type local bus light rail commuter rail streetcar number of lines bus 78 1 max light rail 5 2 wes commuter rail 1 2 portland streetcar 2 operated under contract on behalf of the city of portland 3 number of stations light rail 97 2 commuter rail 5 2 daily ridership 319 700 q4 2014 weekday average 4 website trimet.org operation began operation december 1 1969 5 number of vehicles buses 659 2 light rail 145 2 commuter rail 6 2 technical system length light rail 60 miles 97 km 2 commuter rail 14.7 miles 23.7 km 2 track gauge 4 ft 8 1 2 in 1 435 mm standard gauge trimet more formally known as the tri county metropolitan transportation district of oregon is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the portland metropolitan area in the u.s. state of oregon . created in 1969 by the oregon legislature the district replaced five private bus companies that operated in the three counties ; multnomah washington and clackamas . trimet started operating a light rail system named max in 1986 which has since been expanded to 5 lines that now cover 59.7 miles 96.1 km as well as a commuter rail line in 2009 . it also provides the operators and maintenance personnel for the city of portland owned portland streetcar system . in addition to rail lines trimet provides the region s bus system as well as lift paratransit service . there are 659 buses in trimet s fleet that operate on 78 lines . in fiscal year 2013 the entire system averaged almost 316 700 rides per weekday and operates buses and trains between the hours of approximately 5 a.m. and 2 a.m. with no night owl service . trimet s annual budget for fy2014 is 489 million with over half of revenues coming from a district wide payroll tax . 6 the district is overseen by a seven person board of governors appointed by the state s governor . in 2014 the agency has around 2 500 employees . 7 contents 1 general information 2 rail lines 3 bus service 4 fares 5 fleet 5.1 buses 5.2 light rail max 5.3 commuter rail wes 6 timeline 7 future 8 communities served 9 criticism and controversies 9.1 operator fatigue 9.2 failure rate of max ticket vending machines 9.3 sanctioned for illegal employee negotiations behavior 10 see also 11 references 12 external links general information edit trimet is a municipal corporation of the state of oregon with powers to tax issue bonds and enact police ordinances and is governed by a seven member board of directors appointed by the governor of oregon . 8 it has its own boundary which currently encompasses an area of about 533 square miles 1 380 km2 . 2 the trimet district serves portions of the counties of multnomah washington and clackamas ; it extends from troutdale to forest grove east to west and from sauvie island to oregon city and estacada north to south . for more than 30 years the agency called itself tri met but it formally dropped the hyphen from its name in 2002 as part of a new corporate identity strategy involving a redesigned logo and new color scheme for its vehicles and other media . 9 a now obsolete closed circuit television bus schedule service on the portland mall in the 1980s a real time display of schedule information at a stop on the transit mall in 2009 trimet was formed in 1969 after disputes between the portland city council and rose city transit company the private company that previously operated the bus system serving the city but not its suburbs . 5 the new public agency was created by an ordinance of the portland city council under provisions of a law enacted by the 1969 oregon legislature and took over all of rose city transit s service and fleet effective december 1 1969 . 10 bus service in the suburban portions of the metropolitan area was operated by four smaller private companies which had a common union and were collectively known as the blue bus lines portland stages tualatin valley buses intercity buses and estacada molalla stages . these were taken over by trimet on september 6 1970 . 11 eighty eight buses owned by the four suburban companies were transferred to trimet 12 but many were found to be in poor condition 13 and the trimet board soon took action to replace them with new buses . trimet s first paint scheme was this orange and white worn by all vehicles from 1971 until 1980 and by a portion of the fleet the oldest buses until 1991 . as of january 2016 update trimet operates a total of 659 buses on 78 routes 145 max light rail cars on five lines and 268 lift paratransit vehicles . 2 each of the five max and 12 of the bus lines are designated as frequent service lines scheduled to operate at headways of 15 minutes or less for most of the service day service is less frequent in the early morning and late evening . 14 trimet connects to several other mass transit systems 15 c tran the public transit district for vancouver and clark county washington canby area transit the public transit service for canby and rural areas south of oregon city along highway 99e formerly within the trimet district cherriots the public transit service for salem and keizer . this connection is at the wilsonville station of trimet s wes commuter rail rail line . columbia county rider the public transit service for scappoose st. helens and columbia county 16 portland streetcar a circulator streetcar service in downtown portland and neighborhoods near downtown sandy area metro the public transit service for sandy formerly within the trimet district smart the public transit service for wilsonville formerly within the trimet district south clackamas transportation district the public transit service for molalla and rural areas south of oregon city along highway 213 formerly within the trimet district tillamook county transportation district the public transit service for tillamook and tillamook county yamhill county transit area the public transit service for mcminnville newberg and yamhill county trimet also links to various local shuttle services operated by the following ride connection which serves banks gaston king city and north plains ; the swan island transportation management association ; the tualatin transportation management association ; intel ; nike ; and oregon health & science university including the portland aerial tram . long range transportation planning for the metropolitan area is provided by metro an elected regional government . metro also has statutory authority to take over the day to day operations of trimet but has never exercised that power as past studies of such a merger have found it to be problematic . 17 rail lines edit see also max light rail and wes commuter rail max train traveling on the yellow line interstate avenue trimet runs the max light rail short for metropolitan area express system and contracts with portland and western railroad to operate the wes commuter rail line short for westside express service . fares on max as well as wes are the same as trimet bus fares and fare collection uses a proof of payment system or honor system with ticket vending machines at each station . fare inspectors patrol the system randomly . incidents of violence on the system have led to calls for more security 18 and some have argued that more thorough checking of fares would improve riders overall feeling of safety . the transittracker system uses satellite tracking on buses and sensors in the max tracks to predict arrival times at stops and stations . 19 additionally trimet is partnering with google maps to install bluetooth low energy beacons on max platforms allowing nearby android device users to directly receive schedule and alert information . 20 trimet trains operate using reporting mark tmtc . trimet s rail lines include light rail blue line hillsboro beaverton city center gresham green line portland state university city center clackamas orange line union station city center milwaukie red line beaverton city center portland international airport yellow line expo center city center portland state university commuter rail wes beaverton tigard tualatin wilsonville from 1991 until 2014 21 22 trimet also operated the portland vintage trolley service which ran on a portion of the max system on most weekends . 23 it was reduced to only seven dates per year in 2011 and was discontinued entirely in july 2014 . 21 22 see also portland streetcar streetcar lines are owned by the city of portland but trimet is contracted to provide operators and maintenance personnel . 3 trimet also provides a portion of the funding for the streetcar lines . bus service edit a bus stop sign of the current design 2000 present with frequent service . a typical trimet bus stop shelter as of march 6 2016 ref trimet operates 78 bus routes . 1 each route is identified by both a number and a name . the numbers are mostly in the range 1 99 but there are currently five routes with three digit numbers . 1 from 1969 until 1973 trimet bus routes were named but not numbered a practice inherited from rose city transit and the blue bus lines but route numbers were assigned to all routes in august 1973 . 24 25 twelve bus routes are designated as frequent service lines which the agency defines as having a headway of 15 minutes or less most of the service day service is less frequent in the early morning and late evening . 14 fifty eight percent of all bus trips are on the frequent service lines . 14 bus stops that are served by a frequent service line are identified with additional green sign . the bus system includes 17 transit centers that allow passengers to transfer between bus routes and at many transit centers max routes . trimet buses began carrying bicycles on the front in 1992 on a trial basis on eight routes ; 26 the experiment was judged a success and within three years the entire bus fleet had been fitted with bike racks . 27 each rack can hold two bikes . fares edit since september 2012 trimet has used a flat fare system with a single price for each category of rider adult youth senior or disabled regardless of the length of the trip rather than a distance based fare system . however the single fare tickets permit unlimited transfers to other routes within a two hour period . 28 previously the trimet district was divided into three fare zones with fares based on the number of zones in which a passenger traveled . 29 zone 1 consisted of downtown portland and extending about one to two miles 3 km out . zone 2 was a ring around zone 1 out two to three more miles . zone 3 wrapped around zone 2 and consisted of the rest of the system within the suburbs of portland . within zone 1 was fareless square an area in and around downtown within which all rides were free . the zone was created in 1975 and expanded in 2001 but in 2010 it became applicable to light rail and streetcar service only no longer to bus service and renamed the free rail zone 30 and in september 2012 it was discontinued entirely . 31 trimet tickets and passes are also valid on the portland streetcar which is owned by the city of portland but operated mostly by trimet personnel under a contract with the city . 3 in september 2013 trimet released a mobile ticketing app allowing riders to purchase and use tickets for buses light rail and commuter rail on their smartphones . 32 the app called trimet tickets was developed by portland startup globesherpa at no