Fareless Square

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Fareless Square is an area within Portland, Oregon where all TriMet bus, MAX Light Rail and Portland Streetcar transit rides are zero-fare (free). Prior to May 1, 2005, rides within the area on C-TRAN's express routes were also free. This free transportation area is similar to Seattle's Ride Free Area (served by King County's Metro Transit) and Anchorage's Downtown Anchorage Short Hop (DASH) (served by the People Mover), except that in Portland free service is offered throughout the service day. It includes all of the Portland Transit Mall, the hub of bus service.

Adopted in 1975, Fareless Square initially encompassed the area of downtown Portland between the Willamette River and I-405, north of Southwest Market Street and south of Northwest Hoyt Street. It was later expanded southward to the point where I-405 meets the river at the Marquam Bridge. A minor adjustment of Fareless Square occurred during the 1990s in order to include the stops for Union Station (Amtrak), by extending the northern limits of the area by one block to Northwest Irving Street.

In 2001 Fareless Square was extended again, this time across the river to the Lloyd District. Included were MAX stations along Holladay Street and bus stops on NE Multnomah Street from the Rose Quarter, past the Oregon Convention Center to the Lloyd Center shopping mall. In 2007, a pair of stops directly in front of Union Station, added with Portland Mall construction and north of Hoyt Street, were added to the zone .

TriMet has scheduled two public hearings for January 16th, 2008 to determine the future fate of Fareless Square.

[edit] Boundaries

The boundary of the westside portion of Fareless Square starts at the west foot of the Marquam Bridge, heads northwest along Interstate 405 to Northwest Irving Street, east to the Steel Bridge, then southward along the western shore of the Willamette River. The boundaries of the eastside section starts at the east foot of the Steel Bridge, heads northwest to North Interstate Avenue to Multnomah Street, then east to the 1400 block of Northeast Multnomah Street, south to Northeast Holladay Street, and west to the Steel Bridge. By implication the entirety of the Steel Bridge is within the Fareless Square.

Before its merger to Oregon Central Credit Union and Mountain View Credit Union, Fareless Square was also used by Oregonian Federal Credit Union for the purpose of determining membership eligibility in its charter; any individual person residing, working or attending a place of worship within Fareless Square qualified for the credit union membership. This policy has now been supplanted by a broader eligibility clause.

According to the TriMet Code, Fareless Square is created "within Zone 1" and does not constitute a separate fare zone.