MAX MAKES ITS DEBUT.

Portland's new light rail line is part of a novel Banfield Transitway project that has combined Interstate Transfer funding with more traditional funding sources to build a coordinated highway-rail transit project designed to meet the long-term transportation needs of the East Side Portland corridor. In addition to light rail, the 319 million project has provided reconstruction and widening of more than four miles of the Banfield Freeway (Interstate 84) that provides the principal highway entry to downtown Portland from the east. Tri-Met has carried out a comprehensive realignment of its East Side bus services that makes the light rail a 'trunk line' route that is fed by a network of connecting bus lines. Bus transfers are available at almost all of the line's 25 stations, with major timed transfer points established at Gresham and Gateway. Including its connections with virtually every bus route serving downtown Portland at the 5th and 6th streets transit mall, Tri-Met's new light rail line connects with 64 of the authority's 76 bus lines. Tri-Met expects Banfield light rail line patronage to reach 17,000 daily riders - almost double the level of the authority's heaviest bus routes - within its first year.