Gateway North
Gateway North is the most visible part of the A Better Red expansion project that removes the final two segments of single-tracked line on the Tri-Met MAX system. The project allows for improved reliability and allows for Red Line trains to be extended west from Beaverton Transit Center to Fair Complex Hillsboro Airport along the existing Blue Line route with infrastructure improvements on this portion of the corridor to allow for more frequent service. The new platform opened on March 4, 2024.
The platform is located one block or 500 feet north of the original Gateway Transit Center station with passengers using a path to connect between the two stations. This path passes the new interlocking where Red Line trains from the Airport to City Center switch onto the mainline with passengers walking past the Gateway Transit Center parking garage to connect between the two stations. The walk is a bit long and if I was trying to get to from the Airport to destinations towards Hillsboro and Clackamas Town Center on the Blue or Green Lines with harder to manage suitcase there would definitely be merit to riding one extra stop to NE 82nd and doubling-back for a cross-platform transfer.
In a nutshell Gateway North built a new flyover exclusively for City Center-bound trains. A new track it rises up over the Airport-bound track before going over the I-205 Multi-Use path (where a new branch of the multi-use path joins it, not quite open when I visited in late May 2024) and trains arrive at a new modern single-track platform and station. You could say that it is a very rare example of left-hand running although the two tracks are never directly parallel with one another they are on separate ROWs.
After stopping at the station trains arrive at a slightly complex level junction with the original Gateway Transit Center station just south of this junction. The new Red Line track forms a wye at this junction with most trains curving onto the middle of the three track (that almost immediately ends at a switch onto main City Center-bound Green/Blue Line track) line towards the City Center, joining the Blue and Green Line trains on they curve after stopping at Gateway Transit Center to run alongside I-84. There is also a not normally used in revenue service track that continues straight and into the original Gateway Transit Center station. This more complex junction replaced what were already switches in this area as the light rail line expanded from two to temporarily three tracks through the Gateway Transit Center Station. Another benefit of this project is that City Center-bound Red Line trains no longer need to wrong-rail briefly on the Eastbound Red/Green/Blue Line track after arriving from the airport branch, before switching onto the middle track at the original Gateway Center Station.
The new Gateway Transit Center platform is alongside a new (and not yet open in May 2024) branch/exit from the I-205 Multi-Use path. This platform is basically an extension of the path, making it extra wide with a low blue fence. The station has the ‘modern’ max station design that is like those previous newest MAX stops built on the Orange and Green Line extensions. The stop is the first new MAX platform to open in 9 years with no further expansions currently funded.
For passenger amenities, on the platform are two glass canopy structures, both held up by support beams with black tiles on them. There are a few benches under these glass windscreens. Signs say Gateway North and are in the modern white text on blue background. There are also a couple of vertical Gateway North signs along the platform with City Center as the destination text displayed.
Entrances are at each end of the platform with Paid Fare Zone etched in silver on the ground at each platform entrance. Just beyond each platform entrance are a TVM at each end of the platform under a glass canopy structure along with Hop card readers.
There are also modern LCD screens that provide countdown clock information just for this platform. There is no clear way without using a Smart Phone to access real time GPS information or by walking back and forth between the existing and new stations to know from which platform the next train to the City Center will be departing from.
All photos taken on May 28, 2024
