An informal name for a proposed standard gauge line that would have run from Kenton (and possibly over the planned Interstate Bridge from Vancouver) to downtown Portland via Interstate, Maryland and Vancouver avenues to the Broadway Bridge.

Championed by George F. Heusner of the Kenton Traction Company, the plans experienced the both the highs and lows of popular opinion. East Side business clubs initially put their support fully behind the line, but the Portland city council was (perhaps rightly) wary of PRL&P just buying out the company and thus sneakily securing a rail franchise over the new Broadway bridge, as had literally just happened with the Mount Hood line. At the same time, businesses along Seventh Street [Broadway] on the west side opposed the line, especially because of the thought that large and disruptive interurban cars might run along what was seen as the premier downtown shopping and entertainment thoroughfare.

The vehement protests of downtown business and theater owners led to many delays in granting the franchise, and the council eventually removed the west side Broadway segment from it in December 1912, forcing any interurban cars that may have used the line to loop around on Flanders, Tenth, Salmon and Fourth. Despite earlier saying he would abide by any decision made by the council, Heusner was incensed by this change to the franchise and decided to raise a petition to take the matter to a city-wide referendum.

In the interim, the city council asked PRL&P to lay standard-gauge ties along Broadway on the West Side at the same time as they laid their own narrow-gauge track, just in case the referendum was successful. Unsurprisingly, PRL&P wasn’t happy about bearing the cost for a potential competitor and refused. However, the council held the ace of being able to refuse PRL&P’s franchises and a compromise was reached in February 1913 where Heusner would pay the difference in cost when laying the ties.

Meanwhile, with over 14,000 “bona fide” signatories to the Heusner petition, his initiative was placed on the ballot for the June 2, 1913 election. After a short but increasingly vitriolic campaign during which Heusner was castigated for rewriting the ordinance to massively favor his interests and avoid council oversight, the initiative was soundly defeated, gaining only 37.5% of the 38,984 votes cast. Heusner didn’t take the news well, taking out a newspaper ad in which he ominously stated that, “the truth will out, as those who have maliciously and falsely misrepresented me and my measures will know.”

Immediately, rumors began to circulate that Heusner was now prepared to accept the original franchise offered so long as it could be granted before the old City Council disbanded at the end of June 1913. Nothing came of this, but by mid-July Heusner was again asking for a franchise from the newly-elected City Commission (the first instance of Portland’s unusual commissioner-based government system). The city was now in a position of some power and amended the rental rates in the franchise upwards.

Heusner had little choice but to accept the new terms if he wanted his railroad, and a 25-year franchise was finally granted to him on November 26, 1913. However, work on the line was never commenced – Heusner blamed “hard times and war conditions” – and the City began proceedings to make Heusner forfeit his $10,000 bond in May 1915, eighteen months after the granting of the franchise. The case dragged on through 1919, but I don’t have a definitive answer as to whether the bond was forfeited or forgiven.

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