Operated by Portland Streetcar, Inc. and TriMet, it travels 4.1 miles (6.6 km) per direction from Northwest 23rd & Marshall to South Lowell & Bond.

[11] This proposed line, initially referred to as "Central City Trolley", was predicted to run replicas of cars that once served Council Crest.

[12] Project supporters and planners later renamed it the "Central City Streetcar", after opting instead to employ modern, low-floor trams in the hopes that it would be seen as a transit system rather than a tourist attraction.

The nonprofit Portland Streetcar, Inc., which consisted of leaders from the city's businesses and public institutions, was the only firm to respond to the bid request.

[17] In September 1998, the city council created a local improvement district to collect funding from properties situated within two blocks of the streetcar alignment,[18] providing $9.6 million.

[17] The Portland Development Commission redistributed $7.5 million in tax increment funds from the South Park Blocks urban renewal area that had been earmarked for TriMet's cancelled South/North Corridor project;[17][19] this was used to extend the streetcar route through the PSU campus to Southwest 5th Avenue.

[20] The streetcar order was expanded to seven in 2001 to provide enough cars for a planned extension of the line from PSU to RiverPlace.

[29][30][31] The project's completion, initially targeted for February, was pushed back to May due to delays in pole and power line installation.

[22] The delivery of the first streetcar, which had been expected in late February, was also delayed by the acquisition of a line-of-credit deal, established as a form of insurance in the event the cars did not work out.

[51] These stations received a connection to the Lair Hill neighborhood that was otherwise cut off by Interstate 5 (I-5) with the opening of the Gibbs Street Pedestrian Bridge on July 14, 2012.

[55] Most of the funding for the project has yet to be secured, but the approval clears the way for the city to apply for grants from federal and various regional and local sources.

[56] It will be around 0.9 miles (1.4 km) long, and construction would begin in 2026 if all of the needed funding is secured and the plan receives final approval.

[58] The NS Line is the busiest streetcar route, averaging 8,751 riders on weekdays in September 2018, which is slightly higher than the 8,307 recorded for the same month in 2017.

[2] The Portland Streetcar achieved a new system-wide record for average weekday ridership in April 2018, with the NS Line carrying 9,226 passengers.

[28] It turns south on Northwest 10th and 11th avenues in the Pearl District and is joined by cars serving the Loop Service.

The NS Line continues southward, traveling under the Ross Island Bridge as its northbound tracks split eastward onto Southwest Bond Avenue between the lower terminal of the Portland Aerial Tram and the OHSU Center for Health & Healing.

[65] Each platform is equipped with a ticket vending machine, real-time display system, and line information signs.

[72] The following month, Portland Streetcar made the closures permanent, having reduced travel time through downtown by two minutes.

[6] Vintage Trolley service on the Portland Streetcar was temporarily suspended near the end of November 2005,[74] in part due to maintenance problems with the two cars, and because the opening of the extension from PSU to RiverPlace in March 2005 caused operations difficulties with the faux-vintage trolley cars.

The Vintage Trolley service, which resumed in May 2005 after a five-month suspension for repair work on the two cars, continued to end at PSU, not serving the section to RiverPlace.