Portland — Stealth Streetcar

Rail Transit Online, November 2002

Plans to build an eastside streetcar line that had been largely out of public view suddenly came to the fore in mid-October when three private sector firms agreed to contribute a total of $50,000 for a six-month study into potential alignments.  The study will also investigate engineering and design, ridership and operating costs.  The route, from the Lloyd District to the Central Eastside Industrial Area, has been part of municipal planning efforts since at least 1990 but has recently gotten a boost from the success of the downtown Portland Streetcar.  Along with the $50,000 from developer Ashforth Pacific Inc., the Portland Trail Blazers and Kaiser Permanente, the Portland Development Commission voted to spend $100,000 for the transit study and the Portland Department of Transportation is providing another $25,000.  “The streetcar is a demonstrated catalyst for development,’’ Hank Ashforth, chairman of the Lloyd Business Improvement District and CEO of Ashforth Pacific, told The Tribune.  “This will bring tremendous value to the district.  We’ve demonstrated we’re willing to pay for this from the start.  This is one of the major priorities voted on by our group and the neighborhood.”  Ashforth said the Lloyd District is already job intensive but there’s room for expansion along with a potential for residential development.  City officials and business leaders admit the project is only in the conceptual stage at present and that a capital funding source needs to be identified.  However City Commissioner Jim Francesconi, chief of the Office of Transportation, says the eastside line may take precedence over a proposed extension of the downtown line to the Macadam district because of the enthusiasm shown by the private sector.  In addition to the Lloyd District and the Industrial Area, initial concepts show the route serving downtown, the Rose Quarter, Convention Center and intersecting the MAX light rail line.