Portland Saturday Market's leader said a TriMet proposal to close the Skidmore Fountain MAX station is "completely unnecessary" and would make it more difficult for people to access the popular street market.

Last month, TriMet revealed it was considering shutting down the Skidmore Fountain station, which is steps away from the funky marketplace underneath the Burnside Bridge. TriMet is also suggesting closing the Mall/SW 5th Ave, Mall/SW 4th Ave, and Kings Hill/SW Salmon stations downtown.

The transit agency said eliminating those stations will help speed up rail service by two minutes on a one-way trip between Old Town Chinatown and Goose Hollow. TriMet has 97 stations across its rail system, and 14 of them are on the Red and Blue lines downtown.

Howie Bierbaum, acting executive director of the market, said he opposes the closures idea for a host of reasons.

"We're an economic generator for a very undesirable part of town," Bierbaum said of the market, which is held 10 months of the year and draws thousands of people on Saturdays and Sundays to the Skidmore Fountain area. If the station goes away, "this part of town will get worse."

The market has more than 250 businesses and draws up to 10,000 people on a busy weekend. Those vendors are concerned. Closing the station isn't worth a two-minute time savings, Bierbaum said. "You want a vital economic downtown; accessible mass transit is part of the equation."

TriMet said it hasn't decided if it would move forward with the closures. The Board of Directors is expected to decide in spring.

Bierbaum is starting to circulate fliers urging people to email TriMet and express concerns about the Skidmore closure in particular.

In picking that station, TriMet noted the Old Town Chinatown stop is 600 feet away.

That is a big deal for some market regulars, Bierbaum said. "Six hundred feet is a lot in the rain," he added.

The market's board is advocating for weekend-only service at the Skidmore station to accommodate transit-using marketgoers.

"It's really cut and dried on the weekends this is a vital stop," he said.

TriMet's ridership data indicates that. The Skidmore stop had the second highest weekend ridership this spring of any of the downtown Red and Blue stations, trailing only the Providence Park stop. Some 6,413 riders used the station on average each weekend.

But its weekly ridership was third lowest of the city center stations, with only Kings Hill and Yamhill District drawing fewer riders. Saturday ridership plunged to about 1,000 in the winter months, when the market is closed.

Roberta Altstadt, TriMet's communications manager, said the Skidmore station has received the most pushback from concerned community members, but otherwise the agency has "been getting good feedback."

Closing Old Town Chinatown's stop would make the closest Blue and Red line stations three-quarters of a mile away on the east side of the Willamette River.

In an email, Altstadt said Bierbaum's proposal to have weekend only stops is not viable.

"Having a station that is only open on weekends creates operational issues, eliminates time savings and would confuse those whose who don't use the system regularly," she said. She added that trains would still need to stop at the station on weekdays for safety reasons, and that would further confuse potential riders.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen