PORTLAND light rail operator Tri-Max hopes to break ground this month for its 9·3 km Red line along Interstate Avenue, connecting the Rose Quarter and Expo Center. Scheduled to open in September 2004, this is costed at $350m. On September 20 Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater signed an agreement to provide $257·5m in federal funding.
Tri-Met’s existing 53·1 km line from Gresham to Beaverton is to be known as the Blue Line. The route from Portland International Airport to Southwest 11th Avenue, opening next September, will be the Yellow line. Construction of the airport branch should be finished in April, and seven low-floor LRVs are to be retrofitted with luggage racks.
