urbanMSP

Building the tracks in the wrong place is a "minor error?" I mean, relative to the other problems SWLRT has faced. I don’t think this is a super huge deal, the contractor screwed up, they have to fix it. Problem solved. (Fingers crossed it’s that easy) This is not a super earth-shattering...

In January, Alexander told Met Council members the estimated price of the 14.5 mile Southwest Light Rail had grown to $2.86 billion. That’s more than $197 million per mile. What does this have to do with the problem at hand? News agencies really need to let go of the cost. It's no secret that trans...

Aww

I want this train so badly!! At this rate we won’t get a train for another decade or two…

What’s holding this project up at this point? From what I understand, it’s fully funded, is it just station placement/amenities and rolling stock procurement now?

The BRT creep is real.

I hope they push for as much full dedicated ROW as possible, but I doubt it - center running lanes would be great.

It must be confusing from a rider's perspective to have clear signage and benches for a route that no longer exists, and absolutely no signage for the current routes. Keep up the good work, MVTA.

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.7882818,-93.5408552,3a,75y,131.46h,82.2t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAtuWXwENkYTpjTrNwadiFQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?authuser=0&entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/@44.7883365,-93.5204628,3a,33.6y,142.18h,91.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7vf7MeQHlU0poGluBn0kHQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?a...

Yeah, I have my mom drop me off in the mornings that I have jazz band, but otherwise I take the school bus, which takes 45 minutes because my school sucks at optimizing their routes (at the end of the day, they go to the first stop furthest from the school and work their way back, so people living c...

^ Hey, thank you! I fell in love with the U of M the first time I went to the East Bank a number of years ago, it has such great urban form. I have a couple more confessions: 1. I live well within biking distance of my school, but I choose to use a car to get there on days I have extracurriculars (I...

That's really unfortunate. It's beyond frustrating to me that one of the main things that stalled the project so long was the opposition in WBL. They really latched on to the "increase crime" and "ruin the character of our neighborhood" stuff, which is frustrating, but even more ...

I'm a bit out of the loop on this project... is a White Bear Lake terminus completely out of the cards now? If so, that's disappointing. It would have been cool to get one of the further-flung streetcar suburbs reconnected to the transit network

Agreed, it would be nice to see the cost of just the rail infrastructure, not the changes to car infrastructure. Maybe splitting the project into three phases, an MOA upgrade, the MN 5 bridge, and then the actual rail line itself could be beneficial to public perception?

The news reporters have a fixation on reporting exclusively the price of these projects rather than discussing the benefits they may bring to communities that a highway expansion never will.

Note to admins: If this kind of thing isn't allowed here, feel free to delete this. Anyways, For a project I've been working on, I compiled a brief (ok, maybe not so brief) survey to determine people's opinions on where transportation funding and legislation should go. If you are interested in takin...

I suppose this also kinda applies to SWLRT as well, but I wonder how the trains will be signed once the BLRT opens? These are the options I could see Metro Transit doing: a. Signed as 'Minneapolis' until splitting off and proceeding as "Mall of America" or "Brooklyn Park" dependi...

Very fascinating, though it is sad that the lab closed (It looks like it closed a year or so after I took a tour there). Thanks for sharing!

What even happens at the Soudan lab? The tour guide I was with there many years ago mentioned it a bunch of times, it sounds interesting.

I'm starting to lean further toward streetcar just because of the dedicated ROW (and connections to both terminals), since our region's planners doesn't realize that real BRT needs dedicated lanes, but that's a whole other argument on its own.

Good luck getting MnDOT to cooperate with a dedicated lane on Highway 5 by the airport.

It's also probably worth noting that since it is a rail line, it is not as subject to weather-related delays (especially if it has the custom plow-shaped things the existing rolling stock has), and the quality of the ride is much, much better thanks to the rails instead of a rattly Gillig bus on poo...