NS Line

The North South Line (NS Line) is a streetcar service of the Portland Streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, United States. Operated by Portland Streetcar, Inc. and TriMet, it travels 4.1 miles (6.6 km) per direction from Northwest 23rd & Marshall to South Lowell & Bond. The line serves 39 stations and connects Portland's Northwest District, Pearl District, downtown, Portland State University (PSU), and South Waterfront. It runs every day of the week between 15 and 18 hours per day and operates on headways of 15 to 20 minutes. In May 2025, the North South Line had an average weekday ridership of 4,519 passengers, making it the busiest Portland Streetcar line.

Restoring Portland's streetcars, which last operated in 1950, began with the efforts of a citizen advisory committee in 1990. After nearly a decade of planning, construction of the Central City Streetcar project began in 1999. With the opening of its first 2.4-mile (3.9 km) segment on July 20, 2001, it became the inaugural line of the Portland Streetcar system and the first second-generation streetcar service in the United States with its use of modern vehicles. The line has since been extended to RiverPlace and the South Waterfront. Having previously had no distinct route name, it was designated the North South Line in September 2012, when the system opened its second service, the Central Loop Line, which was later re-branded as the A and B Loop.

Planning for the restoration of streetcar services in downtown Portland, which had ceased operating in 1950, was considered as early as the 1970s, when businessman and philanthropist Bill Naito led an effort to convince downtown property owners to help build a vintage trolley line. In response to recommendations to develop a streetcar network by Portland's 1988 Central City Plan, a citizen-led advisory committee was established in 1990 that would convince the city to the conduct a feasibility study. Early plans envisioned three lines, with the first running up from John's Landing near the South Waterfront through downtown Portland to Northwest 23rd Avenue in the Northwest District. This proposed line, initially referred to as "Central City Trolley", was predicted to run replicas of cars that once served Council Crest. Project supporters and planners later renamed it the "Central City Streetcar", after opting instead to employ modern, low-floor trams in the hopes that it would be seen as a transit system rather than a tourist attraction.

Several alternative routes were considered in downtown, including the Portland Transit Mall on 5th and 6th avenues, as well as Park and 9th avenues. Both routes were rejected by nearby neighborhood associations. In January 1994, the Portland City Council adopted a route between Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center on Northwest 23rd Avenue and PSU via 10th and 11th avenues, and the following year, called for bids to design, build, and operate the service. The nonprofit Portland Streetcar, Inc., which consisted of leaders from the city's businesses and public institutions, was the only firm to respond to the bid request.

The city council authorized the streetcar project in July 1997. The cost of the project amounted to $56.9 million (equivalent to $96 million in 2024 dollars), with the city covering the largest share. City parking bonds provided most of the city's contribution at $28.6 million. In September 1998, the city council created a local improvement district to collect funding from properties situated within two blocks of the streetcar alignment, providing $9.6 million. The Portland Development Commission redistributed $7.5 million in tax increment funds from the South Park Blocks urban renewal area that had been earmarked for TriMet's cancelled South/North Corridor project; this was used to extend the streetcar route through the PSU campus to Southwest 5th Avenue. Only $5 million came from the Federal Transit Administration for construction, reallocated from TriMet to the city in exchange for a system giving TriMet buses transit signal priority. Procurement and installation of tracks and wiring and the construction of a maintenance barn beneath the Fremont Bridge were estimated at $28.2 million and $4 million, respectively. In 1999, Czech manufacturer Škoda was selected to provide the line's first five streetcars, valued at $12 million. The streetcar order was expanded to seven in 2001 to provide enough cars for a planned extension of the line from PSU to RiverPlace.

Construction of the Central City Streetcar began on April 5, 1999, marked by a groundbreaking ceremony. Crews from Stacy and Witbeck started utilities relocation work along Northwest Lovejoy Street that same day; relocation work on 10th and 11th avenues followed in June. Track-laying occurred one week after the start of roadway demolition and progressed southward through downtown. Workers reached the PSU campus in June 2000, by the time university officials resolved the alignment of the tracks, placing the northbound segment diagonally though the newly built Urban Plaza and the southbound segment along the northern end of the campus. Construction of the extension began in late July 2000. Although the last passenger stop would be on 5th Avenue at Southwest Montgomery Street, the track would end on Montgomery Street at 4th Avenue, with a short section of two-way single track between 4th and 5th avenues in which the bi-directional streetcars would reverse directions at the end of each southbound trip and spend any scheduled layover time. The 7,800-square-foot (720 m²) maintenance barn that would house the streetcars was 90 percent complete by August.

Line testing commenced in January 2001 using one of two replica-vintage trolleys that would be transferred from TriMet's Portland Vintage Trolley for planned weekend use on the streetcar line. The project's completion, initially targeted for February, was pushed back to May due to delays in pole and power line installation. The delivery of the first streetcar, which had been expected in late February, was also delayed by the acquisition of a line-of-credit deal, established as a form of insurance in the event the cars did not work out. The first car finally arrived in April.

The first 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of the Central City Streetcar, later renamed to "Portland Streetcar", opened on July 20, 2001, from Northwest 23rd Avenue to PSU. The line was notably the first "second-generation streetcar" system in the United States and Portland's first new streetcar service in fifty years. Opening day celebrations were held at various points along the line, and free rides were offered for three days. Four streetcars initially operated on weekdays, while three streetcars and one vintage trolley ran on weekends. The Portland Streetcar had recorded 6,000 to 8,000 daily riders by September 2001, exceeding 1996 projections of between 2,700 and 4,700 riders per day.