 Summer is heating up and so are things at TriMet! See what we've been up to recently.
 Sam Desue, Jr. – TriMet COO and interim General Manager – has been chosen by the TriMet Board to lead our agency into the future. Sam was chosen after a nationwide search conducted by our Board and a 12-member Community Panel.
Sam brings more than 27 years of public and private transportation experience to the position. He is the first GM of color in our 51-year history. Learn more about Sam’s experience and vision for TriMet’s future here.
 We announced our move to 100% renewable electricity on June 14th, with the support of our partners Portland General Electric and Pacific Power, along with Climate Solutions.
Electricity was our second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions – only behind our diesel bus fleet. By switching our MAX system, electric buses and all TriMet-owned facilities to renewable energy, we’ve reduced our carbon dioxide emission by 25%.
 We’ll soon reduce our carbon emissions by another 25% when we begin running all TriMet buses on R99, or renewable diesel.
While we transition to a zero-emissions bus fleet by 2040, these two steps cut our carbon footprint in half right now. That adds up to more than 120 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions avoided annually. That’s equal to taking 12,000 cars off the road.
 As vaccination rates climb and more destinations reopen, we’re teaming up with the City of Portland in encouraging people to get back out and enjoy all that our community has to offer. To do that, TriMet and the Portland Streetcar will not be collecting fares on the upcoming 4th of July weekend (July 3-5).
We’re ‘Here for Portland’ and all the cities we serve. As you feel more comfortable going out in public, we hope you will be too and help our region bounce back from the challenges of the past 16 months.
 Crews have completed 70% of the construction on the Division Transit Project and soon the public will be seeing green—a sign of the new service arriving in fall 2022. This will be a higher tier of bus service, so we’re giving it a new name and new green look.
FX—for Frequent Express—will have longer buses for more people and bikes on board, platform-style stations for quicker stops, signal priority and bus lanes in key locations to speed up buses.
 Have you seen the new red-painted lane on Hawthorne Boulevard in inner Southeast Portland?
A part of PBOT’s Central City in Motion project, this new, bus-only lane will speed up trips on our Line 2, 10 and 14 buses.
Improvements like these not only get our riders where they need to go quicker and more efficiently, they make traffic flow better and make it safer for those on foot and on bike as well.
The TriMet Board has adopted our budget for the new fiscal year that starts July 1. It includes efforts to bring riders back and better the customer experience, further our reimagining of public safety and security on transit and projects to improve our service.
Also, Standard & Poors (S&P) has reaffirmed TriMet’s long-standing AAA bond rating and moved our outlook status from negative—where all transit agencies fell during the pandemic—to stable. This is a sign of our strong financial management, despite fare and payroll tax revenues being down.
 We’re celebrating Pride month with our latest special bus design. This one features Oregon leaders in the LGBTQ+ community. Learn more about the design and the people it pays tribute to at trimet.org/celebrate.
Some of our employees shared what Pride means to them in this video.
 Team TriMet pitched in to help clean up trash in the Gateway neighborhood on June 19. We’ll be taking part in community cleanups with SOLVE each month through September. Cleanups like these help keep neighborhoods safe and healthy while protecting the environment. See how you can join us in restoring the beauty of our region.
We’re excited about our switch to R99 (renewable diesel) and all the ways we’re reducing our carbon dioxide emissions. But, did you know, TriMet was the first transit agency to fuel our buses with biodiesel?
That was back in 2006—the same year we pioneered a NASCAR-inspired cooling system.
Pulling electricity off the battery instead of the engine to power cooling fans improved fuel economy and reduced emissions. Our technology became a standard feature in the transit industry and won us a Clean Air Excellence Award from the Environmental Protection Agency in 2008.
The Get There Oregon regional guide will help keep your employees out of traffic with transportation tips and resources to prepare your employees for a successful transition back to workplace commuting.
Made possible with support from Metro and the Federal Transit Administration
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