The project • Beaverton Central station was sited on vacant land once occupied by a sewage treatment plant. • The MAX Blue Line between Cleveland Avenue sta- • Willow Creek/Southwest 185th Avenue was going to tion in Gresham to Hatfi eld Government Center station in be the end of the Westside line in original plans, until rap- Hillsboro is 33 miles long. The Westside line between Hills- id development in Hillsboro led to it being added to the boro and Portland City Center is 18 miles, and the Eastside project. line between City Center and Gresham is 15 miles. • The MAX Blue Line has 51 stations: 20 stations on the Public art at the stations Eastside, 15 stations in the City Center and 16 stations on the Westside. For comparison, the entire MAX system has When the MAX line was extended from downtown Port- 85 stations and more than 52 miles of track. land to Hillsboro, project staff formed a public art program • The Eastside Blue Line opened Sept. 5, 1986. The proj- MAX to oversee design and installation of art at the stations. ect created more than 13,000 jobs during its construction More than 100 art elements can be found at each of the 20 period between March 1982 and September 1986. It was a stations, honoring area history, culture and landscape. catalyst for more than $4.7 billion in development and re- • At Kings Hill/Southwest 18th Avenue station, the art- vitalization, particularly in Portland City Center and the work tells about Tanner Creek, which is buried 40 feet Lloyd District. below. A bronze goose, created by Troutdale artist Rip • The Eastside Blue Line project cost $214 million for Caswell, pays tribute to the Goose Hollow neighborhood. track construction, street paving, electrical work, stations, “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening, a graduate of the light-rail vehicles, landscaping and a maintenance opera- FACTS nearby Lincoln High School, etched a drawing of Bart tions facility. An estimated 80 cents for every dollar spent Simpson into the sidewalk along 18th Avenue. on the project remained in the local economy. Eighty per- • Artists at Washington Park station were inspired by cent of the project’s funding, or $176.3 million, came from Little known facts about geology and mining. the federal government, with state and local sources con- • The portraits on the glass at Beaverton Transit Center tributing the rest. The project is considered one of the low- express styles of waiting. est cost-per-mile rail projects in the United States. the MAX Blue Line • The phases of the moon artwork at Beaverton Central • The Westside Blue Line opened Sept. 12, 1998. Con- station symbolize change. struction took place between July 1993 and September • The artwork at Elmonica station, named for a stop on 1998 and cost $963 million. The federal government pro- the Oregon Electric Railroad, refl ects transplantation: vided 73 percent of the funds, and the rest came from state ment activities. In fi scal year 2011, TriMet issued 7,423 moving objects, plants and people from their original en- transportation funds and a local bond measure. The line warnings, 1,442 citations and 1,389 exclusions. In fi scal vironment to a new place. was a catalyst for at least $825 million in residential and year 2010, TriMet issued 10,589 warnings, 2,808 citations • Orenco Station, named for a former company town of commercial development. and 1,895 exclusions. the Oregon Nursery Co., celebrates trees and Orenco’s • Three construction-related fatalities occurred during history. Pages from a 1908 nursery catalog appear on the the building of the Westside Blue Line. TriMet reported The MAX stations glass. fi ve construction-related fatalities during construction of • Tuality Hospital station’s artwork uses the theme of the entire MAX light-rail system, the other two fatalities • The oldest MAX Blue Line station is Ruby Junction/ light, hope and healing. being on the Yellow Line and the Green Line. East 197th Avenue in Gresham, which was dedicated in • Hillsboro Central station’s artwork — a replicated • Both the Eastside and Westside projects were built on April 1984. Ruby Junction is often where MAX operators plank road, an 1870s letter on the glass, historic photos in time and within budget. switch shifts or where the trains return to the yards. the bus shelters and a weather vane recalling train signals • The newest MAX Blue Line station, Civic Drive in — refl ects the history and the future of Hillsboro. Riding the MAX Gresham, opened Dec. 1, 2010. • The twin-tube Robertson Tunnel that runs under the Naming the MAX • In the Eastside Blue Line’s fi rst year of operations, the West Hills is 3.1 miles long and has a diameter of 21 feet. MAX averaged 19,900 weekday trips. Now, MAX averages MAX trains travel through the tunnel at up to 55 mph. Originally known as the Banfi eld Transitway Project, 126,800 weekday trips. • Because its geology consisted of hard rock from lava TriMet renamed it Metropolitan Area Express, or MAX. • The MAX’s speed matches the speed limits of adjacent fl ows up to 16 million years old, layered with soft ground But how did it get its name? roads: 55 mph along Interstate 84, 35 mph along Burnside and rock fragments, the tunnel has several curves as Within a few months of the opening of its light-rail sys- Street, 25 mph in the Lloyd District and 15 mph in down- workers tried to follow the best rock conditions for drill- tem in 1986, TriMet held a contest among its employees to town Portland. ing. Work on the tunnel began in 1993, with workers bor- give it a name. The name had to be simple and it had to be • When the Blue Line opened in 1986, TriMet had a fl eet ing the tubes from both ends of the hill and meeting in the friendly. A list of 10 suggested names was compiled and of 26 MAX trains and operated 176 train trips on week- middle. However, workers ran into unexpected layers of presented to the public, who voted on the fi nal name. days. Now, the MAX fl eet of 127 trains makes 670 trips loose rock, delaying the project and escalating costs from According to a 2006 Portland Tribune article, TriMet each day on TriMet’s entire light rail system. The MAX $103 million to $184 million. Workers also had to relocate employee Jeff Frane came up with the winning entry after Blue Line makes 247 daily trips between Gresham and 14 bodies from the nearby Sunset Hills Mortuary. Wash- being inspired by a character in one of his then 1-year-old downtown Portland. ington Park station is so far the most expensive MAX sta- son’s picture books — a 3-year-old white rabbit named • TriMet has automatic passenger counters with elec- tion. Max from children’s author Rosemary Wells’ “Max & Ru- tronic eyes on 39 percent of its trains, which count every • At 260 feet, the Washington Park MAX station is the by” series. time someone boards or exits the train. deepest transit station in North America. It’s fi tting that it For his winning suggestion, Frane got the cash equiva- • The peak times for ridership are from 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 resembles a subway station, as the deepest transit station lent of an annual pass on MAX (about $400). Frane and his to 6 p.m. There are 55 trains on the MAX system from 7:30 in the world is the Arsenalna metro station in Kiev, son also got to join the Portland mayor and other dignitar- to 8:15 a.m. and 56 MAX trains at 5:30 p.m. The MAX aver- Ukraine, which is about 335 feet. The next deepest transit ies on the fi rst run of the MAX from Gresham to down- aged 39,300 riders during rush hour in July. station is Park Pobedy metro station in Moscow, Russia, town Portland. • Each MAX is washed and vacuumed every night. De- located about 282 feet below ground. However, the Admi- As for the literary inspiration behind MAX, the “Max & tail cleaning is done every 60 days. ralteyskaya metro station that’s now under construction Ruby” book series was adapted for a television series on • On the MAX and buses, warnings for fare and code in St. Petersburg, Russia, may take the title of the deepest the Nick Jr. television network. violations account for 60 percent to 72 percent of enforce- station in the world when it opens.

20 MAX BLUE LINE 25TH ANNIVERSARY > TriMet.org | AUGUST 31 & SEPTEMBER 1, 2011 Portland Tribune/Community Newspapers