Those who believe San Francisco has the most different kinds of streetcars should take a look north—630 miles north to Portland. That Oregon city combines light rail vehicles with heritage trolleys, similar to San Francisco, but it adds a third dimension: the first new modern streetcar line to open in decades, and it is a big success.

Some definitions are in order. Many urban surface passenger rail systems have opened in North America since the pioneering San Diego Trolley 25 years ago. Transit officials class these as "light rail", a new term invented in part to distinguish the systems in people’s minds from "old-fashioned" streetcars. Despite its moniker, the San Diego system is no trolley in the classic sense. It and the other new light rail systems generally share a number of characteristics: dedicated travel lanes for the rail cars, segregated from street traffic to the greatest extent possible; large articulated streetcars that can be coupled into multiple unit trains; and operation at speeds up to 55mph or more.

MAX: aptly named
Portland has such a system, called MAX, which began operating in 1986. Other than transit-only lanes in streets through Downtown Portland, MAX generally runs on its own right-of-way. Operated by the regional transit authority, Tri-Met, it has been steadily expanded, including a long tunnel to the west of downtown, an excellent extension direct to the airport in the northeast, and a new line, in the median of Interstate Boulevard, which opened earlier this year. The longest of the three lines, from Gresham in the east to Hillsboro in the west, stretches 35 miles one way, hardly the "Toonerville Trolley" most people think of when the word "streetcar" comes up; more like a modern version of the old interurbans that once crisscrossed the country. Two-car MAX trains take an entire downtown block (200 feet) for a stop.

Vintage vision
While MAX was being conceived, a different but compatible vision was being promoted by Bill Naito, a civic leader who had long owned historic buildings in what were then rundown parts of the central city. Naito felt the historic fabric of Portland could be enhanced with what he called a "downtown circulator". His first choice: vintage trolleys. Working with local streetcar restorer Paul Class, single-truck cars were acquired from Porto, Portugal in the early 1980s to go with two of Portland’s own historic Council Crest cars. Three of these cars, Council Crest No. 503 and Porto No. 122 and 189, were leased to operate in several of San Francisco’s Trolley Festivals, and ultimately No. 189 was sold to Muni (it is currently being rebuilt at the Cable Car Carpenter Shop).

It was proposed that Naito’s vintage cars share trackage with the planned MAX tracks, but Tri-Met officials insisted on operating specifications that doomed the antique cars and led to the building of four replica trolleys, modeled on the Council Crest design, but with used PCC-type trucks salvaged from retired Chicago "El" trains. These were financed through a federal grant, with the local share coming from a local improvement district spearheaded by Naito. They began operating in 1991 on MAX tracks between downtown and a shopping center across the Willamette River.

The Portland streetcar
Then Naito’s dream expanded. Why not a true streetcar line running north-south to complement MAX’s east-west operation? Proponents said it would spur higher density housing in close-in neighborhoods that were shedding old industrial uses. But they firmly believed this "neighborhood streetcar" had to be a truly good neighbor. The big two-car MAX trains rolling through downtown, while efficient, were also intimidating to pedestrians and seemed out of scale. By contrast, proponents envisioned a line that shared street space with automobiles, trucks, and bicycles, like old-time streetcar lines (including the F-line on Market Street and some surface sections of Muni’s J, K, L, M, and N lines). The Tri-Met leadership said it would never work: congestion would stop the streetcars in their, er, tracks. The regional transit agency wanted nothing to do with it, and many assumed it would never be built. But Portland City officials disagreed, and financed the line themselves, with creative tactics including selling sponsorships of the stops and the cars. (Car sponsorships had already helped fund the vintage trolleys.)

Instead of building more replica vintage streetcars, as New Orleans has done with its newly-restored Canal Street operation, the Portland Streetcar backers went to the other end of the modernity spectrum: five Euro-sleek, off-the-shelf streetcars built by Skoda-Inekon for $1.8 million each, with a low-floor center section and two articulation units. These single cars are 66 feet long, 16 feet longer than Muni’s longest F-line cars, but only one-third as long as two-car MAX trains. Their eight-foot width is six inches narrower than Muni’s F-line PCCs. When one sees them meet the MAX trains at their crossing points on 10th and 11th Streets downtown, it’s clear that the streetcars are in scale with the town they serve.

Beyond the cars, the system proved innovative in other ways. Track construction used new techniques that cut excavation depth in half, to just over a foot. This slashed costs by avoiding utility relocation, and speeded construction as well. Track construction took just three weeks per block, an incredible feat. Storage and maintenance facilities were located in a dead zone beneath an elevated freeway. Stops are simply an extension of the sidewalk across the former parking lane every few blocks; disabled riders board directly onto the low-floor cars. The cost, everything included: $12 million per mile, a fraction of most light–rail systems.

The Portland Streetcar opened in 2001 and has been a big success, requiring the ordering of two more cars to bring the total to seven. Ridership averages 5,800 on weekdays, about 30 percent of the F-line, but an impressive figure nonetheless considering current minimum headways on the line are fourteen minutes, more than twice as long as the F.

The presence of neighborhood-friendly, fixed-route transit has spurred significant development along the line already, including a condominium development called Streetcar Lofts. Tri-Met, which scorned the system in its concept phase, had a change of heart, and now serves as operator, under contract.

The four replica vintage cars have now been divided up. Two (Nos. 511 & 512) remain on MAX’s route, running Sundays only, a reduction from earlier service levels. The other two (Nos. 513 & 514) are now housed in the Portland Streetcar facility. One car operates there Saturdays and Sundays daytimes in place of one of the Skoda cars. Both vintage operations use volunteer conductors from Vintage Trolley, Inc. to supplement the operators, who are Tri-Met employees.

Lessons learned
The Portland Streetcar has stirred interest around the country from cities that don’t want, or can’t accommodate or afford, full-scale light rail systems, but want truly attractive transit that can spur neighborhood revitalization. A coalition is coming together to promote the benefits of such operations to federal leaders. Market Street Railway has been invited to participate.

The overall Portland experience demonstrates that each type of streetcar—full-scale light rail, traditional streetcar installations, and vintage trolleys—serves a productive purpose, and when thoughtfully planned, can complement each other in the same town. In all likelihood, the Portland Streetcar experience will be replicated again and again—including in Portland, where an extension to the south will open next year, and a second line, on the eastside, is being planned.