Forward to the pastBy WILLIAM CRAWFORD

Is an expensive project like a streetcar the only option for business-stimulating public transit? Paul Maresh doesn’t think so.

The University Park businessman and a handful of like-minded locals have a simpler alternative for North Portland: wired electric buses. And even though over the years his idea has been received coolly by commissioners and candidates, Maresh still hopes one day to ride “his trolley” through St. Johns’ town center.

Maresh brings forward his ideas at a propitious time: On Wednesday, April 9, the Portland Department of Transportation will host a meeting at the St. Johns Community Center to begin the discussion of streetcar possibilities in North Portland. (See sidebar below.) PDOT is seeing if there is community support for streetcar projects along potential transit corridors including Lombard, Greeley and Killingsworth. They are focusing only on streetcars and not considering any other type of transport.

But citing the prohibitive costs and impractical applications of a fixed-rail streetcar, Maresh hopes North Portland will adopt a much cheaper and maneuverable idea he calls the Kelley Point Trolley System. Utilizing electric buses with connections to overhead wires, Maresh explains his trolley would be able to move in and out of traffic without creating the impossible bottlenecks he says would inevitably develop in places like the narrow section of Lombard Street in the St. Johns town center.

Portland once had an extensive electric trolley-bus system, which operated from 1937 to 1958 according to Dan Haneckow, author of the historical blog Café Unknown. Just 18 years later, in 1976, TriMet commissioned a study to take a second look at the zero-emission vehicles, said Phil Selinger, TriMet’s project planning director. “While reconsidered again in the 1980s, TriMet never put together the capital program to implement the conceptual plan,” he said.

Selinger agrees there are some advantages to trolleys, but says they are less appealing because of the negative visual impact of two sets of wires (required to ground the electricity) versus a streetcar’s one set of wires and the psychological message of good investment through the permanence of the tracks.

“Trolley buses indeed make sense in extreme instances (steep hills/cheap power), but where investment of streetcars and light-rail already exists, they would just add a new set of equipment and right-of-way procurement and maintenance challenges for TriMet,” he concluded.

Maresh contends that one reason his project isn’t gaining traction is the fact that there wouldn’t be many large construction projects required. “The main problem is the design is too simple,” he explains. However, Maresh says the trolley system would be adaptable for future development. “After the trolley has been there for a while, it wouldn’t be hard to convert it into a streetcar.”

Concerned that North Portland’s population density and overabundance of commercial space in the area won’t sustain a costly streetcar, Maresh also fears local businesses could not withstand the extensive construction time the streetcar would necessitate. “The Kelley Point Trolley can be built for a fraction of the cost and won’t disrupt traffic.”

Maresh hopes his system will connect Piedmont, Farragut Park, Kenton, Arbor Lodge, Mock Crest, Columbia Park, University Park, Portsmouth, St. Johns and Cathedral Park with the under-serviced Rivergate industrial area and Kelley
Point Park.

Maresh says he got the idea started back in 2004 with the publishing of the St. Johns/Lombard Street Plan, where the projection called for the implementation of a “streetcar-type transit system” to facilitate traffic flow and reduce congestion.