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Hiking the Wildwood Trail? Go by Streetcar.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation has released a new report showing how it will use a $1 million federal grant awarded in December to study a 2.3-mile expansion into Slabtown to the edge of Forest Park.
The document, released as part of Portland's Streetcar Inc.'s annual report to City Council, offers the most detailed picture yet of the planned new line—including the tantalizing possibility that the line could take weekend adventurers to Macleay Park, an entrance to Forest Park's maze of rain-forest trails.
The streetcar extension will run through the northern part of Northwest Portland, through "24 acres of land poised for redevelopment," and end at the Montgomery Park building (and its new Adidas outlet store), with a spur to Northwest 27th Avenue, stopping three blocks east of Macleay Park.
"The neighborhood has hosted a world's fair, drawn crowds to the city's first professional baseball stadium, and served as the point of entry to Forest Park," PBOT's report reads. "Over that time, the area has become one of the most densely populated residential areas in Oregon."
The new route would fit into the Streetcar's current loop, serving portions of Portland's Central Eastside and extending across the Broadway Bridge to Grand and 7th Avenues.
Funding for studying the new line comes in the form of a $1 million "transit-oriented development planning grant" from the Federal Transit Administration.
In order to expand streetcar service and frequency, PBOT has also purchased three new streetcars, which it says will come online in 2020.
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