urbanMSP

Train length is another issue... Will these stations only be built for 1-LRV trains? Hiawatha was built with some 2-LRV platforms but with a pathway to extend those platforms (happened within a few years). I recall that they are looking at using the smaller 80-foot long Siemens LRV and I would imag...

How about we just don't build a streetcar and build light rail Agreed, but if we can only choose one of the streetcar options then I'd say Option 1 because it has the best chance to be converted to 100% dedicated right-of-way later on. From the meeting last evening, it sounded like the main or only...

For those curious, during the CAC meeting yesterday it was said that the cost in 2033 dollars for the new Mall of America Station and Highway 5 Bridge would be approximately $100 million and $240 million, respectively. Maybe it was just me, but the presenters seemed to talk more highly of Streetcar ...

If you're bored and want to kill over an hour, check out this video from the cab of a locomotive going south on the Dan Patch Line from St. Louis Park to Savage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtgBttVstc0 In the beginning of the video you can kind of see where the Green Line's Louisiana Avenue Stat...

Northstar trains have to use the east/southbound track (the westernmost track) to access Fridley Station, so building a station at Foley Boulevard with only a platform on the west/northbound track (the easternmost track) would require adding a crossover somewhere between Fridley and Foley.

I think it's worth noting the $2.1 billion dollar budget includes replacing the bridge over the Mississippi with a new bridge which is certainly a big part of that number That said if this thing can't get into a completely dedicated ROW and interlined with the Green Line for that number aBRT is the...

Adam Platt writes in the Strib about the 2040 plan hinging on a transit system the city has zero control over. https://www.startribune.com/the-2040-equation-density-minus-transit-equals-failure/600337693/ 30-minute times come in for big criticism as affecting reduced transit use. Crappy transit wil...

A trail bridge over Excelsior Boulevard also would've been nice, and it would make the South Cedar Lake Trail free of road crossings from 5th Avenue in Hopkins to Cedar Lake Parkway and James Avenue on the Kenilworth Trail and Midtown Greenway respectively.

This might sound stupid But part of me thinks it would of been better to put the bike trail in the tunnel instead. Today I learned Bergen, Norway did that with a nearly 2-mile bike/pedestrian tunnel, but it's *in addition* to a light rail tunnel. :shock: https://en.visitbergen.com/about/sustainabil...

In my more cynical moments I kinda view some politicians who are "transit advocates" as people who want to either be the ones who will sign a bill/law that gives a project funding or to be the ones that cut the ribbon when it opens but make sure to be missing when its neck deep in constru...

Bringing back this thread with the discussion over a Highway 36 BRT in the Purple Line thread. Also here's the highway BRT study from 2014 for those who haven't seen it or want to take another look at it: https://metrocouncil.org/Transportation/Publications-And-Resources/Transit/TRANSITWAYS/HTCSFina...

It's certainly an unfriendly reminder that the process for making transit/passenger rail projects reality in this country needs to change. Doesn't need to be like China where the government can just swoop in and grab land with no questions asked (well, that's supposedly what it's like that over ther...

We could've been a real city: https://64.media.tumblr.com/1bf81e6cff561ccce173386a171478d1/tumblr_nak4ulY9711qfkgweo1_1280.jpg I'd love to know how that proposal came about and how long and how serious it was being considered. As much as I don't like light rail going through Kenilworth, I'll take i...

If there is one constant in transit planning in the time I've been following it here it's that political officials refusal to piss off a small number of people no matter how much it positively impact literally everyone else. This being a prime example. Also see the Blue Line Extension and Riverview...

This might sound stupid But part of me thinks it would of been better to put the bike trail in the tunnel instead. You might be on to something with that. It would be smaller than a light rail tunnel, so in theory cheaper and easier to build, though it would be kind of long (one of the longest trai...

"I think it's going to look like a small version of St. Paul."

Sounds like a positive to me.

It really does hurt knowing that the overpromising and under delivering of this project will stymie further development of a regional rail system. We need a comprehensive plan, not the piecemeal approach that isn't working for us now. I only hope once this line opens, it is successful and reinvigor...

Looks like an old map considering the light rail lines are still referred to as the Hiawatha Line and Central Corridor. Also if I'm looking at it right the Central Corridor is still in the proposal stage.

Realigned Lyndale Avenue, regional rail station, expanded rail corridor, dedicated busway on I-94, online bus station, and freeway cap all in this little spot of Camden: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WovZbPh3fRj1jhDh8 https://photos.app.goo.gl/kegmrL2g36JemyWK9 Quite an upgrade in transit from what is c...

Where did you find SW Transit's ridership? Looking at SW Transit's schedule there's 21 daily roundtrips (1 on Route 600 + 4 on Route 695 + 16 on Route 698), which split evenly for each one-way trip would be 19 riders assuming there's 800 total daily riders. 15-20K average daily ridership in 2030, or...