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| A blue line (east-west) train heads eastbound into the city from Hillsboro out of the tunnel under Washington Park. |
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| An eastbound green line MAX light rail train for Clackamas in the downtown |
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| One of the Czech built streetcars - Skoda's 10T model, originally also called Astra 10T. The US firm Inekon did most of the design work, while Skoda built them in its Pilsen plant. |
But by the the early 1980s it was clear that the benefit of electric railways was needed again and so began the light rail system known as MAX (Metropolitan Area Express), of which the construction of the first 15-mile (24 km) route started in 1982, and opened on 5 September 1986. These were joined by the separate Portland Streetcar in 2001 which uses lighter vehicles with shorter lengths for tighter curves than MAX trains but there are several interchange points.
There are now 4 MAX lines with an aggregate length of 52.4 miles (84.3 km) (outside of the city area much of it is on dedicated right of way), which unusually use two voltages: 750 Volts DC on sections west of NE 9th Avenue & Holladay Street and 825 Volts DC nominal on the remainder. The two voltage systems are electrically isolated. A fifth line is planned to open in 2015 with a length of 7.3 miles (11.7 km).
The Streetcar has two lines - the second was opened last September - with a total route length of 7.2 miles (11.6 km). Downtown Portland is now served very well by the street railways now in place.
More historic pics and info here (current pics by Geoff Churchman)
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