of a two-mile (3.2 km) section owned by the Portland Traction Company (PTC). In August 1983, PTC agreed to surrender this segment as part of a longer abandonment up to Linnemann Junction, a total of of right-of-way, which TriMet bought for $2.9 million in December of that year. Anticipating 42,500 riders by 1990, TriMet purchased 26 light rail vehicles from Bombardier, with each car costing $750,000. Bombardier started their production in 1982 and began delivering them in 1984. Zimmer Gunsul Frasca designed the line's stations and overpasses, earning the firm a Progressive Architecture Award in 1984. The groundbreaking ceremony took place at Ruby Junction Yard, which would house a maintenance and operations building, in March 1982. Light rail construction, which progressed largely east to west, commenced the following year in April, on the two-mile (3.2 km) section between Ruby Junction and Cleveland Avenue. The Ruby Junction facility opened as the system's first maintenance complex later that July. By January 1984, work had reached East Burnside Street. To minimize the cost of the Banfield Freeway segment, track right-of-way excavation and freeway widening took place simultaneously. Construction along this segment nonetheless slowed due to late material deliveries, particularly between Northeast Union and 39th avenues. Track work in downtown Portland, the final section to be built, began in March 1984 and involved utility relocation, cobblestone paving, and tree planting across 36 downtown blocks. The line's use of the Steel Bridge necessitated a $10 million rehabilitation that started the following June. System testing followed the completion of electrification work. This included the validation of the new light rail cars, which initially encountered electrical braking glitches, by putting each of them through of on-track testing. On July 28, 1986, an eastbound car conducting a test run struck and killed a man who had trespassed onto the light rail tracks near Northeast 68th Avenue. The Steel Bridge reopened in May 1986 after encountering a nine-month delay caused by structural problems and late deliveries. The bridge's owners—the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads—added to the delay by insisting on the replacement of the bridge's 64 lift cables, which TriMet claimed had not been in the original contract. Inauguration and later improvements On September 5, 1986, the $214 million (equivalent to $ in dollars) light rail line—now called Metropolitan Area Express (MAX)—opened for service. Its new name was selected through a public contest held by The Oregonian and