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SOUTHWEST Service Enhancement Plan Final Report December 2015 Dear Reader, I am proud to present the Southwest Service Enhancement Plan, with recommendations to get you and your fellow community members where you need to go. This report provides a vision for future TriMet service in the Southwest portion of the region (for other areas, see www.trimet.org/future). The vision for future service in the Southwest Service Enhancement Plan is the culmination of many hours of meetings with our customers, neighborhood groups, employers, social service providers, educational institutions and stakeholders. Community members provided input through open house meetings, surveys, focus groups, and individual discussions. Extra effort was put into getting input from the entire community, especially youth, seniors, minorities, people with low incomes, and non-English speakers. Demographic research was used to map common trips, and cities and counties provided input on future growth areas. Lastly, TriMet staff coordinated closely with Metro’s South- west Corridor Plan process to ensure that both efforts complement one A note from another and expand transit in the southwest part of our region. TriMet The final result is a plan that calls for bus service that connects people to more places, more often, earlier, and later. The plan also recommends GeneralManager, improvements to the sidewalks and street crossings to support transit service and new community-job shuttles to serve areas that lack transit service because the demand is too low for traditional TriMet service to Neil McFarlane be economically viable. The service enhancement plans are not just visions of the future, but commitments to grow TriMet’s system. This commitment was recently bolstered by employers’ support for an increase in TriMet’s payroll tax rate. This new revenue will be used to implement recommendations from the service enhancement plans. New improvements to the system will begin in March 2016. In the following months, TriMet will be revising visions for Eastside, Southeast and North/Central Service Enhancement Plans based on data analysis and discussions with input from riders, neighborhoods, employers, social service providers, educational institutions, cities, and counties. Those visions, together with the Southwest and Westside Service Enhancement Plans, will represent a new era of growth for the TriMet system. While you read through this plan, I hope you are as excited about the future of transit in the Portland Metro Region as we are. Regards, TriMet General Manager Line 12, 43, & Orange Line MAX Rider • the Tualatin Industrial area • 72nd Avenue employment area and the Tigard Triangle • Kruse Way/Meadows Road • the Hillsboro/Beaverton employment areas Supporting Southwest Corridor: The Southwest Corridor Project is a community development project that will leverage public investments to make land use and transportation improvements in the Southwest part of the region. Led by Metro, our regional planning agency, a primary focus of the project is the develop- ment of high capacity transit connecting Portland, Tigard, and Tualatin. TriMet and Metro have closely Over the past year and a half, TriMet has engaged the coordinated on the Southwest Corridor Project and communities of Durham, King City, Lake Oswego, SW the Southwest Service Enhancement Plan. Together, Portland, Tigard, Tualatin, Sherwood, and West Linn in the projects aim to reduce congestion, improve a process to develop the Southwest Service Enhance- connections and serve those with limited ment Plan (SWSEP), a long-range vision to improve bus transportation options. service and bus stops, and to recommend pedestrian improvements. Enabling Heath, Research, Education and Job Training: Home to four hospitals (OHSU Hospital, The SWSEP outlines a future vision for transit in the Dornbecher Children’s Hospital, Shriners Children’s Southwest part of the metro region (all areas in the Hospital, and the VA Medical Center) Marquam Hill TriMet Service District south of Scholls Ferry Road to is the largest transit destination in the SWSEP study the Willamette River and not including Downtown area. With limited parking for students and employ- Portland). The vision was developed with the help ees, transit plays a vital role in facilitating access to of dozens of partner organizations (cities, counties, and from Marquam Hill. OHSU’s expansion to South business groups, social service providers, etc.), existing Watefront includes the Center for Health and transit riders, and the general public. The plan aligns Healing and the Collaborative Life Sciences Building, future improvements with current and projected with future developments still to come. needs by recommending better transit connections, improved frequency, safer pedestrian facilities, and increased access to jobs and community services. The plan also highlights opportunities to partner with local cities, Washington County and the private sector to make it easier for people to reach and use transit. The plan identifies: • near-term service enhancements that can be made with little or no additional cost • long-term service improvements and expansion when revenues allow • opportunities for partnering with public and private sectors to improve access to transit including walk- ing and biking to the bus and WES. The Sylvania campus is the largest of Portland The plan supports the Southwest communities in the Community College’s (PCC) four major campuses, following ways: serving over 26,000 students per year. Students, Getting to Work: As employment grows throughout faculty and staff from throughout the metro area the region, long gone is the day when Downtown attend PCC Sylvania. However, the campus sits atop Portland was the only concentration of jobs. While a hill, has constrained parking, and is surrounded by there will always be strong demand for fast, frequent single-family homes, creating conflicts with transit transit service to Downtown Portland, there is also operations by single-family homes, creating potential more need than ever for transit service within South- conflicts with transit operations. Yet, TriMet bus west, particularly in employment areas with a large service to the campus is well used, as is the inter- number of entry level and middle wage jobs such as: campus shuttle provided by PCC to its students. 3 Lewis & Clark College has over 5,100 students, faculty, & staff. Though most students live on campus, the college offers a free shuttle to Down- town Portland to supplement TriMet’s service to the campus. Parking at the college is currently maxed out. Communities of Tomorrow: Several areas on the edge of the region are being planned for large-scale development. These areas will accommodate future housing and employment. These areas include: • Basalt Creek: Only in the concept planning phase, Basalt Creek will host a mix of light industrial employment and residential development on vacant land between Tualatin and Wilsonville. Work will begin soon on an extension of SW 124th Avenue to Tonquin Road, which will be a catalyst for future development in the area. • River Terrace: Located west of Bull Mountain in Tigard, River Terrace will predominately be composed of single family homes with a small commercial corridor east of SW 175th Avenue. • South Cooper Mountain: Technically outside SWSEP study area, South Cooper Mountain will impact both Beaverton and Tigard significantly. The plan calls for a mix of residential and commercial development and a new Beaverton School District high school located at Scholls Ferry Road and Roy Rogers/175th Avenue. “With over 90% of our employees commuting in and out of Tualatin every day, transit will play a huge roll in reducing congestion. For the first time ever, Tualatin Sherwood road will have a new bus line starting in 2016.” — Linda Moholt, CEO, Tualatin Chamber Southwest’s Story of Commerce Transit in Southwest From early town plats centered on train stations in Tualatin, Tigard, and Lake Oswego to the Southern Pacific Red Electric interurban rail network, transit service has helped define the southwest communities for many years. Still today, transit is very much a vital part of life in this part of the region with 24 bus lines (one of which is Frequent Service; three of which are express/limited stop lines), the region’s only commuter rail line (WES), one streetcar line (NS Line), an aerial tram, four transit centers and over 2,000 TriMet-dedicated and shared-use park and ride spaces. Yet, in some ways, the transit service hasn’t changed much in Southwest. The core of the transit service was originally designed decades ago to get workers to and from the central business district with 14 of 24 bus lines and the streetcar line serving Downtown Portland and five bus lines serv- ing Marquam Hill – leaving only five bus lines and WES serving southwest communities without going to Downtown Portland or Marquam Hill. 4 Additionally, 11 bus lines and WES only operate in the morning and afternoon peak hours and don’t provide weekend service. As the region has grown, the need for all-day transit service to areas other than Downtown Portland or Marquam Hill has grown as well. Where the Jobs Are The Southwest part of the region has a diversity of job centers ranging from white collar jobs in the Kruse Way/Meadows Road and Lincoln Center areas to middle wage jobs in the Tualatin Industrial Area and the 72nd Avenue employment corridor. Southwest residents are also drawn to jobs on Marquam Hill, in Downtown Portland and the Silicon Forest. Furthermore, the area has seen significant retail job growth in Bridgeport Village, Downtown Tualatin, and Progress Ridge in addition to the long TriMet’s Future: established retail centers of Washington Square, Sherwood Town Back on Stable Center, Hillsdale, Multnomah Village, and along Barbur Boule- Financial Footing vard/Highway 99W. Finally, nearly all the communities in the In October, 2014, TriMet and southwest part of the region are actively pursuing Downtown the Amalgamated Transit development plans which will bring additional employment and vitality in Downtown communities throughout the area.