Portland approved a $10 million plan Wednesday to buy two streetcars from a Pennsylvania-based company with the option to later buy additional vehicles.

The City Council unanimously approved the deal with Brookville Equipment Corp., a company from the town of the same name 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Portland is piggybacking on an agreement between Sound Transit, the Seattle metro area's transit agency, and the company in Brookville.

The streetcars are expected to arrive in 2020 and will allow the city to increase streetcar frequency on its loop connecting downtown and the Central Eastside.

Dan Bower, Portland Streetcar Inc.'s executive director, said the vehicles are also crucial because seven of the city's existing streetcars are 17 years old.

"We're anticipating that we're going to have to do some repairs," Bower said in an interview, "Just to maintain existing service, we need more cars."

Portland has 17 streetcars, all but three of which are used every day on routes stretching from Northwest Portland to South Waterfront and the Central Eastside.

"Brookville is eager and excited to provide the City of Portland and its growing ridership with American-designed and manufactured Liberty Streetcars that we hope will enhance Portland's legacy and success with its innovative, proven system," Rick Graham, the company's president, said in a statement. "This is a very big moment for our century-old organization and, we hope, the beginning of a long-lasting partnership between Brookville, the City of Portland, and Portland Streetcar, Inc."

Portland's component of the deal calls for up to five streetcars from the company. Bower said the agency is in the preliminary planning stages for a potential 2.4-mile, $80 million extension of its Northwest Portland streetcar toward Montgomery Park.

The transit organization is also seeking three used vehicles from another city to further boost its fleet. Bower said Portland was waiting for Seattle to receive new streetcars before it could buy its used vehicles. That could be sometime in late 2019 or early 2020. "It's unclear what the price might be," he said.

The Brookville deal was funded by the city's transportation agency and a combined $700,000 in parking meter revenue from the Lloyd District, Central Eastside Industrial District and Northwest Portland neighborhoods.

The additions come as the streetcar ridership continues to grow as more apartments open near streetcar lines, particularly on the eastside route and in the South Waterfront.

About Brookville

Founded: 1918

Modern Streetcars: Starting making in 2012, delivered first vehicles in 2015

Total: 10 streetcars in operation currently (6 in Detroit, 4 in Dallas)

On Order: 23 streetcars already ordered, not including the Portland vehicles

Capacity: Portland streetcars will occupy 100 riders comfortably

The system saw a 10 percent ridership increase in 2017 while other public transit in the region stayed flat or declined. In February 2017, average daily ridership eclipsed 16,352 passengers, more than some bus lines and MAX ridership figures. According to its annual report, 32 percent of streetcar riders make less than $30,000 a year.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the Portland Bureau of Transportation, said Wednesday the streetcar is "one of the best ways to reduce automobile congestion" in the Central City.

It's the first time the city has ordered streetcars since 2009, when Portland commissioned six vehicles from United Streetcar, the now defunct Clackamas subsidiary of Oregon Iron Works.

Oregon Iron Works merged with Vigor Industrial, a ship repair and steel fabrication company, in 2014.

Bower said the last of the six vehicles in that $20 million deal arrived in late 2014.

Bower said United Streetcar was not an option for the city this time. "They're fully out of the streetcar business at this point," he said.

UPDATE: Vigor released the following statement after this story went to print -- "Vigor maintains the skilled workers necessary to support the maintenance agreements of United Street Car with existing customers but has no immediate plans to return to new streetcar construction. Should federal funding sufficient to maintain consistent manufacturing of streetcars in the United States become available, we would re-evaluate that decision."



-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen