Portland’s new Orange Line light rail opens tomorrow! 

And while I’m excited, I’ve long wondered why exactly it’s being called the Orange Line instead of just being an extension of the Yellow Line. I’ve heard mutterings that it allows operational flexibility – with some northbound Orange Line trains becoming Green Line trains if demand requires it – but that’s always seemed like pretty weak reasoning to me.

And this promotional map almost entirely abandons that idea anyway, boasting of a “one-seat ride between North Portland and Milwaukie”… as would be made much clearer to riders if it was just the Yellow Line from end to end in the first place. 

Instead, the brochure has to explain that trains change their route designation from Yellow to Orange after Interstate/Rose Quarter on southbound runs, and from Orange to Yellow after Lincoln/SW 3rd on northbound runs. How does that make transit easier to use and simpler to understand for users? It seems to me that an operational desire (potential interlining of routes) has trumped a passenger need (easy to understand routing information), and that’s not a good thing.

As I see it, the whole Orange Line brand really comes down more to marketing than anything else – it’s easier to sell a sexy “new” light rail line to the public and media than a boring old extension of an already-existing line.

Now to see what it looks like on a real system map – here it is on TriMet’s website.