5 responses to “A Tale of One Bus Route”

1. 

   adventurepdx

   January 28, 2024 at 10:43 pm

   Great post, Andrew. Trimet has had a history of “service cuts disguised as upgrades”. so thank you for calling it out.

   As for the NE 24-27 route, this one seems to be a can always getting kicked down the road. I remember through the aughts that the 9 serviced this particular route, a continuation of the 9-Powell. At the time (about 2005), the 17 was still servicing Holgate but then went north along St Helens Road to St Johns and then Sauvie Island. The 16 services this route now, at that time it was a rush-hour only route. I’m guessing these changes happened in 2009 when there was a fairly big bus route reorganization due to the opening of the Green Line and the 5th/6th MAX tracks downtown. (A big bummer in this reorganization, at least for my former workplace of the Hawthorne Hostel, was the truncation of the 14 to the 5th/6th MAX tracks. It went all the way to Union Station before the Green Line opened, which made it a one-bus trip for anyone going to the hostel.)

   You can see a bit of this on this undated map that looks like its from the 90s, at least pre-1998 before the Westside MAX opened:
   
   You can also see a bit more of the numbering scheme that Trimet tried to adhere to, where 1 starts in St Johns (now just SW to downtown) then increases in number in a clockwise manner, with the 4, 5 (Interstate Ave, replaced by Yellow Line in 2004), 6, 8, then the 9, and the 10 servicing NE 33rd, which is now serviced by the 70. The 70 stopped at Holladay Park by the Lloyd Center MAX stop.

   Besides the re-routing of the 17 from the Broadway Bridge, cutting out a lot of low income residences, I don’t understand the cutting of the 24/27 part either. Where it now bascially ends is now the University of Oregon campus. Sure, the 75 and 70 come close, but those are all cross-town routes.

   LikeLike

   Reply
   1. 

      adventurepdx

      January 28, 2024 at 11:02 pm

      Ah, I see that the 8 would be routed to serve Dekum between 15th and 27th in order to service U of O and Home Forward affordable housing. I guess that’s better than nothing, but it adds about a mile and half on that line in order to do so.

      LikeLike

      Reply
   2. 

      cityhikes

      January 30, 2024 at 5:22 pm

      Yeah, I’ve looked through lots of old TriMet schedules (mostly from the always excellent http://www.rosecitytransit.org) and it’s sort of shocking how much service was run back in the late 1990s. For my money, going back to the 9-Powell/Broadway and the 17-Holgate/NW 23rd would be extremely good for the city. Service to NW is pretty anemic in general, and I get frustrated almost every time I take transit down there having to either transfer to the almost unbelievably slow streetcar, or find the 15. The fact that it takes 30 minutes to get from PSU to NW 23rd on the streetcar blows my mind every time I’m on it, and I generally like the service still. And I like the 15, but it’s definitely seen some of the most service reductions of any frequent service line, with the final 15 minute headway trip leaving downtown before 7 pm on weekdays. It was 9 pm in 1998! And they ran one express bus each rush hour to Cesar Chavez! Sigh

      It’s just frustrating to see so many little cuts to a pretty quality bus network, and to see such a lack of emphasis on providing good service. I like the MAX (mostly, but man I could write a whole dissertation on the current service reduction…), but it does feel like so much of the planning has gone into it that bus service has kind of fallen by the wayside. I’ll be on the bus still, I just really want them to be better!

      LikeLike

      Reply
      1. 

         adventurepdx

         January 30, 2024 at 5:41 pm

         Yeah, I like both the MAX and Streetcar. I get a little sick of the knee-jerk hate for the Streetcar, even amongst those who like transit! But I agree, it’s too slow in general and there needs to be more frequent service. The thing with the Streetcar is it was designed as a development tool first, a “gee that’s neat” thing second, and transit third. The whole idea of it being in the same lane as auto traffic is pretty stupid. Thankfully they are rectifying that a bit on the eastside on the MLK/Grand couplet, but a lot of the route follows one-lane roads. Perhaps some could be run as Limited service (skip some stops) but with the lack of double tracking/sidings, it’d be hard. (And Trimet really doesn’t like Limited transit, either.)

         It’s pretty typical for most transit systems to pour more planning/money into rail transit, especially since rail does require it. I’ll give Trimet some slack in this department as they haven’t drastically cut bus service in favor of rail as some cities have. But they still need to put more money into the bus.

         LikeLike

      2. 

         cityhikes

         January 31, 2024 at 8:22 am

         Yeah, the streetcar is definitely cool, and it’s genuinely good service between the Pearl and PSU with a 15 minute trip every 7 to 10 minutes. But the routing to NW is pretty circuitous, and low service levels make the eastside line hard to use. And maybe a minor issue, but I don’t like one way couplets much and it feels like a missed opportunity to make one street streetcar only and the other two way general traffic (this probably wouldn’t work on Grand/MLK without a lot more work though).

         I’m a huge fan of rail transit, and maybe it’s just my familiarity with Portland that gets me down about it here. The Orange Line being the same speed or slower than the 17 from 17th/Rhine just really gets under my skin some days.

         LikeLike