Steel Bridge Back Open, Trimet Max Service Restored, Bus Service Expanding On Monday To 90% Pre-Covid Capacity
Portland, Ore. – Some welcomed news for Trimet riders and drivers around downtown Portland. Trimet has wrapped up work on their major Steel Bridge project Saturday night into Sunday morning. The Steel Bridge is back open now for drivers and all Max lines. Max service was restored on Sunday. The bridge had been closed for almost the entire month of August while Trimet worked to repair and replace one of the most used sections of Max track in the entire train system around the Steel bridge. The area gets a lot of use because every Max line uses that section of track and switches. Read more and watch a time lapse of the project.
There is more good news for Trimet riders as of Monday August 31st – service is being restored to 20 different bus lines that are some of the most used in the system. Trimet tells KXL overall ridership is still way down because of the virus pandemic, but Monday’s service restoration to bring them back to about 90% of capacity pre-covid. The next big thing they are watching for is when the tri-county area could be approved for phase-2 reopening, which would mean more people going to work and riding transit everyday.
Trimet says the addition of the more than 420 weekday bus trips into the schedule means riders will see buses coming more often and they’ll experience less waiting and fewer buses at capacity. TriMet continues to limit the number of riders on board to allow for physical distancing per the direction of the Oregon Health Authority. The added weekday bus service is part of our 2020 fall service schedule, which went into effect today, Sunday, Aug. 30, and includes additional changes on some bus lines. Riders are encouraged to visit trimet.org to plan their trip before heading out.
Click here for a look at some of the cleaning and sanitation procedures TriMet has implemented to keep riders and employees safe during the pandemic.
Click here for information on our fall service change and a list of the bus lines that will see regular weekday service restored.
