Fiscal Year 2025 Adopted Budget

TriMet is thinking big for our agency and our region. We’ve put a priority on ridership and getting more people on board our buses and trains. Why? Because the more people ride, the more our region benefits. Whether it is better access to schools, jobs and healthcare; helping to ease traffic congestion or doing your part for the environment, this is bigger than transit alone. It’s about connecting people with opportunities and making our communities and the Portland region a better place to live. We need you on board to make it happen.

Our $1.84 billion budget for the FY24-25 fiscal year includes:

• $508 million for operations
• $229 million for general and administrative costs
• $200 million for capital and operating projects
• $903 million for contingency, debt service, fund balance, other non-operating requirements and other post-employment benefits.

 

What’s inside our FY25 budget? A lot more for you.

The budget continues investments that are critical to improving the experience of every rider who uses our transit system, so they’ll feel comfortable and confident each time they come on board.

Transit Service

As Oregon's largest public transportation provider, our FY25 budget focuses on providing exceptional transit service and service improvements guided by our Forward Together service concept. In addition to continuing to run a robust network of buses and trains across our 533-square mile service district, in FY25, we're adding new bus lines that connect people with jobs, school, services and other opportunities and bring communities closer together. We're upgrading several of our existing bus lines, too, so buses arrive more often and better connect our region. We will also continue to streamline our service, merging or discontinuing lines with lower ridership and demand.

TriMet’s service improvement and expansion plans must be supported by the appropriate staffing levels to be successful and sustainable. Hiring and training additional operators and maintenance staff continues to be an important emphasis in FY25, as are efforts to increase retention of both new and long-time employees.

In addition to their focus on the safe operation of vehicles, the maintenance team also heads up a key initiative to increasing ridership, and that’s the cleanliness of our buses, trains and the overall transit system. The FY25 budget includes more resources for ongoing spot cleaning, deep cleaning, graffiti cleanup and aesthetic repairs that make the system feel more desirable and welcoming overall.

Safety & Security

The Safety & Security budget for FY25 is quadruple what it was in FY22. TriMet more than doubled the number of security personnel on our transit system in the last year, as we continue to adopt a comprehensive and layered approach to safety and security. Today, there are more than 450 people across a number of teams providing a safety and security presence on board and at rail platforms and transit centers – more than ever before. Among them, is our innovative Safety Response Team, whose members carry Narcan, a life-saving, FDA-approved nasal spray that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. The Safety Response Team, increased personnel and a number of other efforts were the result of our Reimagining Public Safety on Transit initiatives, which grew out of the social justice movement of 2020. In addition to the increased presence on board our buses and trains and across our transit system, TriMet has established a Safety Operations Center, which helps coordinate our response to non-emergency security concerns that occur on our system. Riders can reach the team 24 hours per day by texting or calling 503-238-7433 (RIDE) or by using the security button on our homepage, trimet.org.

Capital investments

Our capital projects are focused on making our transit system safe, comfortable, reliable and convenient. We completed A Better Red in late August 2024. That project brought over $100 million in federal investments to our region, creating jobs and modernizing our light rail system to create a better experience for all riders. The project has already improved train movement at key sections of the system near Portland International Airport and our Gateway Transit Center. It also extended the MAX Red Line an additional 10 stations into Hillsboro, helping to provide more capacity in a growing job center of Washington County. We’re also replacing our oldest light rail vehicles with our new Type 6 models, expanding the SE Park Avenue Park & Ride as originally planned and developing our Columbia Operations Facility, which is pivotal for testing and expansion of our Zero-Emissions Bus Program.

Climate action

In response to global warming and the ongoing climate crisis, we are continuing our transition to a zero-emissions bus fleet, with the expansion of electric bus charging infrastructure at our Merlo and Powell Operations facilities. Starting in 2024, we put into service the first of our new 24 new battery-electric buses (BEBs). The new e-buses joined 10 that were already in service with TriMet, more than tripling the number of zero-emissions buses in our fleet. In FY25, TriMet continues to build capacity for our goal to transition to a full zero-emissions fixed-route fleet by 2040.

 

Understanding our funding

TriMet’s FY25 budget is estimated at $1.84 billion. About 91% of funding for FY25 operating resources comes from three sources: payroll tax revenues, passenger revenues and federal funds. For FY25, TriMet expects to receive about $540 million in payroll taxes; $83 million in passenger fares; and about $170 million from federal operating grants. We also receive a small portion of our funding from accessible transportation and service contracts and advertising. The FY25 budget includes the first full year of revenues from our 2024 fare increase.