All posts tagged: Portland

Historical Maps: Rail Transit in North America, 1984 by Dennis McClendon

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Historical Maps

I thought I was all done with “to scale” maps of North American rail systems, but then Dennis McClendon (see previous posts from him) sent in this beautiful series of maps that he produced for Planning magazine back in 1984. Dennis himself says: Given this week’s Tumblr theme, I thought you might be interested in these maps that I did in 1984, when I worked for Planning magazine. The “new wave” of modern light rail […]

Historical Map: MAX Light Rail, Portland, Oregon, 2001

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Portland’s MAX light rail system as it appeared just after the initial opening of the Red Line. Note that the Red Line doesn’t continue out to Beaverton as it does these days, but turns around just west of downtown. Later, the Yellow Line would turn around here as well, before it was rerouted down the transit mall.  The map itself does a nice job with a relatively simple system. The gracefully curved Willamette River is […]

Reader Question: Do the MAX Rail Yellow and Green Lines Terminate at PSU or Loop Around?

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Question: Do the MAX Rail Yellow And Green lines Terminate at PSU or loop around? On the official map, they terminate and on your combined rail map they loop around. Answer: Operationally, Green and Yellow Line trains terminate southbound at the SW Jackson station. All passengers have to disembark there, but the trains do then enter a loop between SW Jackson and the SW College station for a short layover before changing their destination blinds […]

Submission — Follow Up on Portland’s New Light Rail Maps

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Official Maps

Submitted by Taylosaurus, who says: I saw the last post about Portland’s new TriMet maps and the stations and I knew I’d seen a map without that weird disappearing Red Line/streetcar thing so I made sure to take a picture on my way home. This map is on the ticket vending machines. I’m not sure if it’s on all of them but it’s at least on the ones at the Rose Quarter and at SE […]

New Official Map: TriMet MAX Light Rail, Portland, Oregon, 2014

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Official Maps

So I saw this at the MAX stop near my work yesterday, and managed to get some photos of it today. For now, the TriMet website still has the previous map, and it seems like these maps may currently be only posted along the 5th/6th Avenue transit mall downtown (any other sightings elsewhere, PDXers?) So, what’s new? First off is the obvious (and quite radical) change from 45-degree angles to 30/60-degrees… which can’t help but […]

Historical Map: TriMet Bus and MAX Routes, Portland, Oregon (early 1990s)

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Historical Maps

Certainly no later than 1998 as the MAX light rail only consists of the original Westside route (later to be the Blue Line). Of note is the continued use of the service zone icons – fish, rain, snow, beaver, leaf, rose and deer – that defined Portland’s downtown transit mall for decades. I’ve featured them before on this map from 1978, but it’s on this map where their main failing comes to the fore. Because […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: Pacific Northwest (USA and Canada) Regional Rail

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Fantasy Maps

Submitted by opspe, who says: This is my concept for what an integrated regional inter-city rail network in the Northwest could look like, if things had developed that way.  All there is now (regionally) is Cascades, which I ride all the time, but it’s still rather limited.  I decided to include the local commuter rail lines (WES, Sounder, WCE) too.  I also decided to beef up CalTrans a bit – they don’t actually serve Redding, although it’s […]

Historical Map: Southern Pacific “Red Electric” Tracks in Downtown Portland, c. 1920

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Scanned from the book “The Red Electrics: Southern Pacific’s Oregon Interurbans” by Tom Dill and Walter Grande. This handsome map shows the routing of the Southern Pacific’s electric interurban trains through downtown Portland from their northern terminus at Union Station. These trains, popularly known as the “Red Electrics” after their distinctive carriages, ran from Portland all the way down the Willamette Valley as far as Corvallis, 85 miles distant. Service started in 1914, extended to […]

Historical Map: TriMet Bus System Map, Portland, Oregon, 1978

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Not much use for route planning: this map was really made just to show how the routes that ran into the city centre were grouped into geographic regions and denoted by a colour and an icon. While stops along the transit mall are now marked with boring old letters, back then these cheery and oh-so-1970s symbols guided you to the bus stop you needed. Also very 1970s: the tightly-kerned Avant Garde typeface. Source: TriMet’s “How […]

Updated: Aerial Photo Transit Map of Portland, Oregon – Now with Bus Routes!

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Unofficial Maps

Taylor Gibson’s aerial photo map of Portland’s rail and streetcar routes is one of the most popular posts ever on Transit Maps, so I thought I’d pass on this update to it, which now shows the bus network as well. The colours used match the official TriMet system map, although Taylor hasn’t shown peak hour-only services like the 51 up through Council Crest. What this view really shows to effect is Portland’s grid-like bus network, […]