The history of TriMet is steeped in Oregon’s fabled pioneering spirit. Founded 50 years ago from the ashes of the bankrupt Rose City Transit, TriMet has been profoundly influential in shaping the growth and character of the Portland region. Through innovations in policy development, system design and technological advancement, TriMet continues to set benchmarks for the transit industry at home and abroad.
Twenty-one years after Portland's founding, a horse-drawn streetcar line opens along SW 1st Avenue—the Portland Street Railway Company, started by Ben Holladay.
The Multnomah Street Railway Company and the Transcontinental Street Railway Company provide competition with horsecar lines extending west and northwestward from downtown.
The Willamette Bridge Railway Company builds the first eastside horsecar line across the Morrison Bridge to the separate city of East Portland.
Horsecars continue to provide most street railway service, but horses couldn't provide longer suburban service.
Electric streetcars gradually replace horse-drawn, cable and steam-powered lines.
An era of expansion includes lines on both sides of the Willamette River. The first electrified streetcar, operated by the Willamette Bridge Railway Company, served the Albina area.
The first cable cars, which were imported from San Francisco, ran on Fifth Avenue. They were operated by the Portland Cable Railway Company.
Large consolidations of financially troubled companies begins. City & Suburban Railway absorbs three smaller companies—Willamette Bridge Railway, Transcontinental Street Railway and Waverly-Woodstock Electric Railway—and their lines to form the largest street railway company west of the Mississippi River. It is now possible to cross from one side of town to the other (approximately 16 miles) on a single fare. The next year, Portland Consolidated Street Railway Company forms, absorbing the remaining three lines—including the Metropolitan Railway and Portland & Vancouver Railway (a steam line).
A 16-mile interurban electric railway (first in the United States), the East Side Railway Company, and high-voltage transmission line are constructed from Oregon City to Portland—one of the first attempts at long-distance electrical transmission powered by a new hydro-electric plant at Willamette Falls. Other interurban lines follow, connecting Portland to its suburbs and outlying towns.
The East Side Railway Company, with its electric passenger/freight railroad service, sells in foreclosure, forming the Oregon Water Power and Railway Company.
Just prior to the Lewis and Clark Exposition, the electric streetcar is reintroduced on the Council Crest Line by Portland Railway, using powerful new trolleys operating over the Ford Street Viaduct.
Portland Railway and City & Suburban merge and is sold to the Clark Family of Philadelphia and Seligman Company of New York for $6 million, becoming the (2nd) Portland Railway Company.
The Portland Railway and City & Suburban consolidates with Oregon Water Power becoming the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company, a system of 28 electric streetcar lines and interurbans. PRL&P's standard vehicles are long-vestibuled "Pay-As-You-Enter" (PAYE) cars built by the American Car Company.
Interurban railway service extends from Vancouver south to Eugene and Corvallis, and from Gresham and Troutdale west to Forest Grove and McMinnville.
The "Good Roads" movement takes shape: Oregon embraces the automobile and becomes the first state to pay for roads with a gas tax.
After years of franchise battles, the Mount Hood Railway & Power Company lays tracks for an interurban line from East Portland to Bull Run. Dreams of connecting Portland with Mount Hood die after the line becames part of PRL&P the following year, however, and even though beautiful interurban cars arrive from the Kuhlman Car Company of Cleveland, the line is never electrified.
Portland's population reaches 257,490. Rail transit ridership hits 70 million annually, with new residential areas and suburbs springing up along the rail lines, making Portland the center of one of the largest urban rail systems in the West.
With only 25 miles of paved road in the state, the Oregon Highway Commission is created to "get Oregon out of the mud."
After World War I, streetcars begin feeling the pinch from the automobile. PRL&P ordered 25 new Birney Safety Cars to maintain efficient operation on marginal stub lines. With the Birneys come the first one-man operation, and they are the last cars ordered for many years.
Trolley transportation growth slows. Cutbacks in service and labor economies, such as remodeling equipment for one-man car operation, are the norm.
National streetcar ridership peaks at 14.8 billion annual trips.
Portland Railway changes its name to Portland Electric Power Company (PEPCO), a holding company that includes Portland General Electric (PGE), Portland Traction Company and an interurban system.
Several interurban rail lines discontinue passenger service as ridership declines. The aging streetcar system begins converting to buses and trolleybuses. In time, Portland enjoys an extensive trolleybus network, particularly on the east side.
Fred Meyer opens its first department store in the Hollywood District, and road improvements would follow for future stores.
The advent of World War II brings a reprieve for trolley lines as the nation turns to fuel and rubber rationing. The process of converting trolley lines to buses stops. In fact, the Bridge Transfer line is brought back after its tracks are chipped out of the pavement. However, "progress" returns after the war.
Celebrated urban planner from New York, Robert Moses, is hired to plan Portland's urban form and road network.
Portland-area transit ridership peaks at an all-time high during World War II, due in part to limited availability of automobiles and Portland's extensive transit infrastructure.
The interurban lines were turned over to a new company called the Portland Railroad and Terminal Division which launches a modernization plan, bringing in several used streetcars from other cities for their suburban service.
The last streetcars run on the Council Crest, Willamette Heights and 23rd Avenue as ridership drops sharply after the war. A Willamette Heights owl is the last run...
Rose City Transit assumes the city routes of the Portland Traction Company.
The Metropolitan Planning Commission is created with the three Portland-area counties represented to collect data and discuss regional issues.
The pioneer interurban electric rail line to Oregon City and the trolleybuses die out as ridership declines to less than a fifth of its wartime level.
Though both passenger and frieght service had become profitable, PR&T Divisions's San Francisco owners don't encourage ridership and, in spite of a last minute citizen's effort from "Save Our Streetcars" (SOS), all trolleys disappear from the Rose City with cessation of interurban passenger service between Oregon City and Portland.
The writing had been on the wall when the Hawthorne Bridge was remodeled in 1956 without replacing its rails. Diesel freight operation takes over on the former interurban division. In the same fateful year, the Oregon Electric Railway Historical Society is formed to preserve traction heritage. Within a few years former Portland streetcars find their way to the OERHS trolley park in Glenwood, Oregon.
Portland voters approve the creation of the Portland Development Commission which has taken on the role of making Portland a livable city with specific charges for housing, land development and economic development. Urban renewal districts would provide a significant source of local financing for the Red, Yellow, Green and Orange MAX lines.
The Oregon State Highway Commission launches the Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan Transportation Study (PVMTS) to look at the highway needs of the Portland region.
The Federal Urban Mass Transit Administration (UMTA), conceived in the Kennedy administration, is signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson.
The Minnesota Freeway (I-5) is completed within Oregon.
The Columbia Region Association of Governments (CRAG), a new regional planning agency, is set up and in 1967 coordinates the Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan Transportation Study (PVMTS). It provides the first comprehensive analysis of travel demand in the region, assuming no constraints on highway travel.
Transit ridership falls to 16 million/year from a wartime high of 169 million/year. The Rose City Transit Company, faced with bankruptcy, demands a major fare hike or threatens to discontinue all service.
With some pressure from the business community dependent on transit services for employees, shoppers, etc., Mayor Terry Schrunk appoints a seven-member Mass Transit Advisory Commission.
The Oregon Legislature passes House Bill 1808 allowing the creation of transit districts and providing them with the power to raise revenue though a payroll tax.
The PVMTS is approved and calls for 54 new highway, road and bridge projects that would establish highways on roughly a 2-mile grid. Transit's role is played down, except for rush hour commute travel to downtown Portland.
Portland City Council passed Resolution 30598 to create the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (Tri-Met). The first organization meeting takes place two weeks later with Victor Cox, a Rose City holdover, serves as Tri-Met's first general manager.
Rose City Transit proposes turning its operation over to the City and Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (Tri-Met), while maintaining title under legal resolution of fair value and pension claims were worked out.
TriMet agrees to the Rose City Transit proposal and a Memorandum of Understanding is agreed to between the City and Rose City Transit whereby Rose City Transit would turn over its property to the City at 12:01 am on Monday December 1st and the City would immediately transfer same to TriMet. A driver walk-out is threatened to begin within 48 hours. On December 1, with 175 buses and a daily ridership of roughly 65,000, TriMet begins operation, a day after Local 757 approves a new 19-month labor contract.
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