West 7th Street Arterial Bus (cancelled B Line) - Locked

[twincitizen]

Metro Transit is advancing the B Line on West 7th Street between downtown St. Paul, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America. The B Line is scheduled to open in late 2016. More information on B Line planning and design will be available in mid-2014.

This one really just needs the stations to be built and new buses purchased, as the Route 54 is already part of Metro Transit's Hi-Frequency network.

Page 7 of this report on the "A Line" has a graphic of the potential stations: http://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meeting ... Roth).aspx

Here's the preliminary one-pager from the 2012 aBRT study: http://www.metrotransit.org/Data/Sites/ ... st_7th.pdf

The B Line will be extended along East 7th Street in due time, but likely not all the way to Maplewood as the aBRT study indicated: http://www.metrotransit.org/Data/Sites/ ... st_7th.pdf

That would be great if they could get it extended to at least 7th/Arcade or Arcade/Maryland in 2017.

[mulad]

This one really just needs the stations to be built and new buses purchased, as the Route 54 is already part of Metro Transit's Hi-Frequency network.

Traffic signal priority too, right?

[twincitizen]

Holy un****ing believable.

Ramsey County and St. Paul made a motion at the last TAB meeting to prevent Met Council from moving forward with this project, out of fear that it would jeopardize future federal funding for a Riverview LRT line. This is not good.

http://www.metrocouncil.org/Council-Mee ... bined.aspx
https://streets.mn/2014/07/23/make-a-b-l ... n-council/

[Silophant]

If St. Paul is soo concerned about potentially jeopardizing federal funding for Riverview, that means they'll be shutting down their premature vanity streetcar study, right?

[talindsay]

Given that CTIB is illustrating a budget model where Riverview LRT is built entirely out of local funds, I don't see any reason to even worry about it - Riverview will be built more cheaply (overall) and more quickly, and the feds won't have a voice to complain about whether it's duplicative or not.

[Tcmetro]

I really hope this doesn't happen. The 54 is one of the most regionally important buses, and deserves better stops, ticket machines, and transit signals. LRT won't happen for another 10+ years in the corridor (depending on the study), but the B-Line will be ready in 2 years.

On a slight tangent, Austin, TX conducted an Alternatives Analysis on one of their major corridors, and selected a mixed-traffic arterial BRT line as the preferred alternative. Subsequently, they wanted to implement light rail in the corridor, but the feds said that because they already used federal funds for the arterial BRT line and that the AA showed that as the best fit for the corridor, they couldn't go back and change what they already did. The situation here isn't wholly analogous, as we haven't conducted the AA yet, and the Arterial BRT study just identified routes that have the potential for improvements.

[Southside]

If St Paul is opposed,maybe we should skip this one and move forward with Penn and Chicago. I'm sure 5 & 19 riders would love the improvement.

[mplser]

Yes! The 5 is horrible. Always packed even when there are 3 buses following each other in a line

[EOst]

If St Paul is opposed,maybe would should skip this one and move forward with Penn and Chicago. I'm sure 5 & 19 riders would love the improvement.

I don't know that the planning would be ready in time to simply switch them out.

[twincitizen]

It's not that simple. While the C Line is currently being planned (somewhat coordinated with Hennepin County's "Penn Avenue Community Works" master plan), the D Line (Chicago, eventually Fremont-Emerson) is definitely a bit further off.

The B Line would have been really easy for a couple of reasons: money coming from MNDOT (Hwy. 5), and the same staff working on the A-Line has already built relationships with MNDOT and St. Paul PW.

I can almost promise you that the same money cannot be just transferred to the next line in the queue. And it certainly won't open in 2016 as the B-line would have. Remember, the Route 54 already exists...this one was supposed to be a piece of cake.

[Southside]

Very good points -

I love the letter-naming convention, but it would be better if they chose meaningful letters. C-line for Chicago, P-line for Penn, S-line for Snelling (M for Midway maybe?), F-line for Fort Road. Obviously, they would have to compromise on some, but the order of implementation will be meaningless once the lines are running.

[riverrat]

Those of you who may be disappointed if the B line doesn't happen in 2016 as planned might consider making your thoughts known to the county rail authority and commissioners. Not that it would change anything, but they should still hear it.

[Minnehahaha]

I love the letter-naming convention, but it would be better if they chose meaningful letters. C-line for Chicago, P-line for Penn, S-line for Snelling (M for Midway maybe?), F-line for Fort Road. Obviously, they would have to compromise on some, but the order of implementation will be meaningless once the lines are running.

A topic that supposedly came up in choosing an appropriate designation for New York's Second Avenue subway is that letter choices can come with their own baggage. Who wants to ride the Pee Line?

[Tcmetro]

This document sheds a little more light on the issue:
http://www.metrocouncil.org/Council-Mee ... e_TIP.aspx

Here's the Pioneer Press article as well:
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_ ... rss_viewed

[Southside]

The B-line might be dead in the water. The Metro Transit site now has C-Line documents on the webpage and still nothing for the B-line.

http://www.metrotransit.org/arterial-study

http://www.metrotransit.org/Data/Sites/ ... t_penn.pdf

Nice job St. Paul! I'm sure Yellow Cab is happy that the 54 will still be the only bus to the airport in Capitol City. Hopefully, the B-Line's CMAQ money can head to the D-Line on Chicago Ave.

[HiawathaGuy]

Nothing new here, but glad to see it's getting press.

Transit in Riverview Corridor getting fresh look
September 13, 2014
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/275016591.html

[David Greene]

If this is a good idea, let’s have a whack at it — provided it’s nondestructive.

His definition of "non-destructive" is that it doesn't change West 7th at all.