We consider reductions in Orthogonal Expression Reduction Systems (OERS), that is, Orthogonal Term Rewriting Systems with bound variables and substitutions, as in the -calculus. We design a strategy that for any given term t constructs a longest reduction starting from t if t is strongly normalizable, and constructs an infinite reduction otherwise. The Conservation Theorem for OERSs follows easily from the properties of the strategy. We develop a method for computing the length of a longest reduction starting from a strongly normalizable term. We study properties of pure substitutions and several kinds of similarity of redexes. We apply these results to construct an algorithm for computing lengths of longest reductions in strongly persistent OERSs that does not require actual transformation of the input term. As a corollary, we have an algorithm for computing lengths of longest developments in OERSs. 1 Introduction A strategy is perpetual if, given a term t, it constructs an infinit...