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Having surpassed the design luminosity of 1.5 x 1031/cm2s already in 1997, an ambitious upgrade of the HERA proton-lepton collider was undertaken in 2000/2001 to provide both higher luminosity and longitudinally polarized lepton beams in the colliding beam experiments, H1 and ZEUS, and for the internal gas target experiment, HERMES. Routine operation following the upgrade has commenced. Initially experimental backgrounds limited the total beam currents so the number of colliding bunches was reduced while maintaining high single-bunch beam currents. With nominal, pre-upgrade, bunch currents the measured specific luminosity is 2.5 times higher than before, however about 15% smaller than design. Following modifications to alleviate the high backgrounds in 2003, HERA is now again operating with the design number of bunches and the total beam currents are being steadily increased. With only 40% of the total design current, peak luminosities of 2.5 x 1031/cm2s have been demonstrated with a longitudinal polarization of >40%. In this presentation the experiences from the upgrade commissioning will be reviewed. Plans for improvement and pronections for the future will be described.
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