Portland Vintage Trolley
| Portland Vintage Trolley | |
|---|---|
One of the replica Brill cars at the PSU Urban Center station in September 2009
|
|
| Overview | |
| Type | Heritage streetcar |
| System | MAX Light Rail of TriMet (1991–2014); also Portland Streetcar (2001–2005) |
| Status | Ceased operation |
| Locale | Portland, Oregon, U.S. |
| Operation | |
| Opened | November 29, 1991 |
| Closed | July 6, 2014 |
| Owner | TriMet and Vintage Trolley, Inc. |
| Operator(s) | TriMet |
| Rolling stock | 4 Gomaco-built 1903 Brill replicas |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge |
4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Electrification | Overhead lines, 750 V DC |
The Portland Vintage Trolley was a heritage streetcar service in Portland, Oregon, United States, that operated from 1991 to 2014. It operated on a portion of the MAX light rail system, and for a brief time also operated on the Portland Streetcar system, in downtown and nearby areas. Service was provided with replicas of a type of Brill streetcar, nicknamed the "Council Crest" cars, which last served Portland in 1950. The service was managed by Vintage Trolley Inc., a non-profit corporation, and the cars were owned and operated by TriMet, Portland's transit agency. For 18 of its 23 years, the service followed a 2.3-mile (3.7 km) section of what is now the MAX Blue Line, between Lloyd Center and the west end of downtown. In September 2009, the route was changed to a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) section of the MAX system, along the transit mall in downtown Portland, from Union Station to Portland State University (PSU).
Introduced in 1991, Vintage Trolley service operated on most weekends or at least most Sundays, from March through December, in all past years through 2010, and ran seven days a week from 1994 through 1999. However, starting in 2011 the service was heavily reduced, operating on just seven dates per year, and it remained at that reduced level for its final four seasons. Rides were narrated by a conductor who identified historic points of interest along the way. After May 1994, rides were free, but donations were accepted.
On December 22, 2013, the service operated for what was, at the time, scheduled to be the last time, as a result of a decision by TriMet on December 11 to sell the two remaining Gomaco-built Brill-replica streetcars (511 and 512) to a group planning a streetcar line in St. Louis, Missouri. Earlier in 2013, the other two Gomaco cars were transferred from Portland Vintage Trolley service to the Willamette Shore Trolley (WST) fleet, although their entry into service there was delayed to 2014 (and one of the two cars was not moved to the WST line until 2014). However, after the transfer of streetcars 511 and 512 to St. Louis was delayed from spring to September 2014, TriMet scheduled two additional dates of Vintage Trolley service: May 25 and July 6, 2014, and the latter was the final day of service.
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