Make MAX Better Before Making It Bigger

Portland’s MAX light rail system is a hot topic right now with the opening of the new Green line that connects downtown to Clackamas. ThePortlander recently reported that the expansion line cost taxpayers nearly $600 million, or $72 million for each mile of new track. The next MAX project, already approved, is the Milwaukie line (rumored to be the Orange line). It will have a whopping $1.4 billion price tag…$200 million per mile!

As government steamrolls forward with MAX expansion, shouldn’t’ we step back and make sure the system is the best it can be before sinking more money into it? Are there areas that could be improved with just a fraction of the spending over the next 5 years?

Though currently an infrequent rider, there were a few years recently when I rode MAX 2-3 times per week. Currently I take the occasion trip into downtown from the westside, maybe even take it to a Blazer game. During my past and recent trips on the MAX, I have identified a number of areas that could use serious improvement. I won’t however get into fundamental design flaws, service areas or price….though I have strong opinions. They deserve their own article.

One of the obvious issues that the MAX has is speed of service. Out where I live in Hillsboro, there is no time advantage to taking the MAX downtown rather than driving. A trip to the Portland Airport is a 1 hour and 45 minute trek. If I am not taking the MAX to save time, what do I have left? Avoiding driving? That’s not enough if it takes me twice as long. Let’s spend some money on bright engineers to figure out a better way. Here is an idea: don’t make each train stop at every station. Have every other train go to every other station. I’d bet that cuts trip time by up to 1/3.

Another issue is the much discussed ticketing system. Nearly $2 billion in a handful of years and TriMet still can’t get ticketing machines to work? After deserved criticism early in 2009, TriMet said they had solved the problem. Unfortunately, I’ve already seen pictures from the new MAX Green line where the machines were out of service. Despite apparently improving the uptime, riders continue to report machines that are unable to process credit card transactions all too frequently. Is it too much to ask for reliable ticketing machines?

Finally, let’s talk about TriMet customer service and the availability of information. Have you ever been standing at a MAX stop and after 30 minutes goes by without a train traveling in your direction you wonder to yourself “what’s going on?” It happens more than you’d think…one commuter told me he experiences this at least once per month. If you think you can grab your cell phone and dial TriMet for information, you’d be wrong. Sure, you could call. First thing you will notice is that the automated message is saying that the system is fine, no delays. That’s okay, you can just press a button and be connected with a TriMet customer service rep. Wrong again. TriMet’s customer service line is only staffed from 7:30am to 5:30pm M-F. Never mind that because MAX trips take so long you have to be at your station at 7am…before customer service opens. It wouldn’t be hard to schedule a few folks at 6:30m and keep a few around until 6:30pm. Is that too much to ask for?

None of these issues are ones that can’t be fixed with some smarts and a little money. Say, 1% of the Milwaukie line’s budget…$14 million? Pay for some additional customer service hours, upgrade ticketing machine software and systems, then hire some engineers to come up with more efficient scheduling? Heck, I’ll do it for $10 million!

What do you think, Portland? Should we continue to shovel taxpayer dollars into the current system or is it reasonable to ask for an improved service?