These are photos from the downtown fareless section of Portland's famous streetcar.  This is the original section which began operation in 2001.  Although this section of the line has attracted significant new residential growth, it was fairly packed to begin with, so there were not as many sites for potential development as the South Waterfront or Pearl District.

 

 

Map:

 

Ticket machine:

 

The cars have two articulated joints.  The motors sit under the high floor sections at either end of each streetcar.  These areas have seats:

 

The center section of each streetcar, between the articulated joints, is low-boarding and has few seats to allow for wheelchairs and a forest of standing passengers:

 

There is a cab at each end -- the driver switches from one end to other other to change directions, although this is only necessary when backing into the shop facilities.  In Seattle, the line has stub ends instead of operating as a loop.  There is also another set of doors at each end, but they're only usable for curb stations, not island stations:

 

Pulling up to a station:

 

 

A packed streetcar:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The overhead wire is at times borderline elegant:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original 2001 turnaround -- South Waterfront extension starts here:

 

Island station heading toward South Waterfront:

 

Paying customers:

 

ADA ramp:

 

Streetcar driver manually shoving the ramp back after it jammed:

 

Streetcar in traffic:

 

Streetcar in traffic:

 

Center low-floor section:

 

In traffic:

 

 

 

 

Here we can see another streetcar running in the opposite direction a block away:

 

 

 

 

Streetcar crosses new under-construction light rail:

 

Race Street (through OTR) anyone?

 

And this is what Calhoun and other key areas of Uptown should look like...

Drop dead sexy!

So .. I've always wondered this: what are the differences between streetcars and light rail? I see pretty much none in these Portland examples.

The modern streetcars are significantly lighter than LRV's, allowing rails to be laid in a shallow 12" deep slab of concrete.  Light rail needs a deeper base which requires widespread utility relocation.

 

Much of the extra weight in LRV's goes to heavier motors and more robust mechanical systems [shocks, springs, etc.] that can achieve a higher speed and are built on a heavier chassis that can sustain a collision at a higher speed. 

 

The modern streetcars aren't suitable for long runs to suburban park & ride stations because they max out at 40mph (to move faster they would require larger, more powerful motors that would compromise their low-floor design, and they would have to have a heavier chassis to sustain a 55mph~ crash) and because they have relatively few seats.  Also, since they cannot be coupled into multi-car consists, they do not offer the significant ridership advantage that LRV's do. 

 

 

Cool .. thanks!

 

Awesome pics, by the way!

Also...although Portland's MAX and streetcar lines cross, they do not link directly (or at least I did not see where they do).  Streetcar can run on light rail but not vice-verse.  This has caused a problem in Portland because they have had to truck the streetcars (or actually just the wheel trucks) to the light rail maintenance facility for the kind of heavy maintenance they require every few years.  But since they now have a fleet of over 10 streetcars, they are investing in a complete set of maintenance gear for the streetcar shops. 

When I was in Portland these streetcars made getting around so easy, I loved the system.  They were fairly full at around 8-9 on a weeknight when I was there

So are the ticket machines just based on the honor system?

Well done.

excellent post.

Great tour! I may have missed the original 2009 debut. I do wonder why the streetcar-like portion of light-rail here (downtown proper) is still surrounded by lots of parking lots. In Portland, parking lots near the streetcar line are few and far between.

So are the ticket machines just based on the honor system?

 

Well, for the most part somewhat, but I understand they do periodic checks that are pretty unpredictable, and the fines are steep. Sort of the same as riding the HealthLine in Cleveland, or at least as far as I can tell from my limited experiences with both transit systems.

 

I also know in OKC they're leaning toward making the streetcar fare-free, or at the most a minimal fee just to keep vagrants off and pay for new technology (like gps iPhone apps, LED hologram wayfinding signage, etc). The operating costs of streetcar and other fixed guideway modes are very low compared to buses, as you guys most likely know already. You could easily fund operating costs through sponsorships and advertising.

 

Sorry for bumping an oooold thread. I just loved these pics.

JEALOUS

I'd argue nobody has any right to be jealous considering how easy it is to do streetcar without federal assistance. Just build a system of your own - streetcar systems are really taking off across America. Bear in mind that streetcar is nowhere near as expensive as LRT or any other fixed guideway mode.

this is what should be going down euclid ave

 

portland gets it

 

not to mention they dont fluoridate their water