TriMet Improves Red Line to Airport; Extension to Hillsboro Coming This Summer.

calendar Mar 21, 2024
A railway platform shelter, platform, track, and catenary pole lie on the left; in the foreground is a sign that reads 'Gateway North' and 'City Center' with a red circle between them.

The new Gateway North platform, serving Red Line trains bound for Downtown Portland.

On Monday, March 4, TriMet, operator of Portland's MAX Light Rail system, opened a new platform at the Gateway Transit Center station. Christened "Gateway North," this platform serves Red Line trains going from Portland Airport to Downtown Portland and points east. It is connected to the rest of the Gateway Transit Center station by a short, wheelchair- and bike-accessible pathway. Red Line trains going to the airport depart from the existing Gateway Transit Center platforms, as previously. East of Downtown Portland, the Red Line continues along the same track as the Blue Line until Beaverton. The Blue Line continues beyond Beaverton to downtown Hillsboro.

Previously, the Red Line had many single-track sections between the airport and Gateway Transit Center, and the junction at Gateway where the Red Line joined the Blue and Green Lines to run to Downtown Portland had only a single track that tightly looped over a freeway to reach the station.

When a railway line only has one track, capacity and resiliency are impaired because a single track can only be used by trains going in the same direction, allowing for less frequent service and increasing the likelihood that a delay will cascade and affect other parts of the system. Further, recovery from delays and major incidents is rendered more difficult.

Two tracks with overhead catenary electrification form part of a wye junction; one continues straight away from the camera, while another curves right. The ballast and ties look new. Beyond these tracks lie assorted construction materials, the other tracks in the junction, buildings, and a platform shelter.

Gateway Transit Center is where people traveling between Portland International Airport and many Southeast Portland destinations, including Reed College, transfer between the Red Line and the Green Line. The former currently goes from the airport via Gateway Transit Center to Beaverton via Downtown Portland; the latter goes from Downtown Portland to Clackamas via Gateway Transit Center. The Green Line stops at Lents Town Center, which is about a four miles driving or biking distance away from Reed College and is the closest station.

The new platform is a result of the Gateway Transit Center junction being reconfigured to eliminate this bottleneck. It represents the culmination of two and a half years of construction, speed restrictions, and scattered closures on the Red Line between Gateway Transit Center and Portland International Airport as part of TriMet's A Better Red project.

The project began in 2021 and seeks to improve Red Line service to Portland Airport and extend the Red Line from its current terminus in Beaverton to Hillsboro Airport, a station west of Downtown Hillsboro. The former half of the project is now complete; completion of the latter half is expected in Summer 2024. The improvements around Gateway Transit Center and Portland Airport eliminate all sections of single track from the Red Line. These improvements should increase the reliability and on-time performance of TriMet's Red Line service.

Extending the Red Line to Hillsboro Airport requires signal work to improve the capacity of that section of the MAX system, and also involves building a new break room for light rail train operators. Such an extension would improve service frequencies between Hillsboro Airport and Beaverton and would allow more people a one-seat ride to Portland International Airport.

TriMet's A Better Red project cost $215 million, which includes the cost of four new light rail vehicles to handle increased Red Line service to Hillsboro. $99.9 million of the cost was funded by the Federal Transit Administration, and $11.3 million was funded by other regional government agencies.

A diagram of the Gateway Transit Center track layout, described in the following paragraph.

Above is a diagram (not to scale) of the track layout in the Gateway Transit Center area. In it, each track is represented as a line and each platform is represented as a rectangle. Tracks added as a result of the project are dotted, while tracks removed are dashed. The Red Line leaving Gateway Transit Center to the north now has two tracks, with one connecting to the junction where the Blue, Green, and Red lines head downtown from the north via the new Gateway North platform, and with the other connecting to the junction via the existing loop and station.

The MAX Light Rail system, and TriMet's bus network, are both efficient, environmentally friendly, and inexpensive means of transportation easily accessible by Reedies. Current Reed students, faculty, and staff can receive TriMet monthly passes subsidized by the college; for those who qualify for Honored Citizen fares, the college subsidizes the full cost of a pass, while the college subsidizes half of the $100 price of a standard pass. Honored Citizen fares are available to those above the age of 65, those with an annual income under $25,520 (with a household size of 1), and those meeting other eligibility criteria. More information on Reed College's subsidized TriMet passes can be found at https://www.reed.edu/business/other-services/trimet.html, while trip planning and system information can be found at https://trimet.org/.