Washington Park (MAX station)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Washington Park is a station in the MAX Light Rail system served by the Blue and Red lines. It is located in Portland, Oregon and is a part of the Robertson Tunnel under Portland's West Hills. While it is currently the only underground station in the MAX system, at 260 feet (70 meters) below the surface it is the deepest in North America[1]. It is the fourth station westbound on the Westside MAX alignment.
This station serves many popular destinations. Its surface level is located in the middle of a large parking lot surrounded by the Oregon Zoo to the east, World Forestry Center to the west, Portland Children's Museum to the south, and the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the northwest. Bus service, including a seasonal shuttle, and trails, some part of the 40 Mile Loop, connect this station to other parts of Washington Park, including the Hoyt Arboretum, International Rose Test Garden and the Portland Japanese Garden.
Construction of the surface portion included a public plaza named in honor of Les AuCoin, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives who supported the project. In addition, the zoo entrance was moved north the weekend after the station opened to be next to it.
[edit] Underground
Trains entering the Robertson Tunnel from either direction (albeit faintly from the west) can be heard from the platforms, despite the distance from the portals. They also push a gust of cool air into the station on all but the very hottest days of the year. This, coupled with the surrounding rock, keeps the platform at a natural average of 50 degrees Fahrenheit year-round.
The Robertson Tunnel consists of two tubes, one for each direction of travel, and the platform is between them, normally accessed from the left-hand side of trains. A geological timeline, formed out of a drilling sample, which runs along the platform walls. Two high-speed elevators are located at either end of the underground station; visitors to the Oregon Zoo are directed to the east elevators while people going to the World Forestry Center are pointed to the west ones.
As a part of the station's geological theme, the elevators mark their position for waiting passengers, not as conventional floors, but as "the present" and "15 million years ago". Inside the elevator, the rider's position's are marked by a readout indicating how far above sea level the car currently is. Due to the hill the surface level is situated on, the west elevators are significantly taller than the east elevators.
The Eastbound platform is marked by yellow roof girders, indicating the sunrise. The westbound platform has orange roof girders, indicating the sunset.
[edit] Miscellanea
The Washington Park MAX station was one of the filming locations in the movie What the Bleep Do We Know (2004).
| Next station west: Sunset Transit Center |
MAX Blue Line MAX Red Line |
Next station east: Goose Hollow/Southwest Jefferson Street |
