TriMet announces opening date for Portland-Milwaukie light rail line | OregonLive.com

TriMet announces opening date for Portland-Milwaukie light rail line | OregonLive.com Oh Jeez, first of all TriMet on Thursday announced the opening date for the $1.49 billion Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail line will be Sept. 12, 2015. ~~~> That is absolutely ridiculous, they are setting the exact day it will open almost 2 years from now! Cheap public relations stunt! A "50 Percent Complete" event in downtown Portland not only drew TriMet officials but members of the Oregon Legislature, Metro's leadership, the Portland City Council and the Clackamas County Commission and representatives of Oregon's congressional delegation and Oregon Health & Sciences University ~~~>Well ya, all politicians and bureaucrats showed up. It a PR event! They do that only to get their stupid pictures that they use later. If they didn't show up nobody would. TriMet describes the bridge as "the first of its kind multi-modal bridge will carry light rail, buses, bikes, pedestrians and a future Portland Streetcar extension over the Willamette River, but no private vehicles." Hmmm. Legally, bicycles are private vehicles. Less bureaucra-speak please. There is nothing wrong with Light Rail per se, everybody should have it if possible (note to everybody, DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT, put light rail right down the middle of your downtown street and stop every 3 blocks. Not only does it make the LR vulnerable to traffic issues and accidents but it defeats the purpose of LR which is FAST service. Then there is the question of ethics involved with this, I wrote an essay about that HERE!