HMMF. I’m a little annoyed at TriMet for not getting the Yellow line up and running. I know there is snow and ice out there and they can barely get their fleet up to 50%, but I want to whine anyway. I see that the Blue and Red lines are running properly every 15 minutes, so why not the Yellow? If you go look at the tracks, no one from TriMet has even tried to clear them.
Portland has a history of ignoring North Portland. Is this another case of that? I keep hearing in the news that the issue is with frozen switches. Why doesn’t the most recent and newest line in the city not have heated switches like the other lines? I wonder if they skimped on the Green line also. Was someone trying to save a few bucks at the expense of a whole section of the city?
What are your thoughts? Let the holiday kvetching begin!
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None of the MAX lines have heated switches. When they freeze, it’s a manual process to clear them.
As to why the Yellow line gets screwed? I’m not sure. The Red line just started operating yesterday (I think)… it had been down for several days as well. They seem to put the priority on the Blue line since it serves the most folks and really ties the city together (not unlike a nice rug).
So much for great reporting by our local media (which has had non stop coverage since Sunday.) I swear I have heard it reported that “some switches aren’t heated” which leads to them freezing. This implies that there are some switches that are heated.
Yeah, it does make sense that the Blue and Red open first, I just feel neglected and wanted to whine.
Yeah, I know it is an annoyance and I know it feels like N. Portland gets the short shift, but I’m going to play devil’s advocate here.
Aaron brings up a good point. Basically, when doing this kind of city “emergency planning” work, Tri-met needs to look at the whole city and then weigh the issues/problems with where the most need is and where the most impact will be. The Red and Blue Lines serve a larger geography and more people, and have the critical aspect of serving PDX airport and downtown. I think they are wise to focus their limited resources on those lines.
I know it sucks, but there are several bus lines (and a shuttle) serving those areas.
I think Tri-met is doing a fantastic job given the circumstances, and I do give them an A++ for their communications (online, on the phone, on their automated 238-ride system and on tv).
Breaking News from N. PDX:
Ok so I was out taking pictures just now, like ya do, and a train passed through the intersection going towards downtown. Do you think it’s back up and running or are they doing test runs?
The TriMet website says the Yellow is still down.
Around this part of the country, even the “real” railroads don’t have heated switches…. instead they use this method:
Hurray! Someone as annoyed as me about this whole Yellow Line/Snow fiasco. And an open forum for kvetching!
Worst part for me? On Monday, I left the office (south downtown, near the waterfront) two hours early… and still got home later than normal.
It took an hour just to get across the river to the Rose Quarter, but that part was understandable. They had limited trains that were packed to overflowing, so not only did you have to wait awhile between them but there was a good chance you could fit on one once it finally arrived.
But the Rose Quarter part on Monday? That was unforgivable.
I got to RQ around 4pm and walked over to the temporary Yellow Line shuttle stop TriMet set up just north of the MAX station. Including the rest of the people who got off my train, there were probably a couple dozen of us waiting for the Yellow Line shuttle.
A shuttle which, according to the alert TriMet sent out < 1hr earlier, was running every 15-20 minutes.
So I stood there and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
4:15 passed. 4:20. 4:30. 4:45.
At 5, after waiting a full hour for the shuttle, there was a huge crowd of people waiting, enough that the TriMet folks decided we were starting to cause problems (don’t know exactly how…). So one of the TriMet reps came by and told the lot of us that they’d decided to move the Yellow Line stop from its current location over to the regular Rose Quarter Yellow Line MAX station.
The TriMet rep led our little MAX Death March of about 100 people to the other stop and assured us that 3 different shuttles were en route, and that they should all arrive within the next 10 minutes or so.
Apparently, though, they didn’t tell the shuttle drivers about any of this, nor did they inform newly arrived Yellow Liners to go down to the new stop.
Sooo….
Shuttle One finally appears, but it goes back up to the previous stop and lets on all the passengers who’d just arrived. By the time it got to the “new” stop, it only had enough room to let on about 6 passengers. People in line who, like me, had waited over an hour were left out in the cold (literally). Some, those now late for jobs, offered to pay passengers at the front of the line for their spots.
About 10 minutes later, Shuttle Two started coming to our stop. That one didn’t even slow down, again already filled to capacity from the other station.
By that time, I’d been waiting about 90 minutes for the “shuttle that leaves every 15-20 min.” I was cold, tired, and more than a little pissed off.
And so were the rest of the passengers. After the second bus ignored all of us, about half of the crowd headed back to the original station. Me? I joined a few other people and decided to start walking, fully expecting to have to walk in the cold and the snow drifts all the way to my car parked at the Expo Center.
Thankfully, just as I got to the Albina/Mississippi stop, another shuttle bus finally came by (saw other buses in the mean time, but don’t recall if they were shuttles or running a regular route). That driver was kind enough to stop and let the three of us squeeze on (I stood on the bottom step at the front of the bus, my ass squeezed against the door).
I called in the next day.
Merry Christmas!
Justin’s story is a bit toned down and less emotional than the version I was hearing (as it happened) via Twitter.
While waiting for the 4 at the Rose Quarter today I saw the Yellow Line MAX shuttle provide more frequent service than I’ve ever seen MAX provide, even in perfect weather during rush hour. As soon as one MAX shuttle left, there was another one right there ready to take its place. I didn’t wait longer than 15-20 minutes and saw three shuttle buses leave in that time.
I can understand complaining if there was no service at all, but it seems TriMet went above and beyond to keep Yellow Line passengers moving along.
@JustinS – I too was in that line waiting for the bus and watching …what? 3 buses pass FULL of people. The last one was the best as that bus driver yelled at us and told us that that wasn’t where the shuttle pick up was and that we all needed to go up to the Transit Center. It seemed to add insult to injury. So the last of the line that was waiting near the platform gave up the ghost and trekked up to the TC. I thought for sure a mob would form, however, upon seeing a mostly empty shuttle bus there, everyone just piled on thankful to be able to get home.
I’d like to say a word of thanks to the driver of that bus as he made sure that EVERY last person (that I saw, at least) got on that shuttle. Also, those that had started walking up Interstate in disgust over the situation were also picked up, no matter that they were in the middle of the street. So a bus load of kvetching people that had waited too long in the cold turned into a friendly and thankful bus full of people, made even more so by the generosity of the bus driver that insisted that no man was left behind.
These are trying and unstable times on Tri-met due to weather and for the most part people are good, but they are getting tired and grumpy now (including drivers and I can honestly cut them a bit of slack here. I drove a lot yesterday and it sucks to be out there battling the roads and idiot drivers). I think it’s important to remember that no one experience on Tri-met right now is indicative of the whole situation. I’ve had nothing but terrific experiences this week on Tri-met, including taking the Yellow line, the shuttles, the blue line downtown and then the Red Line to the airport during snowpocalypse on the 21st and then again today. So go figure.
I think Portlanders are used to such terrific bus and train service that when the system is under duress, it seems like a really big deal. Given that Tri-met suddenly has a huge number of new and more frequent riders this week and the roads are still F*#ked up, their whole system has been in upheaval on routes with shuttles, with chains on buses, etc. I still feel they are doing a fantastic job. They have been especially good at communicating and keeping up to date info on Transit tracker and their website, and for me that goes a very long way in the respecto-meter.
Biggest complaint from me (broken record, I know) was lack of communication. Obviously somebody made the perhaps totally reasonable tactical decision to focus efforts on keeping the Blue Line open. The Yellow Line spur was ably served by shuttle buses (I used it on Monday and Tuesday with waits no longer than when the train is running).
So, who made that call? Was Portland’s commissioner of transportation, mayor-elect and North Portland resident Sam Adams involved in (or at least informed of) the decision? Why wasn’t the public informed?
It was obvious early in the week that the tracks weren’t being plowed and TriMet was pretty much just waiting it out for the Yellow Line. Maybe not a bad call, but I’d like to know who makes these decisions, when, why and in consultation with whom.
Steve – I got weather and service updates from TriMet about 4-5 times a day via e-mail and RSS. I’d say that was adequate information to me as a member of the TriMet-using public.
@Aaron – I didn’t have any trouble knowing whether the Yellow line was running. Sorry I didn’t make it more clear that I wasn’t talking about the level of service or information about that.
I’m talking about transparency in the decision-making process and a general lack of visible leadership and inter-agency coordination.
@aaron, @steve -
I thought their communication was great… for the most part. The day that @capricious and I had our Day o’ Fun, though, they seriously dropped the ball in that communicatin’ department.
For instance, as I mentioned in my other comment, I received one of the TriMet emails within an hour of starting my wait. The email just had bad info in it (15-20 min 60+ min).
Also, they failed to communicate among themselves. When the TriMet employee on the scene moved our group, they needed to make sure to tell a) the drivers and b) passengers arriving after the move. I especially love how Capricious got yelled at by a driver for doing what the TriMet person told us. CLASSY.
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