urbanMSP

Orange Line TAC PPT shows that Orange Line starts in Dec. 2020, but the Lake St Station won't open until 2021.

What happens in the meantime? Does it skip Lake St entirely? Keep using the existing half-assed shelters?

Either option is terrible. Skipping Lake St would be bad for all those transit-dependent riders. But doing that weave, especially with all the construction going on, would be really slow.

Will the existing Lake St stops (on the shoulders) even exist then though? They might be demolished for the construction.

I think the existing Lake St stops will be gone soon.

If anything, these buses (along with most other express buses) are slated to use temporary bus lanes Park and Portland during the project.

Have they released a timeline for those yet, or just mentioned that they're happening?

I haven't seen a specific timeline. I had some back and forth emails with MetroTransit lobbying for these buses to stop around 26th St to serve the major job concentration in Phillips, but they came across like they had no clue what was going to happen either.

I figure they'd have to have it in place by phase 2 of the project, listed as Summer 2018 on mndot's site. So sometime in the next 6 months?

they could is try to re route some routes to I-35 & 46th and maybe increase some of the routes that already use the station to try and help, but it probably won't do much (I at least hope they get the main functional parts in the station done first so it can somewhat be used while they finish the more aesthetic aspects to it)

So for the first year-plus it's potentially just going to skip straight from 46th to Downtown? It's like they're actively hostile to anyone using this thing for a purpose other than getting from a Park and Ride in Bloomington to Downtown.

So for the first year-plus it's potentially just going to skip straight from 46th to Downtown? It's like they're actively hostile to anyone using this thing for a purpose other than getting from a Park and Ride in Bloomington to Downtown.

That’s why they slowed down the ride from the park and ride in Bloomington by moving the stations offline at American Blvd. Definitely didnt do that to make walking distances shorter.

OK, perhaps the sarcasm was unnecessary and obscured my point. More precisely, it's shocking to me how low a priority has been placed on serving riders or destinations between I-94 and MN-62 for this project.

OK, perhaps the sarcasm was unnecessary and obscured my point. More precisely, it's shocking to me how low a priority has been placed on serving riders or destinations between I-94 and MN-62 for this project.

You must be new here. Welcome to reality. Also keep in mind this is just a temporary situation that will only feel like eternity for you. Happy travels, to places you can ever get to from here!

I'm just glad the entire line is funded even if it will open in phases, work will continue onward until the entire line is completed. See Were Making Transit Great Again! ..ok, great ish? ok... less awful.

I know it's too late now, but I wish the City or County could have stepped up to fund a center island BRT station at 38th Street. Not only would it connect with Route 23-Future-38, but it would provide another good walk-up transit option for the growing area along 38th St between Pleasant and Chicago Aves.

I know it's too late now, but I wish the City or County could have stepped up to fund a center island BRT station at 38th Street. Not only would it connect with Route 23-Future-38, but it would provide another good walk-up transit option for the growing area along 38th St between Pleasant and Chicago Aves.

It could always be an infill station later.

Yeah, an infill station at 38th, and ideally another infill station somewhere north of Lake St., like Franklin, would go a long way toward convincing me this is an actual Metro service that's serving the community it runs through.

Well considering the Franklin bridge over 35W is being rebuilt right now, I don't see Franklin happening for another 50+ years.

Yeah, it's a pretty sad missed opportunity there. I guess it's a natural consequence of putting MnDot in the driver's seat.

Yeah, an infill station at 38th, and ideally another infill station somewhere north of Lake St., like Franklin, would go a long way toward convincing me this is an actual Metro service that's serving the community it runs through.

I agree that we want a transit route to serve the community it runs through, and think that 38th is an obvious candidate for an infill station, but I disagree about Franklin.

If you are going from Franklin to Downtown, there are already several bus routes with "high" frequency that do this, including the 11 two blocks east and the 5 four blocks west. Also, with the mess of highway tangle going on underneath Franklin, placing a large on-line bus stop in this location would be extremely costly and require freeway widening that would eliminate many older streetcar era buildings that are still in use.

If you need to go south from Franklin, then an Orange stop would be more useful, but the freeway widening problems still exist.

Point taken. I think in a vacuum it would be a valuable stop. From a design perspective, it makes a ton of sense that a METRO line that's (at least in theory) supposed to be the highest-priority, highest-frequency, highest-amenity transit spine for the central neighborhoods of South should stop somewhere north of Lake St., and I think Franklin is the most obvious choice. But it's true that this stretch of 35W is an utter nightmare of complexity, and the disruption to the neighborhood caused by accommodating that in a station design might not be worth its utility.

I agree that it would be faster and more direct, but adding the 60 feet of ROW in the middle (based on the room needed for the 46th st station) would mean tearing down lots of buildings. At least with the new freeway braid arrangement the northbound part into downtown and the southbound section out of downtown are adjacent in the center. With the old arrangement (soon to be replaced) you would need two separate vertical bus terminals for the single stop.

On the plus side, the planned aBRT routes to both east and west should improve local service.