Mt. Hood Avenue 
Airport (PDX, what everyone calls it, red line signs when it used rollsigns had the plane symbol but none are found on the TriMet signs in the station itself): Portland (unlike Seattle) is a contender for the award for the shortest walk between train and terminal in the nation. The stop is literally just outside the doors on the southern side of the baggage claim and arrivals area with just outdoor plaza containing the airport's bike rack and bike assembly area in between. Most of the stations TVMs are inside in the airline arrivals area with a few more by the entrance to the Light Rail platform. There are signs for MAX throughout the terminal marked by its distinctive LRV symbol. Departing passengers have it almost more easily, escalators lead directly upstairs through two sets of doors and to the extreme southern end of the departures hall closest to the Spirit Airlines Ticket Counter (as of 2018). For passengers without checked baggage this escalator is right near the the automated doors/portals exit from the sterile area from Concourses A B and C, which lead to the ticket counters. Passengers arriving from north Concourses E and D, without checked baggage seem like they could be better off staying within securing and using the moving walkways of the Concourse Connector and then exiting security at the south exit, instead of walking through the crowds at the baggage claim.
The airport concourses were designed to be grand and public spaces but Portlanders had exactly one day to enjoy the amenities when they were opened to the pubic. The new terminal and rail station opened on September 10, 2001. The airport terminal (particularly the security check points that spill out in an angled way with fences along either side to provide access to shops and restrooms) were definitely not designed for the Post-9/11 world of aviation.
Trains stop at a single island platform for two tracks that is angled with bumper blocks ending at the wide terminal end of the platform just before the terminal's overhang begins (where there is a simple glass canopy but no benches) and becoming extremely narrow at the platform's opposite end where the two tracks branch into one for a short single tracking section to leave airport. The platform is completely exposed to the sky but nestled between the arrivals area roadway and the building housing Concourse A on the opposite side. The single tracked section here (and another one just before it joins the main line at Sunset Transit Center) limits the red line to service every 15 minutes and both tracks of the station are generally used with one train leaving one platform as soon as another train arrives onto the other platform.
The station was completely rebuilt as part of the A Better Red capacity improvement program designed to eliminate the last single-tracked sections of the MAX system. This included closing the entire branch north of Gateway Transit Center's closure from June 18 to October 21, 2023 and operating subsitute shuttle buses. The project completely rebuilt the Airport station and realigned the tracks. The former triangular-shaped platform was completely rebuilt with a conventional island platform that is the same width for the entire length of the station platform. Passengers still enter the station exclsively betewen the bumper blocks right outside the airport terminal (although as part of the revamping of the main terminal both escalators right outside the MAX station were out of order when I visited in late May 2024).
The renovated platform now has a glass canopy along nearly its entire length. The former Red signs have been replaced by the new blue with white text standard, complete with a sign at the extreme southern end of the platform where Red Line trains now continue south with two tracks along Airport Way. Platform signs now all say Portland Airport instead of just airport. The addition of Portland Airport to the station name signs is because starting on August 25, 2024 Red line trains will be extended on then opposite end of the line from the Beaverton Transit Center to the Fair Complex/Hillsboro Airport Station. Hillsboro Aiport is a major general aviation airport for the Portland area (that had regularly scheduled passenger air service in the 1970s).
Photos 1-6 taken on 5 July, 2006; 7-31 on 17 October, 2011; 32-44: 7 March, 2018;
