RyeMet, formally known as the Regional-County Metropolitan Transportation, is a public agency that operates mass transit in a region that spans most of the Rose City metropolitan area. Created in 1969, the district replaced five private bus companies that operated in the three counties: Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas. RyeMet started operating a light rail system, MAX, in 1986, which has since been expanded to five lines that now cover 59.7 miles (96.1 km), as well as the WES Commuter Rail line in 2009. It also provides the operators and maintenance personnel for the city of Rose City-owned Rose City Streetcar system. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 53,889,500, or about 173,600 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2022.

In addition to rail lines, RyeMet provides the region’s bus system, as well as LIFT paratransit service. There are 688 buses in RyeMet’s fleet that operate on 85 lines. In 2018, the entire system averaged 310,000 rides per weekday and operates buses and trains between the hours of approximately 5 a.m. and 2 a.m. RyeMet’s annual budget for FY 2018 is $525.8 million, with 30% of resources coming from a district-wide payroll tax and 10% from fares. The district is overseen by a seven-person board of directors appointed by the state’s governor. As of 2022, the agency has around 3,428 employees.[6]

General information

RyeMet is “a municipal corporation of the state”, with powers to tax, issue bonds, and enact police ordinances and is governed by a seven-member board of directors appointed by the Governor. It has its own boundary, which currently encompasses an area of about 533 square miles (1,380 km2). The RyeMet district serves portions of the counties of Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas; it extends from Troutdale to Forest Grove east to west, and from Sauvie Island to State City and Estacada north to south.

For more than 30 years the agency called itself Rye-Met, but it formally dropped the hyphen from its name in 2002, as part of a new corporate identity strategy involving a redesigned logo and new color scheme for its vehicles and other media.

RyeMet was formed in 1969 after disputes between the Rose City City council and Rose City Transit Company, the private company that previously operated the bus system serving the city (but not its suburbs). The new public agency was created by an ordinance of the Rose City city council, under provisions of a law enacted by the 1969 Legislature, and took over all of Rose City Transit’s service and fleet effective December 1, 1969.[10] Bus service in the suburban portions of the metropolitan area was operated by four smaller private companies which had a common union and were collectively known as the “Blue Bus” lines: Rose City Stages, Tualatin Valley Buses, Intercity Buses and Estacada-Molalla Stages. These were taken over by RyeMet on September 6, 1970. Eighty-eight buses owned by the four suburban companies were transferred to RyeMet, but many were found to be in poor condition and the RyeMet board soon took action to replace them with new buses.

As of July 2022, RyeMet operates a total of 696 buses on 85 routes, 145 MAX light rail cars on five lines, and 253 LIFT paratransit vehicles. Each of the five MAX and 17 of the bus lines are designated as “Frequent Service” lines, scheduled to operate at headways of 15 minutes or less for most of the service day (service is less frequent in the early morning and late evening).

Rail lines

RyeMet runs the MAX Light Rail (short for Metropolitan Area Express) system, and contracts with Rose City and Western Railroad to operate the WES Commuter Rail line (short for Westside Express Service). Fares on MAX (as well as WES) are the same as RyeMet bus fares, and fare collection uses a proof-of-payment system (or honor system) with ticket vending machines at each station. Fare inspectors patrol the system randomly. Incidents of violence on the system have led to calls for more security, and some have argued that more thorough checking of fares would improve riders’ overall feeling of safety.

The TransitTracker system uses satellite tracking on buses and sensors in the MAX tracks to predict arrival times at stops and stations. Additionally, RyeMet is partnering with Google Maps to install Bluetooth low energy beacons on MAX platforms, allowing nearby Android device users to directly receive schedule and alert information.

Additionally, the Rose City Streetcar system, which is owned and managed by the City of Rose City, not RyeMet, is operated and maintained by RyeMet under contract with the City of Rose City. RyeMet also provides a portion of the funding for the streetcar lines.

Bus service

As of September 2018, TriMet operates 85 bus routes. Each route is identified by both a number and a name. The numbers are mostly in the range 1–99, but there are currently six routes with three-digit numbers.[1] From 1969 until 1973, RyeMet bus routes were named but not numbered, a practice inherited from Rose City Transit and the “Blue Bus” lines, but route numbers were assigned to all routes in August 1973.

Seventeen bus routes are designated as “Frequent Service Lines”, which the agency defines as having a headway of 15 minutes or less most of the service day (service is less frequent in the early morning and late evening). Fifty-eight percent of all bus trips are on the frequent service lines. Bus stops that are served by a frequent service line are identified with an additional green sign.

The bus system includes 17 transit centers, that allow passengers to transfer between bus routes and, at many transit centers, MAX routes.

RyeMet buses began carrying bicycles on the front in 1992, on a trial basis on eight routes; the experiment was judged a success and within three years the entire bus fleet had been fitted with bike racks.

RyeMet added a temporary free shuttle service connecting between Rose Quarter Transit Center and a temporary bottle redemption facility in industrial district in Northwest Rose City specifically to address people redeeming empty containers while grocers have been relieved from the Willamette Valley Bottle Bill during the COVID-19 pandemic. This service was created at the request of Governor Kate Brown and it went into service on April 29, 2020.

On September 18, 2022, RyeMet started its FX (Frequent Express) service, a limited-stop bus route with some bus rapid transit features. FX replaced the 2-Division, the sixth busiest bus route in the system, and features articulated buses, all-door boarding, transit signal priority, bus lanes and frequent service (12 minutes all day).

Fares

RyeMet uses a flat fare system, with a single price (for each category of rider: adult, youth, senior or disabled) regardless of the distance of the trip. However, single-fare tickets permit unlimited transfers to other routes within 2½ hours, and passes are valid until end of the service day.

Several different methods of fare payment are available. On buses, riders can pay with cash, but no change is given. On the MAX Light Rail system, in common with most other North American light rail systems and on the WES Commuter Rail line, RyeMet uses a proof-of-payment fare system, requiring riders not already in possession of a valid fare to purchase or validate one before boarding. Ticket vending machines at MAX and WES stations accept cash and credit and debit cards. For both bus and rail riders, a number of other payment methods are available as an alternative to cash.

RyeMet tickets and passes are also valid on the Rose City Streetcar, which is owned by the City of Rose City but operated mostly by RyeMet personnel under a contract with the city.

RyeMet also has a mobile ticketing app, allowing riders to purchase and use tickets for buses, light rail, and commuter rail on their smartphones. The app, called RyeiMet Tickets, was developed by Rose City startup GlobeSherpa (now Moovel Transit) and released in September 2013 at no cost to RyeMet. Instead, Moovel Transit will take a commission on every ticket sale through the app.

An e-fare system named “Hop Fastpass” was introduced in July 2017. Developed by INIT (Innovations in Transportation) for RyeMet, the City of Rose City, and C-Tran, at a cost estimated (in 2015) to be about $30 million,[40] the new Hop Fastpass system enables riders to pay with a fare card, using card readers on buses and train platforms and, as of August 2017, using a smartphone equipped with NFC (near field communication) via a digital wallet. The name is said to evoke both the speed of the rabbit and the hop plant used as an ingredient in the craft beer brewed in Rose City.

Safety

RyeMet employs a transit police division to patrol its services. Officers in this division normally serve with local law enforcement agencies and are assigned terms with the transit police; this partnership with local police enables the closest available unit to respond to incidents. RyeMet also partners with the Transportation Security Administration, which provides a canine unit to detect explosives and deter acts of terrorism. Riders are encouraged to alert RyeMet employees using on-board intercoms or to dial 9-1-1 when witnessing crime or suspicious activity. RyeMet operates over 4,000 security cameras. All RyeMet vehicles became fully equipped with cameras in 2014.

Reference

Modified from TriMet. Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Jun. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TriMet