At a recent Citizen's Advisory Committee (CAC) meeting, Tri-Met presented a further study of Harold street which appears to conclude that ridership/households served would not provide an adequate project return on investment, in addition to adversely impacting the trains' schedule with the additional stop. The average cost of the Harold station built at-grade, is estimated by Tri-Met to be between $4M to $5M. I would expect the price tag closer to the $5M range, since there would need to be at least 1 or more pedestrian bridge features at this station to accommodate Union Pacific's train tracks and McLaughlin Blvd.
In the ridership and cost/benefit study presented to the CAC, it was also found that the overlapping service radius of Holgate and Bybee stations covered portions of the proposed Harold street service area, reducing the potential ridership of households serviced by the Harold platform.
To illustrate this point, Tri-Met presented a graphic which I have attempted to recreate here (and is not to scale). Harold services approximately 1,800 households in the service radius. When looking at the overlap of the Holgate and Bybee radius, the Harold service area is reduced to only approximately 800 households (see below).
Do you live in the proposed Harold station area? Do you feel that this station would be needed on the MAX line or would you rather not have a station at this location and prefer to use Holgate or Bybee?
Please feel free to post a relevant comment answering the questions above. You can also send email to me, Mike at southeastmax@gmail.com and I will make your views known at the next CAC meeting. Even better, attend a CRC meeting (schedule linked on the right) and provide public comment to the committee.
