TriMet releases cost, rider numbers

Milwaukie light rail will cost up to $1.4 billion and carry as many as 26,000

By Anthony Roberts

The Clackamas Review, Jan 16, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (14 Reader comments)

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Metro officials still don’t know exactly where the Portland to Milwaukie light rail line will run or how it will cross the Willamette River, but a preliminary report provides a better idea of what it will cost and how many passengers it will carry: up to $1.4 billion and as many as 26,000.

Metro is in the process of crafting the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) for the project. The document doesn’t require final figures or routes, but winnows down the options for the line. For the Portland to Milwaukie line, that means there are still five different possibilities for crossing the Willamette, two different alignments into Milwaukie, two different ending points and several combinations of park-and-ride lots.

The report estimates the line will cost anywhere from $1.25 billion to $1.42 billion and bring anywhere from 22,400 to 25,800 new boardings each day, including 8,000 to 12,100 new passengers who currently aren’t using the TriMet system.

“Everything gets more and more specific as you move on with the options,” said Metro public affairs specialist Karen Withrow. “In this phase the design is really only about 5 percent of what we would need to build it.”

The agency and the Portland to Milwaukie Citizen Advisory Committee will have to make some big decisions in the coming months, according to Metro Councilor Robert Liberty. He said TriMet needs to have a final decision on a new bridge and route alignment by July to maintain the current construction schedule, which calls for the line’s completion in 2015.

Alignments

While the new bridge for the light rail will have the largest cost impact to the project, the bigger issue for Milwaukie residents is likely the alignment. When TriMet first held meetings on the Milwaukie light rail line in 2000, it developed a locally preferred alternative (LPA). This plan was finished in 2003. TriMet subsequently decided to move forward with the Clackamas Town Center line first, and revisited the LPA last year. The result is three routes that are being considered.

• The original LPA crosses over the Willamette River near the Marquam Bridge and links up with SE 17th Avenue, which it follows south to McLoughlin Boulevard. The line jogs eastward before McLoughlin’s junction with Highway 224 and enters downtown Milwaukie, ending at Lake Road. The line can accommodate 1,475 parking spaces at three park-and-ride lots: one at Tacoma; one just north of Milwaukie; and one at the line’s end. The total cost with inflation factored in is estimated at $1.25 billion.

Estimated new riders: 9,000 to system; 22,390 boardings on the new line.

• The LPA to Park Avenue option changes the line’s terminus. Plans originally called for it ending at Lake Road near Kellogg Lake on a parcel that turned out to be deeded to Clackamas County to use as parkland. Thus, a newer version of the LPA was crafted that would extend down McLoughlin Boulevard to Park Avenue. This option allows for a bigger park-and-ride lot at the line’s end, creating a total of 2,600 total parking spaces spread between three lots. The total cost with inflation is estimated at $1.42 billion.

Estimated new riders: 12,140 system-wide; 25,770 boardings on the new line.

• The newest alignment option is called the Tillamook branch. It follows the LPA’s route to Tacoma Street before veering to the east and following the old Tillamook rail line into town rather than following McLoughlin Boulevard. The line was created due to business owners in the industrial area north of Milwaukie who thought this option would better accommodate their truck traffic. The line would eliminate the park-and-ride lot just north of Milwaukie, but the Tacoma lot, Park Avenue lot and a smaller lot at Lake Road would create spaces for 2,275 vehicles. The cost with inflation is estimated at $1.39 billion.

Estimated new riders: 11,330 system-wide; 24,660 boardings on the new line.

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