TriMet, Portland’s transit agency, has posted on its web site a response to the Antiplanner’s article, Debunking Portland. The response makes six points:
1. Light rail is “a well-considered decision” made 25 years ago (TriMet says 55, but that is obviously a typo).
2. Portlanders love light rail.
3. Light rail is cheap.
4. Light rail is fast.
5. Light rail “translates into more density, less parking, and new mixes of commercial and residential development.”
6. Light rail is a great investment in the future.
The laugh is on the taxpayers who had to shell out $1.65 billion, and rising, to build Portland’s light-rail lines.
Here are the Antiplanner’s replies.
