Riding public transportation from Salmon Creek, WA to the Portland International Airport

I recently had a reader contact me asking me how to advise him to take public transportation from Salmon Creek, WA to the Portland International Airport.  I’m not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to C-TRAN but I did take a stab at providing the best directions I thought were possible.  Here was my answer to his question:

So I’m assuming you could get to the Salmon Creek Park and Ride? If so, that would probably be the best.

Here’s another question: are you planning on going on taking public transportation on a weekend or on a weekday? I’m thinking the best way for you to get to PDX would be to take a C-TRAN Express bus… unfortunately, they only run on weekdays.

So it’s a roundabout way, but this is what I’m thinking:

Take the #134 - Salmon Creek Express - from the Salmon Creek Park and Ride to downtown. It actually should be fairly quick since there won’t be any stops outside of a couple in downtown Portland. From there, your best best would be to hop onto a red line MAX at 1st and Yamhill which would take you straight to the airport. Unfortunately, it’s not the greatest direct route to the airport… but I think it may be the best.

TriMet says it takes about 38 minutes to roll on the red line MAX from downtown to the airport; I find that a little much and would peg it around more like 25 - 30 minutes. So factor in another 25 or so minutes taking the 134 and I would allow an hour and fifteen minutes to travel.

The good thing is - when you buy a C-TRAN Express ticket for the 134, you won’t have to pay any fare for MAX - that C-TRAN pass covers it. So, that’s at least working in your favor.

Hope that helps. Yeah, it’s not the best route ever, but I think that’s the best you can do.

I would like to hear from any C-TRAN users if this is the best route for this reader.  If not, what route can he take to get from, essentially, the Salmon Creek Park and Ride to the Portland International Airport?