page_title: NS Line
section_title: Opening and later extensions
hierarchical_section_title: NS Line / History / Opening and later extensions
caption_attribution_description: Portland Streetcar car 009, a 2006 Inekon 12-Trio, southbound on a section of ballasted, two-way single track next to SW Moody Avenue, on an extension of the line that had opened in October 2006. In 2011, Moody Avenue was realigned, widened, and raised slightly in elevation, and a new double-track streetcar alignment was incorporated into it, to replace this alignment, which had always been temporary (as the realignment of Moody had been planned for years). The Marquam Bridge (on Interstate 5) is in the background.
context_page_description: The North South Line is a streetcar service in Portland, Oregon, United States, that runs as part of the Portland Streetcar system. Operated by Portland Streetcar, Inc. and TriMet, it travels approximately 4.1 miles per direction between Northwest 23rd & Marshall and Southwest Lowell & Bond, serving 39 stations. The line connects Portland's Northwest District, Pearl District, downtown, Portland State University, and South Waterfront. It runs every day of the week between 15 and 18 hours per day, operating on headways of 15 to 20 minutes. The NS Line is the busiest of Portland's three streetcar routes; it carried an average of 8,751 weekday riders in September 2018.
  The restoration of streetcar service, which last operated in Portland in 1950, began with the efforts of a citizen advisory committee in 1990. After nearly a decade of planning, construction began in 1999. With the opening of its first 2.4-mile segment in 2001, it became the inaugural line of the Portland Streetcar system, as well as the first second-generation streetcar service in the United States, owing to its use of modern vehicles.
context_section_description: The first 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of the Portland Streetcar, which ran between Northwest 23rd Avenue and the PSU campus, opened on July 20, 2001. The line was notably the first "second-generation streetcar" system in the United States and Portland's first new streetcar service in fifty years. Opening day celebrations were held at various points along the line and free rides were offered for three days. Four streetcars initially operated on weekdays, while three streetcars and one vintage trolley ran on weekends. The streetcar recorded 6,000 to 8,000 daily riders by September 2001, exceeding 1996 projections of between 2,700 and 4,700 riders per day.
  In 2004, construction began to extend the line 0.6 miles (0.97 km) south of PSU to RiverPlace. This extension cost $16 million and began service on March 11, 2005. It included a short length of two-way, single-track operation, about 100 yards (91 m) in length along Southwest Montgomery Street and 4th Avenue, equipped with signals for the streetcars to ensure that only one direction is in use at any given time. This segment also includes the steepest grade on the system, 8.75 percent in the block of Southwest Harrison Street between 1st and 2nd avenues.
  Another extension of 0.6 miles (0.97 km) south to the lower terminus of the Portland Aerial Tram at Southwest Gibbs Street in the South Waterfront opened on a temporary ballasted track on October 20, 2006. It was initially a bidirectional single track, operating on a right-of-way acquired from the Willamette Shore Trolley, a heritage streetcar that continues to operate between Portland and Lake Oswego. On November 3, 2011, the streetcar line began using new double-track on a realigned section of Moody Avenue, which was built as part of the $66 million Moody multimodal project. Two stops—OHSU Plaza and Southwest Moody & Gibbs—were built directly adjacent to the entrance to the Portland Aerial Tram, linking the lower campus of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to its campus atop Marquam Hill. These stations received a connection to the Lair Hill neighborhood that was otherwise cut off by Interstate 5 (I-5) with the opening of the Gibbs Street Pedestrian Bridge on July 14, 2012.
  On August 17, 2007, an extension of the line south of Gibbs Street to Southwest Lowell and Bond opened to better serve the South Waterfront district. This 0.46-mile (0.7 km) extension is a 10-block loop, from Southwest Moody and Gibbs proceeding south on Moody Avenue, east on Lowell Street and north on Bond Avenue to OHSU Plaza at Gibbs. This final extension of the line cost $14.45 million. The extensions collectively increased the one-way length of the line to 4.06 miles (6.53 km).
  Until 2012, the north–south streetcar line had no route name, being referred to only as the Portland Streetcar line, because it was the only line in the system. However, with the opening of the system's second line on September 22, 2012, the original line was designated the North South Line (abbreviated as NS Line) to distinguish it from the newly built Central Loop line (CL Line), later renamed Loop Service.
caption: Car 009 next to Moody Avenue in 2007, before this single-track section was replaced by double-track in a realigned section of that street
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