The MAX Orange Line is a light rail line serving the Portland metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Oregon. Operated by TriMet as part of the MAX Light Rail system, it connects Portland City Center, Portland State University (PSU), Southeast Portland, Milwaukie, and Oak Grove. The line serves 17 stations and runs for 201⁄2 hours per day with headways of up to 15 minutes. It averaged 3,480 daily weekday riders in September 2020.
The Orange Line runs north–south. Its route begins near Portland Union Station on the northern end of the Portland Transit Mall in downtown Portland. Within the transit mall on 5th Avenue, the Orange Line operates as a southbound through service of the Yellow Line from Union Station/Northwest 5th & Glisan station, where it interlines with the Green Line. Northbound on 6th Avenue, the Orange Line continues through to the Yellow Line from PSU South/Southwest 6th and College station. South of the transit mall, the Orange Line operates bidirectionally and terminates at Southeast Park Avenue station in Oak Grove, just outside Milwaukie proper in unincorporated Clackamas County.
The Portland–Milwaukie Light Rail Project (PMLR) began construction in 2011 following decades of failed light rail plans for the McLoughlin Boulevard corridor. The ten-station, 7.3-mile (11.7 km) extension was the second and final phase of the South Corridor Transportation Project, which expanded light rail to Interstate 205 (I-205) and the Portland Transit Mall in its first phase. As part of the PMLR project, TriMet built Tilikum Crossing, the largest "car-free" bridge in the United States, over the Willamette River. Orange Line service commenced on September 12, 2015.
- ^ "Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Project". Metro. May 8, 2014. Archived from the original on April 2, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
- ^ "PMLR Project History". TriMet. Archived from the original on March 2, 2019. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
- ^ "September 2020 Monthly Performance Report" (PDF). TriMet. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 8, 2021. Retrieved May 8, 2021.
- ^ "Portland–Milwaukie MAX Orange Line" (PDF). TriMet. July 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 23, 2019. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
- ^ Simons, Vic (December 2015). "Portland: Green meets Orange". Tramways & Urban Transit. UK: LRTA Publishing. pp. 473–478. ISSN 1460-8324.
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