Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanlife
............
Overall, getting rid of maybe three stops would really only shave about 5-6 minutes off a a total trip time through downtown, and not ever have a real impact on saving time.
|
Saving just 5 minutes through downtown doesn't sound like much, but it's actually a lot. Five times the number of passengers adds up to huge time savings for daily commutes. It also saves time and money on operations. For example, moving the same amount of people the same distance in 20 minutes versus 25 minutes is a 20% savings in Trimet's operations budget. The savings will be even greater when the subway is built.
Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanlife
Never going to happen...at least in our lifetime. I am just taking an educated guess, but I would say that both the east/west and north/south tracks through downtown can handle up to 4 train lines each before it begins to be a problem for the city with train congestion.
............
I love subway tunnels, but the closest Portland will ever be getting to a subway tunnel in our lifetime is going up to Seattle or down to SF to ride in theirs....or ride back and forth through Washington Park, obviously. The only way Portland would of gotten a subway tunnel is if when the city was building tracks along 5th and 6th, the city would of had to decide then to build a city's first tunnel, and then could of turned the current east/west lines into streetcar lines. But all of that is a bunch of "what ifs" that don't really matter.
|
If Trimet wants to increase capacity beyond 2025 or 2030, a subway alignment will be
necessary. Not just because a subway is cool and gives a city bragging rights, but because we're going to hit maximum capacity on the two surface alignments sooner than later.
The thing that constricts the capacity downtown is not the number of lines running downtown, it's the number of trains. Probably the most immediate problem is the Steele Bridge. All 4 MAX lines converge here and capacity is limited to around 20 trains per hour in each direction. That's 5 trains per hour per line (assuming 4 through lines), on average. That means only 12 minute headways per line. A similar constriction occurs where the lines cross paths at Pioneer Courthouse. We're already very close to capacity during peak hours with just the lines we have. Once Milwaukie (and eventually Oregon City), then Vancouver, then Tigard and Sherwood, then Powell are all added to the system (in 20 years), and ridership has doubled (at least), the surface lines through downtown will not be adequate.
Another barrier to adding surface capacity downtown are the traffic lights. You can never get more than 12-15 trains per hour on either the Yamhill/Morrison or the 5th/6th couplets simply because of the timing of the lights. And that's assuming they don't share the Steele Bridge and the crossing at Pioneer CH.
The third, and probably fatal impediment to future expansion of surface capacity is the short blocks downtown. Our whole system is limited to 2-car trains because of our 200 foot blocks. With a subway alignment, capacity would more than double because 4-car trains would then be possible. Plus the time savings and operational streamlining from not having to deal with traffic lights, cross traffic, pedestrian traffic, etc., etc. Reliability would be tremendously improved.
Prev
one wishes.
Linear Mode
