A never-built extension of the Portland Railway Company’s Russell-Shaver streetcar line that would have cut a diagonal route across of much of North Portland. It was championed by real estate man, Francis I. McKenna, who was looking for a streetcar line to bring potential homebuyers out to his new University Park addition near Portsmouth. As the agent for the Portland & St. Johns Railway Company, Mr. McKenna persuaded many local residents to subscribe to a $28,000 subsidy (of which he personally contributed $20,000) but the merger of the Portland Railway Company and the City & Suburban Railway Company into the Portland Consolidated Railway Company put an end to his plans – the merged company had no need of two separate streetcar lines out toward St. Johns.

Mr. McKenna attempted to modify his route somewhat so that there would be less competition between the lines – the new route notably no longer crossed over the existing St. Johns line to reach University Park, but instead headed further north to come to an interchange with the St. Johns line at Smith Junction (today’s N Fessenden Street and Columbia Way). This also met with little interest from the Portland Consolidated company, and Mr. McKenna was obliged to start refunding the subscriptions he had obtained.

A new company – the Portland, Vancouver & St. Johns Railroad Company – was formed to potentially bring in outside investors to build the line in competition with the existing one. The route reverted back to the one that passed through University Park, along with an extension into St. Johns proper. The company also pursued a new route to the Columbia River along an extension of Union Avenue north of Woodlawn, purchasing much of the right-of-way needed. By the end of 1905, the dream of the Peninsula line had been abandoned, and the franchise and rights for the Columbia River extension were sold to the newly-formed Portland Railway Company, which rerouted the Vancouver line to a new ferry terminal on Hayden Island.

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