The North South Line (NS Line) is a streetcar service of the Portland Streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, United States. Operated by Portland Streetcar, Inc. and TriMet, it travels approximately per direction from Northwest 23rd & Marshall to Southwest Lowell & Bond and serves 39 stations. The line connects Portland's Northwest District, Pearl District, downtown, Portland State University (PSU), and South Waterfront. It runs every day of the week between 15 and 18 hours per day and operates on headways of 15 to 20 minutes.
The restoration of streetcar service, which last operated in Portland in 1950, began with the efforts of a citizen advisory committee in 1990. After nearly a decade of planning, construction of the Central City Streetcar project began in 1999. With the opening of its first segment on July 20, 2001, it became the inaugural line of the Portland Streetcar system and the first second-generation streetcar service in the United States with its use of modern vehicles. The line has since been extended to RiverPlace and the South Waterfront. Having previously had no distinct route name, it was designated the North South Line in September 2012, when the system opened its second service, the Central Loop Line, which was later re-branded as the A and B Loop.
History
Early planning
Planning for the restoration of streetcar services in downtown Portland, which had ceased operating in 1950, was considered as early as the 1970s, when businessman and philanthropist Bill Naito led an effort to convince downtown property owners to help build a vintage trolley line. In response to recommendations to develop a streetcar network by Portland's 1988 Central City Plan, a citizen-led advisory committee was established in 1990 that would convince the city to the conduct a feasibility study. Early plans envisioned three lines, with the first running up from John's Landing near the South Waterfront through downtown Portland to Northwest 23rd Avenue in the Northwest District. This proposed line, initially referred to as "Central City Trolley", was predicted to run replicas of cars that once served Council Crest. Project supporters and planners later renamed it the "Central City Streetcar", after opting instead to employ modern, low-floor trams in the hopes that it would be seen as a transit system rather than a tourist attraction.
Several alternative routes were considered in downtown, including the Portland Transit Mall on 5th and 6th avenues, as well as Park and 9th avenues. Both routes were rejected by nearby neighborhood associations. In January 1994, the Portland City Council adopted a route between Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center on Northwest 23rd Avenue and PSU via 10th and 11th avenues, and the following year, called for bids to design, build, and operate the service. The nonprofit Portland Streetcar, Inc., which consisted of leaders from the city's businesses and public institutions, was the only firm to respond to the bid request.
Funding and construction
The city council authorized the streetcar project in July 1997. The cost of the project amounted to $56.9 million (equivalent to $ in dollars), with the city covering the largest share. City parking bonds provided most of the city's contribution at $28.6 million. In September 1998, the city council created a local improvement district to collect funding from properties situated within two blocks of the streetcar alignment, providing $9.6 million. The Portland Development Commission redistributed $7.5 million in tax increment funds from the South Park Blocks urban renewal area that had been earmarked for TriMet's cancelled South/North Corridor project; this was used to extend the streetcar route through the PSU campus to Southwest 5th Avenue. Only $5 million came from the Federal Transit Administration for construction, reallocated from TriMet to the city in exchange for a system giving TriMet buses transit signal priority. Procurement and installation of tracks and wiring and the construction of a maintenance barn beneath the Fremont Bridge were estimated at $28.2 million and $4 million, respectively. In 1999, Czech manufacturer Škoda was selected to provide the line's first five streetcars, valued at $12 million. The streetcar order was expanded to seven in 2001 to provide enough cars for a planned extension of the line from PSU to RiverPlace.