TriMet acts quickly to fix back-to-school bus crowding

TriMet responded promptly to last week’s back-to-school overcrowding on a few city bus lines. Last Thursday, BikePortland reported on standing room only conditions and rider pass-ups on the 51 line to Portland heights, which particularly affected Lincoln High School students.

Early this week, TriMet added additional buses to the 51-line peak runs, and this appears to have solved the problems.

Tom Mills, Director of TriMet Planning and Policy, told BikePortland that TriMet also added buses to the 1-Vermont, 10-Harold, and 26-Thurman lines. They took away service from from Line 70-12th Ave because they didn’t see the extra crowding that they had expected (probably because Benson HS is now at the Marshall campus).

Mills pointed out that although “these change have been put in place, they won’t show up in the online schedule until next week because it takes a little while for all the systems to be updated.” He also noted that “every year the number of additional school trips has to be tweaked due to fluctuating demand and changing bell times among the schools. It is normal for it to take 1-2 weeks to smooth out.”

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— Lisa Caballero, lisacaballero853@gmail.com
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