PORTLAND, Ore. — A stretch of TriMet's MAX train service has resumed normal operations on Sunday after service was disrupted for three weeks while crews worked on track upgrades and maintenance along the Interstate 84 corridor.
"MAX Blue, Green and Red Line trains returned to regular service at the start of service on May 7," TriMet public information officer Tyler Graf said.
All train services had been suspended between Northeast 7th Avenue station and Gateway Transit Center since April 16 for TriMet's A Better Red project. TriMet had shuttle buses running on a loop between those two stations and stopping at the Lloyd Center, Hollywood, Northeast 60th Avenue and 82nd Avenue stations in between.
The closure was primarily to give crews space to add new switches and crossover junctions to the tracks north of Gateway, Graf said, but crews also performed more than a dozen other maintenance and clean-up projects along the I-84 MAX corridor.
"The project included track tie-in and other upgrades near the Gateway Transit Center, as well as track maintenance, tie replacement, station cleaning and more between Gateway and Northeast 7th Ave," he said.
The Better Red project is a three-year project upgrade for the MAX Red line. It aims to eliminate most of that waiting game by adding a new track and station platform at Gateway exclusively for westbound Red line trains. That means no more Red line trains sharing one track and no more westbound trains having to cross the eastbound track.
The project has reached the halfway mark ahead of schedule and is slated to be completed in September 2024. Graf said this project will improve reliability while also extending the Red line west 10 stations to Hillsboro.
"We appreciate our riders’ patience during these construction-related disruptions," said Graf.
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