TriMet goes on offensive for safety

Update: Fred Hansen announces series of changes, including limiting free rides within Fareless Square

By Jim Redden

Pamplin Media Group, Dec 7, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (6 Reader comments)

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In response to several violent attacks and public outrage over crime on the MAX trains, TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen announced a series of changes intended to increase safety on both the trains and the agency’s buses.

One of the proposals is to limit free rides on the MAX train within Fareless Square from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. TriMet’s board of directors would consider the ordinance in January, Hansen said during a Friday, Dec. 7, address to the Portland City Club.

“The fact is, Fareless Square provides a free ride for panhandlers, who go back and forth between downtown and the Lloyd Center, and drug dealers and rowdy gangs of young people, homeless people and drunks who are using the train as a shelter and a place to do their business,” said Hansen, who also announced the launch of a public process to solicit views on other possible changes to the operation of the square, which covers most of downtown and parts of the Lloyd District.

They include negotiations with the union representing TriMet employees to allow private security guards to check tickets and penalize fare evaders. Although TriMet recently increased the number of private Wackenhut security guards by 15 to a total of 36, only agency employees represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union are currently authorized to check fares.

“This is a warning to fare evaders and cheats — your free ride on TriMet is about to end,” Hansen said. “If you don’t have a TriMet fare, you can expect a ticket. If you are a continual fare evader you will be excluded from the system.”

Hansen’s talk took place a little more than one month after the beating of a 71-year-old man at a Gresham MAX stop that sparked a wave of public outrage.

The talk also followed two recent regional safety summits hosted by TriMet where elected and law enforcement agencies criticized the agency for not doing enough to prevent crimes on and along the MAX system — or even collect fares from riders.

One of those who attended a summit, Gresham Mayor Shane T. Bemis, said the changes don’t go far enough.

“I was pleased to hear TriMet answer our call to get the transit officers out of their cars and on the train, and I am excited about the prospect of increased fair inspections,” Bemis said in a statement released after the talk. “However, security on TriMet has been an issue for a long time. We were in the same position in the late 80s when the Governor put State Police on the trains, now we’re here again.

“While I think these measures are giant leaps in the right direction, I still believe the only real tangible long-term solution is a fully gated system where only paying customers can board a train,” the statement continues. “Fred Hansen and I agreed to test this idea out at a stop in Gresham, and I hope the work to start this test will begin soon.”

Other changes to be announced by Hansen include:

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