funding, the city created an

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

area, which has since been partly blamed for

gentrifying Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...

historically

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

inner-city The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists someti ...

neighborhoods. The Interstate MAX began construction in 2001 and opened on May 1, 2004, four months ahead of schedule. From 2004 to 2009, the Yellow Line ran from Expo Center station in North Portland to the Library and Galleria stations in downtown Portland. In 2009, TriMet rerouted downtown Yellow Line service to the Portland Transit Mall. Since 2015, the Yellow Line has operated as a northbound

through service A through service is a concept of passenger transport that involves a vehicle travelling between lines, networks or operators on a regularly specified schedule, on which the passenger can remain on board without alighting. It may be in form of eithe ...

of the Orange Line from PSU South/Southwest 6th and College station and has shared its transit mall alignment on 6th Avenue with the Green Line. Conversely, most southbound Yellow Line trains, which had served the other half of the mall on 5th Avenue from 2009 to 2015, operate through into the Orange Line from Union Station/Northwest 5th & Glisan Street station and terminate at

Southeast Park Avenue station Southeast Park Avenue is a light rail station on the MAX Orange Line located at Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard and Park Avenue in Oak Grove, an unincorporated area neighboring Milwaukie in Clackamas County, Oregon, in the United States. It i ...

in Milwaukie. The Yellow Line is the fourth-busiest service in the MAX system; it carried an average of 12,960 riders each weekday in September 2019.

History

Early proposals

A 1985 study by staff of the

Portland metropolitan area The Portland metropolitan area is a metro area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington centered on the principal city of Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identifies it as the Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, ...

's regional government,

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

, examined the feasibility of a light rail line from Portland across the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...

via routes alongside

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Californi ...

(I-5) or along the median of Interstate Avenue but concluded that no light rail alternative would "'pay back' within the useful life of the project". A Metro report completed the following year contrastingly noted that light rail along the corridor would be "promising". Portland city planners proposed a northside passenger rail service in 1988 as part of Portland's Central City and Albina Community plans, which sought to extend the region's then-two-year-old light rail system, the Metropolitan Area Express (MAX), via Interstate Avenue, I-5, or Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (formerly Union Avenue). While serving on the

Senate Committee on Appropriations The United States Senate Committee on Appropriations is a standing committee of the United States Senate. It has jurisdiction over all discretionary spending legislation in the Senate. The Senate Appropriations Committee is the largest committ ...

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

s Mark Hatfield of Oregon and

Brock Adams Brockman Adams (January 13, 1927 – September 10, 2004) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a member of Congress. A Democrat from Washington, Adams served as a U.S. Representative, Senator, and United States Secretary of Trans ...

of Washington combined these proposals with a greater Vancouver–Portland– Oregon City light rail plan that

(the

's regional government) separately developed, for which the committee appropriated $2 million to study in 1989. Preliminary alignment studies north to Vancouver and Clark County, including an additional proposal for a line between

Vancouver Mall Vancouver Mall is a shopping mall owned by Cenntenial Real Estate, and located in the city of Vancouver, Washington, U.S., which is within the Portland (Oregon) metropolitan area. It is anchored by Gold's Gym, H&M, JCPenney, Macy's, AMC, Hobby ...

and

Clackamas Town Center Clackamas Town Center is a shopping mall established in 1981Sorenson, Donald J. (March 7, 1981). "Clackamas Town Center opens its doors". '' The Oregonian'', p. A19. in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area, located on unincorporated land in the ...

along I-205, commenced shortly after. Metro's Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT) identified a route from Hazel Dell through

downtown Portland Downtown Portland is the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is on the west bank of the Willamette River in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found ...

to Clackamas Town Center in 1994 that TriMet formally named the " Corridor". That November, Metro asked Portland area voters if they would approve a $475 million

bond measure A municipal bond, commonly known as a muni, is a bond issued by state or local governments, or entities they create such as authorities and special districts. In the United States, interest income received by holders of municipal bonds is often, ...

to cover Oregon's portion of the project's estimated $2.8 billion cost; the measure passed by 63 percent. Across the river, Clark County officials proposed a 0.3 percent increase in

sales Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in r ...

and vehicle

excise tax file:Lincoln Beer Stamp 1871.JPG, upright=1.2, 1871 U.S. Revenue stamp for 1/6 barrel of beer. Brewers would receive the stamp sheets, cut them into individual stamps, cancel them, and paste them over the Bunghole, bung of the beer barrel so when ...

es to provide Washington's $237.5 million share; voters turned it down by 69 percent on February 7, 1995. Amid fears that ridership would not justify a North Portland segment if Clark County were excluded, JPACT scaled back the project and released a second plan that would only build the line between the

and Clackamas Town Center. To fill the funding gap that resulted from the exclusion of Clark County, the

Oregon House of Representatives The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of 65,000. The House meets in the west wing of the ...

passed a $750 million transportation package that included $375 million for the project. The

Oregon Supreme Court The Oregon Supreme Court (OSC) is the highest state court in the U.S. state of Oregon. The only court that may reverse or modify a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the Supreme Court of the United States. In February 1996, state legislators revised the package, but light rail opponents forced a statewide vote in November that ultimately prevented the use of state funds. In an effort to regain the support of North Portland residents, who had historically voted in favor of light rail, and to avoid seeking state funding, JPACT announced a third plan in February 1997 that reinstated a segment within North Portland, a line from Lombard Street to Clackamas Town Center. A few months later, the Portland City Council extended this proposed alignment through North Portland so that it would terminate another mile north of Lombard Street in Kenton. That July, Metro advanced the final

environmental studies Environmental studies is a multidisciplinary academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment. Environmental studies connects principles from the physical sciences, commerce/economics, the humanities, and social ...

for a line that would run between Kenton and Clackamas Town Center in its first phase, with a potential to extend it up to Clark County should financing be acquired. Due to the wording on the original ballot passed in 1994, which described the project extending into Clark County, regional transit agency

elected to reaffirm voter support by drafting a new $475 million bond measure. Portland area residents cast their vote on November 3, 1998, and those against the measure narrowly defeated it, 52 percent to 48 percent.

Revival and construction

In 1999, North Portland residents and city business leaders urged TriMet to revive the Corridor's northern portion but without the Clark County segment; they argued that 81 percent of

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Th ...

voters had wanted light rail. TriMet agreed and developed a proposal to build a line along the median of Interstate Avenue, between the

and the Rose Quarter. Meetings and polls conducted in June of that year determined that locals overwhelmingly supported the project, which organizers began calling the "Interstate MAX", as long as it was less expensive than the project, did not displace residents from their homes, and did not require any new taxes. The city council subsequently endorsed the proposal. TriMet projected the cost of the Interstate MAX at $350 million. To build it without the need for a significant new source of local funding, the city created an

district surrounding the alignment and adopted the Interstate Corridor urban renewal area (ICURA) plan in August 2000. This covered an expansive area within 10 neighborhoods and directed $30 million in tax increment funds towards the project. That same year, TriMet and the city completed funding the Airport MAX and

Central City Streetcar The North South Line (NS Line) is a streetcar service of the Portland Streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, United States. Operated by Portland Streetcar, Inc. and TriMet, it travels approximately per direction from Northwest 23rd & Marshall t ...

projects without requesting any

federal assistance In the United States, federal assistance, also known as federal aid, federal benefits, or federal funds, is defined as any federal program, project, service, or activity provided by the Federal government of the United States, federal government ...

; TriMet declared them part of the Interstate MAX project, providing $257.5 million in matching federal funds that the

Federal Transit Administration The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transportation systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administration ...

approved in September. TriMet and Metro contributed $38.5 million and $24 million respectively to the remaining balance, sourced from their own general transportation funds. Construction of the Interstate MAX began in February 2001 with a ceremony held near the Rose Quarter. Initial work on the line's

junction Junction may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Junction'' (film), a 2012 American film * Jjunction, a 2002 Indian film * Junction (album), a 1976 album by Andrew Cyrille * Junction (EP), by Basement Jaxx, 2002 * Junction (manga), or ''Hot ...

with the Eastside MAX, located near the east end of the Steel Bridge, required a 16-day closure of the Eastside MAX segment between

Rose Quarter Transit Center Rose Quarter Transit Center is a light rail station in the MAX system and a TriMet bus transit center, and is located in the Rose Quarter area of Portland, Oregon, a part of the Lloyd District. It is served by the Blue, Green and Red Lines. It i ...

and

Old Town/Chinatown station Old Town/Chinatown station is a MAX Light Rail station served by the Blue and Red Lines. It is located in the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood in Portland, Oregon and is currently the 6th stop eastbound on the Eastside MAX. It is also the last sto ...

, during which buses shuttled riders between the two stations. In April, TriMet contracted Stacy and Witbeck to lay tracks between the Rose Quarter and Kenton and build a new vehicular overpass in Lower Albina. Meanwhile, the agency awarded the section between Kenton and the Expo Center, which included the construction of a dual-track bridge north of Argyle Street, to F.E. Ward Constructors. The rapid pace of construction, which workers credited to improvements in track-laying and street reconstruction technology learned from previous MAX projects, hit a halfway point in April 2002. TriMet marked this milestone with a concrete pouring ceremony at the line's intersection with Portland Boulevard. Workers completed road and sidewalk improvements the following November, six months ahead of schedule. In August 2003, with construction approximately 80 percent complete, TriMet officials announced the line's targeted opening for the following spring, months earlier than the previously anticipated September commencement. Line testing began in February 2004 and continued up to the extension's inauguration.

Opening and service realignment

The Interstate MAX extension opened on May1, 2004, four months ahead of schedule and $25 million under budget. TriMet created a new MAX service called the "Yellow Line", which ran from

in North Portland to the Library and Galleria stations in downtown Portland, turning around at the 11th Avenue tracks; it followed First Avenue and Morrison and Yamhill streets upon entry into downtown, serving this segment alongside the Blue and Red lines. The Yellow Line replaced TriMet

bus route A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

5–Interstate. Over 20,000 people attended opening day celebrations, and TriMet offered free rides for two days. The presence of the line spurred redevelopment along the corridor, including new investments from Fred Meyer and

New Seasons Market New Seasons Market is a chain of privately owned grocery stores operating in the Portland, Oregon metro area, southwestern Washington, and northern California. Some of the products offered are organic and produced locally in the Pacific Northw ...

. On August30, 2009, TriMet rerouted the Yellow Line to begin serving the light rail tracks added to the rebuilt Portland Transit Mall, with the

PSU Urban Center stations The PSU Urban Center stations are light rail stations on the MAX Light Rail, MAX MAX Green Line, Green, MAX Orange Line, Orange and MAX Yellow Line, Yellow Lines in Downtown Portland, downtown Portland, Oregon, United States, located adjacent to t ...

as its interim southern termini. The agency had placed the construction of the intended PSU South termini on hold as it awaited

transit-oriented development In urban planning, transit-oriented development (TOD) is a type of urban development that maximizes the amount of residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport. It promotes a symbiotic relationship between ...

projects in the area to finish. The PSU South stations opened in September 2012. Following the completion of the Portland–Milwaukie Light Rail Project, which extended MAX to Milwaukie, the Yellow Line became partially interlined with the new Orange Line. TriMet claimed separating the lines would allow it to better control service frequencies from North Portland and Milwaukie to downtown Portland, as it expected higher ridership along the Orange Line. It also anticipated few riders from these communities traveling beyond the city center. Most Orange Line trains subsequently took over operating the southbound 5th Avenue segment of the transit mall on September12, 2015.

Proposed extension to Clark County, Washington

Interstate Bridge in 1917, Streetcar Northbound

Passenger rail service once operated between Portland and Vancouver. In October 1888, the Portland and Vancouver Railway Company opened a

steam dummy A steam dummy or dummy engine, in the United States and Canada, was a steam locomotive enclosed in a wooden box structure made to resemble a railroad passenger coach. Steam dummies had some popularity in the first decades of railroading in the U. ...

line and called it the Vancouver line. Its tracks initially ran from the corner of First and Washington streets in downtown Portland north to

Hayden Island Hayden Island is an island in the Columbia River between Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The wide main channel of the Columbia (and the Washington–Oregon state line) passes north of the island. To the south, sheltered by the islan ...

, where Vancouver-bound passengers transferred to a

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

to continue across the Columbia River. The line was

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

in 1892 following its acquisition by the Portland Consolidated Street Railway. The first

Interstate Bridge The Interstate Bridge (also Columbia River Interstate Bridge, I-5 Bridge, Portland-Vancouver Interstate Bridge, Vancouver-Portland Bridge) is a pair of nearly identical steel vertical-lift, Parker through-truss bridges that carry Interstate 5 ...

, built in 1917, finally extended the tracks across the river and replaced the ferry service. The Vancouver line remained operational as part of the

Portland Railway, Light and Power Company The Portland Railway, Light and Power Company (PRL&P) was a railway company and electric power utility in Portland, Oregon, United States, from 1906 until 1924.Thompson, Richard M. (2006). ''Portland's Streetcars'', pp. 57 and 99. Arcadia Publis ...

until its closure in September 1940. Regional planners in Oregon considered restoring rail service to Vancouver in 1974, when TriMet proposed a light rail line at the same time Governor

Tom McCall Thomas Lawson McCall (March 22, 1913 January 8, 1983) was an American statesman, politician and journalist in the state of Oregon. A Republican, he was the state's thirtieth governor from 1967 to 1975. A native of Massachusetts, McCall grew up t ...

's task force studied options for allocating

funds diverted from the canceled

Mount Hood Freeway The Mount Hood Freeway is a partially constructed but never to be completed freeway alignment of U.S. Route 26 and Interstate 80N (now Interstate 84), which would have run through southeast Portland, Oregon. Related projects would have contin ...

project. Then in 1984, a bi-state

advisory committee An advisory board is a body that provides non-binding strategic advice to the management of a corporation, organization, or foundation. The informal nature of an advisory board gives greater flexibility in structure and management compared to th ...

revisited the concept, envisioning 8,000 commuters from Clark County by the year 2000. Both proposals were shelved due to feasibility issues and a lack of funding. Following the project's initial defeat, planning for a separate North Portland to Clark County segment continued. New studies were conducted to evaluate the feasibility of a light rail-only bridge or tunnel, while other studies suggested light rail on a third vehicular bridge, an idea that had been considered since the late 1980s. An environmental study released in February 1998 for the project's third iteration included an option for a low bridge with a lift span, but a decision was made to reserve the option for a later phase. In 2004, Oregon and Washington began efforts to replace the Interstate Bridge, citing the bridge's declining structural integrity and worsening congestion. This culminated in the Columbia River Crossing project in 2008. The project would have replaced the bridge and extended MAX further north from the Expo Center through Hayden Island and across the Columbia River to downtown Vancouver and

Clark College Clark College is a public community college in Vancouver, Washington. With 11,500 students, Clark College is the largest institution of higher education in southwest Washington. Founded in 1933 as a private two-year junior college, Clark Colleg ...

, adding seven new stations along of new track. Planners projected the extension to cost upwards of $3.5 billion (equivalent to $ in dollars). In June 2013, three months after the Oregon Legislature authorized $450 million in state funding, the

Washington State Senate The Washington State Senate is the upper house of the Washington State Legislature. The body consists of 49 members, each representing a district with a population of nearly 160,000. The State Senate meets at the Legislative Building in Olympi ...

declined to fund Washington's share, with opponents citing the inclusion of light rail as a common reason for rejecting the proposal. The states terminated the project in March 2014. A light rail extension into Clark County remains part of Metro's 2018 Regional Transportation Plan for 2040. The plan assumes a cost of $4.1 billion for the entire project, of which $3.1 billion would be used to replace the Interstate Bridge, $80 million to build a second bridge connecting Hayden Island to Portland Expo Center, and $850 million for the remainder of the extension. The

Southwest Washington Southwest Washington is a geographical area of the U.S. state of Washington, encompassing roughly half of Western Washington. It generally includes the Olympia area southwards to the Oregon-Washington state line at Vancouver. Olympia, the state c ...

Regional Transportation Council also includes the light rail corridor in their own 2040 plan.

Route

The Yellow Line serves the Interstate MAX segment. It begins at Expo Center station, which occupies the east end of the Portland Expo Center parking lot. From there, the line heads south following Expo Road. At Delta Park/Vanport station, it become elevated as part of a viaduct, which crosses over Victory Boulevard, Interstate Avenue, the

Columbia Slough The Columbia Slough is a narrow waterway, about long, in the floodplain of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Oregon. From its source in the Portland suburb of Fairview, the Columbia Slough meanders west through Gresham and Portland to ...

, and Columbia Boulevard and ends at a

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

on Argyle Street. Just south of Kenton/North Denver Avenue station, the tracks enter the median of Interstate Avenue and proceed south towards Interstate/Rose Quarter station at the Rose Quarter. The Interstate MAX ends where it connects with the Eastside MAX segment near the east end of the Steel Bridge. Yellow Line trains continue west across the Willamette River and into downtown Portland via the Glisan Street ramp. A wye just south of

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

splits the double-tracks to establish the northern end of the Portland Transit Mall on 5th and 6th avenues. On the Portland Transit Mall, southbound Yellow Line trains operate through into the Orange Line bound for Milwaukie at Union Station/Northwest 5th & Glisan station on 5th Avenue. Conversely, Yellow Line trains serve the northbound 6th Avenue segment as through-routed continuations of the Orange Line from PSU South/Southwest 6th and College station alongside Green Line trains. Near PSU Urban Center/Southwest 6th & Montgomery station, MAX tracks cross with the

Portland Streetcar The Portland Streetcar is a streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, that opened in 2001 and serves areas surrounding downtown Portland. The NS Line runs from Northwest Portland to the South Waterfront via Downtown and the Pearl District. The L ...

, which serves a stop on Mill Street. Between the

Pioneer Courthouse The Pioneer Courthouse is a federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, United States. Built beginning in 1869, the structure is the oldest federal building in the Pacific Northwest, and the second-oldest west of the Mississippi River. Along with ...

and

Pioneer Courthouse Square Pioneer Courthouse Square, also known as Portland's living room, is a public space occupying a full city block in the center of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Opened in 1984, the square is bounded by Southwest Morrison Street on ...

at Pioneer Courthouse/Southwest 6th station, the 6th Avenue MAX line intersects with east–west MAX lines on Yamhill and Morrison streets, facilitating a transfer to the

Pioneer Square South and Pioneer Square North stations Pioneer Square South and Pioneer Square North are a pair of light rail stations in Portland, Oregon, United States, served by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system. Situated directly west of the Portland Transit Mall on the perimeter of P ...

. The line continues northward, entering Northwest Portland after passing

Burnside Street Burnside Street is a major thoroughfare of Portland, in the U.S. state of Oregon, and one of a few east–west streets that runs uninterrupted on both sides of the Willamette River. It serves as the dividing line between North Portland and South ...

, eventually reaching the north end of the transit mall at Union Station/Northwest 6th and Hoyt station. From its opening in 2004 until 2009, the Yellow Line followed the Eastside MAX alignment from the east end of the Steel Bridge to the 11th Avenue tracks in downtown Portland, serving the stations from to Library and Galleria alongside Blue and Red line trains. It was rerouted to the Portland Transit Mall in August 2009 after the addition of light rail to 5th and 6th avenues.

Stations

PSU South - 6th & College MAX station, in Portland, Oregon

The Interstate MAX segment consists of ten stations from Expo Center to Interstate/Rose Quarter. Of these stations, seven occupy the median of Interstate Avenue, which gives the segment its name. The Yellow Line is the only service that operates along the Interstate MAX. It also serves seven stations in downtown Portland along the northbound segment of the Portland Transit Mall on 6th Avenue, and these are shared with the Green Line. Transfers to the Orange Line, which runs southbound from Union Station in downtown Portland to

in Oak Grove, can be made at any of the seven stations along the transit mall's 5th Avenue alignment, although most southbound Yellow Line trains operate through into the Orange Line. Riders may transfer to the Blue and Red lines by detraining at Pioneer Courthouse/Southwest 6th station and boarding at the Pioneer Square stations, and to the Blue, Green, and Red lines by detraining at Interstate/Rose Quarter station and boarding at Rose Quarter Transit Center. Other connections include

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

near Union Station/Northwest 6th & Hoyt station, the Portland Streetcar at PSU Urban Center/Southwest 6th & Montgomery station,

Frequent Express Frequent Express (FX) is a high-capacity bus route in Portland, Oregon, United States, operated by TriMet as FX2–Division. The line runs east–west from 5th & Hoyt station on the Portland Transit Mall in downtown Portland to Cleveland Par ...

(FX) along the Portland Transit Mall, and local and

intercity bus service An intercity bus service (North American English) or intercity coach service (British English and Commonwealth English), also called a long-distance, express, over-the-road, commercial, long-haul, or highway bus or coach service, is a public tr ...

s at several stops across the line.

Service

As of May 2019, the Yellow Line operates for approximately 21 hours per day with the first northbound train arriving at Interstate/Rose Quarter station at 4:15 am as a through service of the Blue Line. The first southbound train departs Expo Center station for Union Station/Northwest 5th and Glisan at 5:03 am, where most trains continue as Orange Line services bound for

in Milwaukie. The first northbound train from PSU South/Southwest 6th and College departs for the Expo Center station at 5:05 am; end-to-end travel takes approximately 35 minutes. In the evenings, select southbound trains turn into eastbound Blue Line trains at Interstate/Rose Quarter station and continue on to Ruby Junction/East 197th Avenue station in Gresham, while other trains proceed along the Portland Transit Mall as part of the Green Line, terminating at PSU South/Southwest 5th and Jackson. The last northbound train departs PSU South station at 12:21 am and the last southbound train departs Expo Center station at 1:04 am. TriMet designates the Yellow Line as a "Frequent Service" route, running on a

of 15 minutes during most of the day, which extends up to 30 minutes in the early morning and late evening hours.

Ridership

The Yellow Line is the fourth-busiest MAX service, averaging 12,960 riders on weekdays in September 2019, down from 13,170 for the same month in 2018. Ridership projections in 2003, several months before the line's opening, expected 13,900 passengers per day during the line's first few years, growing to 20,000 daily passengers by 2020. For the 2015 fiscal year, the Yellow Line recorded 4.9 million total boardings, down from 5.4 million recorded in 2012. The drop in ridership, experienced systemwide, is attributed to crime and to lower-income riders being forced out of the inner city by rising housing prices.

Impact of urban renewal

The presence of the Interstate MAX and its accompanying ICURA plan has been partly blamed for

historically

Portland neighborhoods. In an analysis conducted by ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'' on the

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...

, approximately 10,000

people of color The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...

have left Portland's Central City between 2000 and 2010. Of this number, 8,400 had lived in inner North and Northeast Portland neighborhoods. According to another report by the Portland Housing Bureau, neighborhoods around Interstate Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard were the only areas in Portland that experienced double-digit percentage declines in minority population from 2000 to 2013. During the same period, the Interstate Corridor gained more than 13,000 new white and non-Hispanic residents. The 2000-adopted ICURA plan had outlined policies to prevent the displacement of existing residents—such as ensuring that

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on affo ...

would be top priority—that the

Portland Development Commission Prosper Portland, formerly the Portland Development Commission (PDC), is the community development corporation A community development corporation (CDC) is a not-for-profit organization incorporated to provide programs, offer services and engage ...

(PDC) later eliminated. Amid mounting pressure from the community, the PDC began setting aside 30 percent of the urban renewal funds for affordable housing in 2006. The PDC amended the ICURA plan in July 2011, expanding its boundaries to and 17 neighborhoods. In 2016, the city allocated a budget of $52 million to help pay for housing projects within the urban renewal area and devised a housing plan referred to as the "preference policy", which offered a way for affected residents to stay or return to their neighborhoods.

Explanatory notes

References

External links

* * {{featured article 2004 establishments in Oregon Yellow Line Rail lines in Oregon Railway lines opened in 2004