Yesterday I got in my car and drove from Uptown Station to Block E, around 8 pm - did the round trip 3x. No way a Rapid Bus could match my efficiency, ever. In six trips, the fastest I got from Uptown Station to Block E was 9 minutes. One trip took nearly 12 minutes. In traffic or weekend bar hopping, this time would go up at least 4-5 minutes. A Rapid Bus along the same route would include at least a half dozen stops. I also drove Chicago from North Central Bible College to 46th. Rapid Bus can work, but the improvement won't be much unless less cars are on the road, not a trend I currently observe. Furthermore, to your credit my drive was a mere snapshot of the proposed system, but I did choose major arteries. To be quite honest with you, Rapid Buses may not go far enough & what I misunderstood, initially, Rapid Bus = BRT, perhaps Metro Transit should put the hammer down and go with BRT along parts of Hennepin.There are no more plans for LRT. After Southwest and Bottineau get built, that's it. If the lines aren't on a Met Council map by now they aren't happening for a long time. We will actually just have 2 light rail lines in the Twin Cities, since Southwest is an extension of the Green Line (Central Corridor) and Bottineau is an extension of the Blue Line (Hiawatha).
So yeah, 2 light rail lines and a commuter line. That's about all that will be going on at The Interchange in the immediate and near future. There's some space being provided for private coach buses, of all things. And you are correct, there are no provisions for BRT at the Interchange, which is probably a mistake. You could have all sorts of BRT lines running over the North/Northwest metro and terminate/force transfer at The Interchange to save service hours by not running into the core of downtown. Slight inconvenience for customers, but saves the transit agency money.
The first few BRT lines that will actually get built don't really matter with regards to the Interchange. The Red Line is way down in the southern burbs. I think everyone assumes that the Orange Line will use the Marq2 corridor. Connections to the LRT lines would occur at Nicollet Mall Station.
My biggest questions are regarding operations:
Will all trains stop at the Interchange AND Target Field Station all the time? OR
Will Target Field become a game-day only station? OR
Will one station be designated for Blue Line and the other for Green Line? OR
Something else I haven't thought of yet?
Chicago has added some serious business density the past couple of years with all the hospital expansions & Midtown Exchange. Hennepin is just flat out busy with cars & it narrows in many sections - the redesign from Lunds to the edge of downtown is awkward in places, some poorly placed & narrow lane dividers.
Anyways, I do like much of the Rapid Bus proposal - but they truly need to demonstrate some improved commute times over month long period, at least, before going on some construction binge with new stations & redesigned buses.
