Portland’s public transit agency’s budget crunch is forcing major cuts to bus and MAX service.  by Taylor Griggs TriMet is facing a $300 million budget gap, and it’s unclear when—or if—the public transit agency can expect any new funding to help fill the void. As a result, the agency is planning to make some major cuts, set to take effect in August.  The upcoming service cuts aren’t the first changes TriMet has made in recent months, and they likely won’t be the last, either. The agency says it has already reduced spending by roughly $150 million since last July, when it announced the $300 million budget shortfall, largely through internal changes, including staff layoffs.  In November, TriMet reduced evening service on five bus lines, including the frequent express line on Southeast Division. The agency will implement another wave of service reductions—this time impacting four bus lines—starting March 1. The August reductions are poised to be the biggest round yet. TriMet has proposed changes that could affect or eliminate dozens of bus routes across the Portland metro area, and eliminate a portion of the MAX Green Line.  TriMet says its service reduction proposal is based on feedback from riders, whose responses in a recent survey indicated the agency should “preserve service as much as possible” by reducing transit lines with overlapping or nearby routes. The agency also said survey respondents wanted TriMet to maintain frequency as much as possible, and prioritize transit lines that help people reach schools and medical centers. Transit users can weigh in on a survey about the new proposed cuts until January 31.  TriMet General Manager Sam Desue Jr. said the proposals “focus on efficiency and cost savings, while continuing to provide the most service possible for the people who rely on us every day.”  “Despite some necessary service reductions, our goal remains the same – to ensure long-term financial stability, so that we continue providing vital transit service to our region for decades to come,” Desue Jr. said in a press release earlier this month.  These cuts come just a few years after TriMet proposed its Forward Together service plan, which the agency made public in 2022. The plan was an ambitious one, setting out to grow ridership—which dropped significantly as a result of the Covid pandemic—through service expansion and increased frequency.  Now, TriMet is proposing changes that would do the opposite. The agency’s proposed cuts include a plan to eliminate MAX Green Line service except between the Clackamas Town Center and the Gateway Transit Center, which would require riders to instead take the Red or Blue Lines between Gateway and downtown. TriMet has also proposed cutting bus routes including Line 19 (Woodstock/Glisan), Line 16 (Front Ave/St Helens Rd), Line 39 (Arnold Creek/Hillsdale), and more. These cuts would come with other changes to bus routes, in some cases to help make up for the eliminated routes. TriMet also proposes reducing frequency on several more routes, particularly in the evening hours.  Jarrett Walker, a public transit consultant who has worked with TriMet for years, including on its Forward Together plan, said the frequency cuts are just as important as the eliminated routes. In a post on his blog, he wrote that because “frequency is never visible enough on the map,” it can be difficult for an agency to defend. But when frequency is reduced, ridership goes down.  TriMet’s severe budget shortfall has been a while in the making. The public transit agency has operated at a deficit for several years, trying to keep up with inflation and the increasing cost of maintaining an aging bus fleet and light rail system. TriMet has also spent an increasingly large amount of its budget on security in recent years. The agency’s fiscal year 2026 budget dedicates more than $83 million to security efforts, more than double what it allocated for security three years ago.  The agency is not alone in its bind. TriMet is one of many state transit departments counting on receiving more revenue from a state payroll tax to help balance its budget. The majority of TriMet’s annual income comes from Oregon’s 0.1 percent payroll tax imposed on employers, as well as another tax paid by self-employed workers. Nearly half of TriMet’s 2026 $1.96 billion budget, or $555 million, is supported by payroll tax revenue.  Transit agencies across the state asked Oregon legislators to increase the payroll tax during the 2025 legislative session, hoping to see it raised to 0.4 percent. The initial transportation package put forward by Democrats last spring would have raised the tax to 0.3 percent, but the bill failed.  Last fall, at the end of a protracted special session and months of heated negotiations, state lawmakers finally approved and signed a transportation funding package into law. House Bill 3991 set out to double the state payroll tax to 0.2 percent, but only for two years, after which time the tax would go back to 0.1 percent. Now, even that small increase may be off the table, thanks to a successful Republican-led effort to refer HB 3991 to Oregon voters.  Initially expected to be on the November ballot, Oregon Democrats are hoping to move the referendum vote to May. Whenever the vote occurs—and whatever the result—the referendum had the immediate effect of halting HB 3991’s intended tax increases, including the payroll tax hike.  Lacking new revenue, TriMet will continue to suffer financially for the foreseeable future. Some Portland City Council members have weighed granting TriMet money from the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF). Thanks to some funding adjustments, PCEF currently has an additional $15 million on hand to spend on projects aligned with its carbon reduction and equity goals. TriMet was among those vying for some of the funds at the Portland City Council’s January 29 Climate, Resilience, and Land Use Committee meeting. TriMet says $5.5 million from PCEF would pay for two years of additional service on the Line 19 bus, which is currently poised to be eliminated in August. The proposal to eliminate Line 19, which expands across a large swath of Portland’s east side, is one of the most controversial potential cuts. The route runs between outer and inner Southeast and inner and outer Northeast neighborhoods, as well as downtown, usually using SE Woodstock Blvd and NE Glisan St. A Montavilla News story pointed out that Portlanders have relied on NE Glisan St as a transit route for more than 100 years. While there are other transit lines nearby, Line 19 connects directly to Providence Portland Medical Center, a major employer and healthcare provider. No other nearby transit line stops within a quarter mile of the hospital.  Councilor Candace Avalos expressed concern about using PCEF dollars to “try to patch structural gaps in our regional transportation system” at a time when the agency is facing such a massive deficit.  “Those are structural funding questions that deserve their own solutions,” Avalos said.  Such solutions may not come, at least not in time to spare the transit service Portlanders rely on. Walker, the public transit consultant, said he thinks the “best we can hope for from the state is a short-term rescue.”  “The agency’s current position is that they have to cut service now to avoid worse cuts later, although worse cuts may be coming later anyway,” Walker wrote. “Leaders in the region—probably working through Metro or the City of Portland—are going to have to step up if they want to save what was once one of America’s most admirable transit agencies.” ...read more read less