TriMet will celebrate the successful first year of its FX™–Frequent Express–bus line and the increased ridership and faster transit services it provided.
The FX2-Division line launched on Sept. 18, 2022. The agency's signature big, green buses rolled along the 15-mile Division Street corridor between downtown Portland and Gresham.
FX has also increased ridership. In its first year, the line provided 520,000 more rides than the previous Line 2 with a 40 percent increase. While TriMet notes some of the ridership increase is due to more venues opening and people returning to in-person work and studies following the COVID-19 pandemic, FX2-Division ridership is increasing faster than TriMet's system-wide ridership, which also went up by 15 percent during the same period.
Opening doors to more riders
Data gathered from the first 336 days of service shows that riders took 1.83 million trips on FX2-Division between Sept. 19, 2022, and Aug. 20, 2033. The FX line averaged about 42,000 weekly rides in spring 2023, making it the third busiest bus line in TriMet’s system, outpaced only by Line 72-Killingsworth/82nd Ave. and Line 20-Burnside/Stark.
The 15-mile FX2-Division route extends from the Cleveland Avenue Park & Ride in Gresham to the Portland Transit Mall. FX buses use TriMet’s car-free Tillikum Crossing, Bridge of the People, to cross the Willamette River. Joining several bus lines and the MAX Orange Line, FX expanded options for transit connections to the South Waterfront and Portland State University.
A higher-tier transit experience
Articulated buses returned to TriMet's fleet for the first time in about 25 years, with 60-foot Nova Bus vehicles that are dedicated to FX. The buses have space for 60 percent more people on board and other features that make the service more efficient, including all-door boarding and a bike area inside. Like all of the diesel-powered buses in the fleet, FX buses run on R99 renewable diesel, reducing TriMet’s greenhouse gas emissions from the fixed-route buses by 61 percent.
The agency had to temporarily pull all the 60-foot buses from service beginning in November 2022. This was due to a mechanical defect that TriMet discovered in the buses that prompted an industry-wide recall. Buses began returning to service in early 2023, equipped with safety fixes that were identified, tested and installed in partnership with TriMet.
Transit priority signals and lanes save riders time
FX buses move people faster and more efficiently thanks to a next-generation transit priority signal system and bus lanes in key locations. The cutting-edge transit priority signal system is a first-of-its-kind for North America. It’s installed at 57 intersections along the Division corridor, between Southeast 11th Ave. and Division and Gresham Central Transit Center.
In summer 2023, TriMet and the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) conducted a study to calculate the time savings experienced when transit-signal priority was turned off compared to when it was on. The study, which was commissioned by the Federal Highway Administration, found roundtrip travel times decreased by up to 8.2 minutes when the system was turned on.
Also helping buses move faster are Business Access & Transit (BAT) lanes at key locations. Buses move around traffic and combined with the transit priority signals, go first when lights turn green. The longest stretch of BAT lanes on FX2-Division spans 12 blocks eastbound between Southeast 110th and 122nd Ave.'s. Many of the transit priority treatments along the route are highlighted with red paint like many of the Rose Lanes in Portland.
Buses arriving every 12 minutes or better
FX2-Division expands on the success of TriMet’s Frequent Express service network, which includes 17 bus lines and all five MAX lines, with arrivals every 15 minutes or better. FX buses come even more often, arriving every 12 minutes for most of the day, every day. All-door boarding, bikes on board and stations located where demand is greatest, also make FX more efficient.
Data collected through the transit signal priority system is being used to help keep buses on time. On Aug. 27, 2023, the FX2-Division schedules were adjusted up to four minutes as part of their regular, annual service changes. TriMet also implemented their first package of Forward Together service improvements in August.
Earlier this summer, Oregon’s Congressional delegation announced a $630,000 Federal Transit Administration grant to help TriMet and their partners lay the groundwork for this next project. The grant will fund part of the design work. That, along with safety and accessibility improvements by the city of Portland, will allow TriMet to better compete for funding to build an FX line on 82nd Ave.
