82nd Avenue is one of the region’s most important commercial, cultural, residential and transportation corridors, connecting people to jobs, school, shopping, neighborhoods, health care and other destinations. It’s also one of the busiest and most used streets in our community, with thousands traveling along it daily by bus, walking, biking and driving.
It is home to a diverse and growing community that relies on dependable transportation. That’s why we’re currently designing the 82nd Avenue Transit Project, which will bring FX-Frequent Express® bus service, plus much-needed safety and accessibility improvements, to the corridor.
TriMet is not building this project alone. We’re partnering with the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) to invest in upgrades that will benefit everyone using the corridor. We’re also working with our partners at Metro, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Clackamas County to improve transit service and safety along 82nd Avenue between the Cully neighborhood and Clackamas Town Center.
How We’re Transforming the Corridor
TriMet and PBOT are working together to build a better 82nd Avenue through a series of coordinated upgrades.
TriMet is delivering the 82nd Avenue Transit Project, which will mean better bus service for riders along approximately ten miles of the corridor, including 53 station platforms in Portland.
PBOT’s work focuses on projects that enhance the safety for all people traveling along 82nd Avenue, like improving sidewalks, crossings and the roadway surface.
In Clackamas County, the project will build 15 station platforms, which will include improved access to transit with upgraded sidewalks and ADA curb ramps, plus enhancements to the Clackamas Town Center Transit Center.
Together, this work is transforming 82nd Avenue into a more livable, usable and safer corridor for all users.
Faster, More Reliable Bus Service is Coming
For many years, the bus line currently serving the corridor–Line 72–has had the highest ridership of any TriMet bus line, with about 10,000 daily trips. It’s a backbone of transit service, but it also experiences more delays than any other on our system due to congestion on 82nd Avenue.
The FX line will bring better bus service between Clackamas Town Center and the Cully neighborhood along 82nd Avenue with:
- Service every 12 minutes or better for most of the day
- Transit signal priority and business access/transit lanes in key locations that keep buses moving through congestion instead of stuck in it
- Longer, 60-foot, zero-emissions buses powered by hydrogen, with multiple doors for briefer stops
- Bus stations with weather protection, lighting and accessibility improvements, near pedestrian crossings
- Better connections to 20 other bus lines and MAX with access to key destinations
All of these things working together means fewer bunching delays and more predictable trips in a corridor that’s heavily congested, which will get transit riders to their destinations faster and more reliably in 2029, when the new FX service is expected to begin.
Learn more about the 82nd Avenue Transit Project online.
What’s Next for the 82nd Avenue Transit Project
There’s still a lot of work to do before the project opens. Currently, the project team is working to complete the design, with final plans expected near the end of this year. Following funding awarding, project construction is expected to occur from 2027 through 2029.
A Partnership for Safer Streets and Improved Access
PBOT’s Building a Better 82nd Avenue project work is already laying the foundation to make 82nd Avenue safer and more accessible for everyone.
The project work began in 2023 and kicked off an impressive amount of improvements and maintenance that make the corridor more functional and livable, including new street lighting, signal timing upgrades, pedestrian crossings and more.
PBOT will also make improvements in the corridor to make traveling through it more comfortable, with planned sidewalks, new curb ramps, repaving and tree planting in select locations.
There’s also more work ahead in conjunction with the 82nd Avenue Transit Project, when construction is expected to kick off in 2027, including pedestrian crossing improvements at six intersections between NE Klickitat and SE Tolman streets.
We will also partner with the Oregon Department of Transportation to develop other safety and accessibility improvements in the corridor. Together, these partnerships are creating a corridor that works better as a connected system.
Learn more about PBOT’s Building a Better 82nd Avenue online.
Investing in the Future of 82nd Avenue
82nd Avenue plays an important role in how people get around. The collective work TriMet and project partners are doing is designed with coordinated intention: To create stronger connections between neighborhoods and improve how people get to jobs, schools, services and other destinations.
We’re making investments that directly support the people who rely on the corridor. By improving transit and upgrading safety and maintenance issues, we’re not just building a new transit or street project, we’re making 82nd Avenue easier to use and better connected for years to come.
Stay involved–sign up for email updates about the 82nd Avenue Transit Project online.