I'll be flying into PDX in April and making my way to Union Station downtown. I've looked at the Trimet website and the trip from the airport to the station looks to be pretty straight forward.

My understanding is there will be some walking involved between the nearest destination station and the railroad station itself but it doesn't look to be all that far (I'll have a backpack and a small rollaboard).

Since I have several hours between plane arrival and AMTRAK departure I thought I'd try this method as opposed to the usual taxi.

If there is anything I need to know that might make me change my mind I'd appreciate hearing that and thanks in advance.

Nope, it really is that easy Enjoy your time here.

MMS,

Thanks very much for your response..it is appreciated.

The new MAX Green Line (opened last fall) routes you several blocks closer to Union Station than the Red Line (airport line) does. There's actually a Union Station stop on the Green line. Take the Red Line from the airport toward Downtown Portland. Change from the Red Line to the Green Line anywhere between Gateway and Rose Quarter, but the Convention Center stop (right before Rose Quarter) might be the best place to change. There's a Starbucks and some chain restaurants nearby (including local fast food favorite Burgerville) right at the station, so you can get off there, hang out and chill for a bit if you wish, then catch the next Green to Union Station.

If the weather is nice, you could potentially check out the Classical Chinese Garden that's not far from Union Station, if you've never done that before. I forget whether the Red or Green line gets you closest to that - but that would involve several blocks of walking.

Andrew, thanks very much.

POTENTIALLY, I should have several hours between my arrival at PDX/Union Station and the departure of my train. I purposely routed myself to PDX earlier than absolutely necessary so I would have plenty of wiggle room.

I appreciate your kind recommendations. I have only been to Portland once, some years ago, and only to change planes so have not seen any of the city and its offerings at all. Unfortunately, this trip won't afford a whole lot of time to rectify that situation but at least this would be a start. I'll try to check out the Chinese Garden for sure.

Thanks again.

The Chinese Garden is a good suggestion. It is on one small city block, so doesn't take very long to see at all.

I generally drive to Portland (live near Seattle) and would love to figure out the Light Rail system, but Portland is so walkable that I find myself going everywhere on foot. What would be some examples of MAX trips from/around downtown that I could do just to familiarize myself with the system?

Obviously cannot help you but to strongly recommend you look at www.trimet.org as I did.

MAX is great! We finally got light rail to the airport here in Seattle, but it's not nearly as smooth as Portland's MAX.

Actually, enzian, while I haven't yet seen Seattle's new light rail, on paper it looks like an improvement on the concept of Portland's MAX. One big problem I have with MAX is that it has far too many stops downtown which slows it down greatly going from, say, the airport to the other side of town. And there's no express capability built in; all trains are "locals." And trains are limited to two cars, because MAX trains are designed to be at maximum the size of one Portland city block. Seattle's system seems to minimize stops. I don't anticipate flying to Seattle so I'm not sure why I'd use it to get to the airport there, but I am curious to try it out.

Some trips you can take with MAX in Portland, azzure? Well, you can take MAX to the zoo (Blue or Red Line). The MAX stop there is deep underground; you take a zippy elevator to get up to the top. The new MAX Green Line goes up the bus mall (5th/6th ave one-ways streets where many buses in town make connections) all the way to Portland State University (farmer's market on weekends). The MAX Red and Blue lines also pass near Saturday Market. Yes, you can walk to these places as well.

You can't take MAX directly to the International Rose Test Garden and Japanese Garden unfortunately, but you can catch a bus or shuttle (limited hours) from Zoo stop. In addition, you can just take MAX to the Kings Hill stop and walk up to the Gardens - it's a hefty walk up hill but not bad if you are in shape and a beautiful walk to boot.

Portland also has the Portland Streetcar - entirely separate from the MAX but operated on the same TriMet system with a few exceptions. MAX and bus tickets are good for two hours generally but good ALL DAY on the Streetcar - but not vice versa. You buy MAX tickets at machines at the stations but you buy Streetcar tickets ON BOARD the streetcar. (You can also buy bus/train tickets at Pioneer Courthouse Square or at grocery store customer service desk and validate them when you want to use them.)

The Streetcar takes you from NW 23rd Ave in NW Portland through the Pearl District (past Powell's) through downtown (past the Art Museum) and Portland State University and all the way down to Riverplace and the new South Waterfront district. You can from there take yet another transit vehicle: the Portland Aerial Tram, which goes from South Waterfront up to the OHSU hospital (and veteran's hospital). While the tram was intended for hospital business and commuting, tourists can take it to the top and get great views of downtown and the mountains. It costs a few bucks one way - I forget how much - just to ride the tram one stop up to the hospital.

By the way, all rail (MAX and Streetcar) are FREE to use within the "Free Rail Zone" (formerly known as "Fareless Square" - it now includes only trains not buses). This zone includes part of the Pearl District (close to but not including Union Station), all of downtown up past PSU and to Riverplace. MAX up to Convention Center and Lloyd Center is also part of the free zone. So if you just want to get on the train downtown and take it for a spin for a few stops, it's free, have a blast!

Oh, and one more tip: Dukey mentioned the official transit website, www.trimet.org for Portland's transit system. There's a navigation tool there and schedules - but for navigation, I prefer Google Transit, which gives you bus/train routing information on a Google Map. Very handy! Just go to www.google.com/transit and type in your start and end points. You can even choose just names like "PDX" and "Oregon Convention Center" - Google is usually smart enough to figure out the addresses for you!

Trimet.org does have something cool though called Transit Tracker (also available by phone). Transit Tracker allows you to view real-time bus and train arrival times (so you can look at the bus sign and call TriMet's automated system to find out when the next bus is due without checking a schedule. (And it will say "10 minutes" so will reflect real-time arrivals not the official schedule.) Unfortunately, the system is not reporting MAX times this way lately - not sure why, maybe they will fix it someday!