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Mall of America Transit Station

Posted: March 25th, 2013, 3:49 pm
by LRV Op Dude
Here is link to the Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan Presentation to the Transportation Committee on March 11.

What do you think?

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: March 25th, 2013, 4:04 pm
by mattaudio
It doesn't move the transit station from the current parking dungeon to the logical location between the Mall and Lindau Lane, at the nexus of Phase I and Phase II of the mall's development, taking advantage of plans to extend Lindau Lane eastward, and allowing for easier interlining of any future LRT/BRT along Riverview, American Blvd, and Cedar Avenue. http://goo.gl/maps/dPZGr

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: March 25th, 2013, 4:24 pm
by Chauncey87
I do not like the design. It will make it imposible to expand the blue line down American Blvd since you would now have to plow it though the new station. I also seem to remember they already did some renovation work to the current station. I can understand the idea of doing something fresh and new here, but I just hate the idea of ripping it all up after only a couple years. The large glass entrence on the side of the parking garage seems like it will never be used since the only thing it will head to is pretty much nothing atm. How about keep what we have?

I have used this station hundreds of times the only thing it needs is better lighting. The bus/train flow is fine. The train only backs up the buses for a min or so. Hell getting into the station seems to take longer then leaving. The gate agent has to check any van or truck for papers, and if one is in front of your bus it can take a little while.

OK so maybe have a different entrence for van/truck that would be nice. :D

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: March 25th, 2013, 4:42 pm
by lordmoke
Anyone else catch the $20M+ price tag at the end?

You would think that would be enough money to move the station.

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: March 25th, 2013, 5:50 pm
by woofner
There's already a special place in hell for people who post pdfs as youtube videos, but they also budget $5.6m to narrow a median on 24th Ave. Seriously, the only difference they propose is cutting a bus turn lane into a median.

Otherwise I think it looks much better. Sure there's no provision for extending LRT, but neither is anyone proposing that.

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: March 25th, 2013, 9:13 pm
by Tcmetro
I think it is a much better solution. I really like that the staircase will go right into the mall.

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: March 25th, 2013, 11:20 pm
by mulad
It's okay. I'm not very excited by it, but it's an improvement overall. It gets rid of some of the circuitous nature of the existing station for both buses and pedestrians, but it pulls the bus platforms farther out from the mall, so the amount of walking probably ends up being about the same for bus riders. It's probably a bit better for LRT riders, though, and that's certainly important.

Will there be any effort to simply brighten the place up a bit? I'm thinking of the underground parking at SPUD, where it has been painted white and there's good lighting to make it feel a lot safer.

I'm a bit surprised at the addition of a second roadway crossing of the LRT tracks way down by Killebrew Drive -- I guess it was needed for semi trucks, since the roadway at Gate 6 has been changed to be one-way (outbound, pushing everything off-premises). I hate to see any more grade crossings for rail lines, even if this is more or less just splitting a two-way road into one-way pairs. I guess I would have pushed more for some way to reconfigure the stoplight-controlled entrance coming from Killebrew (east side of Radisson Blu) to allow trucks, but maybe the grade levels didn't work out for that.

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: March 26th, 2013, 8:43 am
by Andrew_F
I think it is a much better solution. I really like that the staircase will go right into the mall.
Definitely. It will also be nice to not have to cross the bus traffic to get to the LRT platforms, which also look significantly more sheltered.

I agree that it would be nice to see it moved to directly below the future main concourse running north out of Phase I, but this is pretty good for keeping it in the same spot.

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: March 26th, 2013, 10:43 am
by nordeast homer
Is it great? No, but it is much better than what is there presently and to out of town visitors it will be much more inviting and attractive.

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: March 27th, 2013, 1:51 pm
by mattaudio
Sad that the state is spending more than $15 million on this...
http://www.ci.bloomington.mn.us/cityhal ... 013302.htm
...without accommodation for moving the transit center to the Lindau Lane corridor.

Edit: Plan uses $20 mil in TIF funnymoney as well. Project total is over $30 mil.

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: March 28th, 2013, 9:32 am
by Tom H.
I agree; with the Lindau Ln eastward extension in planning, it seems like it should be natural to coordinate the two. I can't imagine it costing much more than the $30M already pledged to this. Maybe it's too hard to put bus stops in that location for transfers?

It would certainly make arriving at the MoA via transit feel a little more pleasant, since you wouldn't be getting dropped off in a poorly-lit basement of a parking ramp (although, to be fair, most drivers enter the MoA through poorly lit parking ramps too).

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: April 6th, 2014, 9:48 pm
by LRV Op Dude
Here is link to the Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan Presentation to the Transportation Committee on March 11.

What do you think?
New link

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v8pkTowqshc

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: April 9th, 2014, 4:10 pm
by froggie
I'd rather they move the station to the south side of the mall, between the south entrance and Killebrew Dr. Would be easier IMO to accommodate a southward extension of the LRT that way.

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: April 9th, 2014, 4:31 pm
by FISHMANPET
That would bring it even farther from the center of mass of the mall, which is growing northward, though this would put it a bit closer to the stuff south of Killebrew Dr, but I think the city would have to get pretty heavy handed to get all those properties to become walkable from the light rail.

But especially since it looks like Bloomington is opening 81st Ave to Lindau Lane, it seems like a real missed opportunity to run... just anything else than what we've got now. I'll say a big benefit to a station on the south side of the mall is that you wouldn't waste all that track in the field to the east.

How big will the mall be before it has its own driverless tram like the airport to get you from one end to the other?

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: April 9th, 2014, 4:36 pm
by mulad
The Radisson Blu hotel went in the area south of the mall. There may still be a way to do it, but it'd be a much tighter fit.

Hmm, the expansion implies that the existing casino/charter/intercity(?) bus area north of the mall is going away, or perhaps it already has. Is that being folded into the regular transit center?

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: April 10th, 2014, 6:25 am
by froggie
Yes, going along Killebrew would bring it farther from the mall's "center mass", but it would be much easier engineering/space-wise to continue the extension south along Cedar than it would be routing it along Lindau.

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: April 10th, 2014, 7:03 am
by mattaudio
If it extended westward, it could go along the south side of the existing SB 77 to Lindau ramp (beneath the flyover to SB 77) and then turn to Old Cedar or American Blvd. Lindau would probably work fine.

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: April 10th, 2014, 9:48 am
by fehler
I'd rather they plan for a second Mall station on the north/Ikea end, then extend the line down American Blvd under Cedar, where it can go south or west or both. The Mall is big enough for two stations.

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: April 10th, 2014, 10:15 am
by talindsay
I don't see any way the Blue line will be extended south from the Mall any time soon enough to make it worth thinking about the Mall's station through that lens. Even if the so-called "Red Line" started having numbers that resemble the 18 or the 5, getting light rail across the MN River would be prohibitively expensive. If the CTIB gets a large increase in its funding and they manage to build out currently-planned extensions to light rail I could see them starting to talk about a westward extension, perhaps along American Blvd since that would be inexpensive and could add some business destinations to the end of the line, but even that seems unlikely until after Southwest, Bottineau, Riverview, Gateway, and perhaps even NE Diagonal and 394 corridors were already addressed. Which is to say, not in the next thirty years.

Re: Mall of America Transit Station: Master Plan

Posted: April 10th, 2014, 10:25 am
by David Greene
As long we we're thinking *really* long term, how about extending the Blue Line westward to Southwest Station? It seems like LRT along the 494 strip could be successful.