End of the Line

Starting tomorrow light rail and trolley service in Portland's downtown core, an area for years referred to as "fareless square," will no longer be free.

You see, in the days prior to this epic and sleazy turnabout by Tri-Met, the region's governing transportation overlord, you could hop on a train and ride five or six blocks to get to the doctor or grocery store (or the favorite bar) and feel good about the state of the community.

For the unemployed, underemployed,  the impoverished and the sick and the infirm, the old system was a lifesaver, particularly in inclement weather, something rainy Portland knows well.

No more.  Tri-Met's facile incompetence has at last presented this option:  You may ride one city block on the Max train or Portland trolley for exactly 2.25 American.

Which is the same price, short a nickle or two, it costs to ride to the Max terminus in Hillsboro, a 14 mile trip, or to the one in the opposite direction in Gresham, a 15 mile trip from Portland's central city.

I don't mind paying for long trips, and in fact can see why I should.  I'm able, at this stage of life, to walk about anywhere I want to walk or have to walk to take care of my business within Portland's core area.

But I will not pay 2.25 American to ride two blocks.

Many of Portland's downtown residents, however, aren't as fortunate as I am to be able to avoid the necessity of using the public system in Portland's core area.  The burden placed on them to cover Tri-Met's gross negligence is absurd and simply another example of how the poor have been blindsided by Tri-Met's inability to compute the social costs of its policy and management decisions.

Tri-Met, kiss my ass.

There is not a single goddamned reason in hell why a person riding one block should have to pay the same amount to ride Max as a person who is riding the train to its terminus 15 miles away.

Unless that reason is to rip people off or make the system as inequitable as you possibly can in your bureaucratic, over-paid haze.

The planning in this policy change has been atrocious and has created another weapon in the armory of those who believe, like I do, that we've arrived at yet another example of how Tri-Met has lost its way.


TS