I think on the merits of the corridor alone, no, it doesn't need LRT. Looking at what the corridor would do for our system, then I would say LRT is probably appropriate if the ridership is at all decent.Here's my question: is LRT warranted in this corridor? The Central Corridor had a regular bus line running every 10 minutes every day (more frequently during rush hours) and a limited stop bus route paralleling it. The 54 runs every 15 minutes Monday-Saturday and only every 20-30 minutes on Sunday's. Central Corridor needed the extra capacity light rail has. It doesn't seem like West 7th does.
I drove down W 7th last week and I am coming around to the idea that this should run off-street for a few reasons:
1. It is already a marginal corridor as far as ridership is concerned, so this saves money in street reconstruction and utility relocation.
2. The density of the neighborhoods north of W 7th is not especially great. Routing it on W 7th doesn't really capture much additional ridership.
3. The best opportunity for TOD occurs south of W 7th.
4. The densest node on W 7th is at the Randolph/7th intersection. This node would still be served by an off-street alignment.
5. Because this line will be about connecting major centers of ridership, rather than a long stretch of consistent density, speed will be at a greater premium than it is on the green line.
6. Downtown St Paul isn't that large, and stations at the bluff would serve the downtown office, hotel, and event core decently well, if they had good vertical circulation.
7. Union Depot is very underutilized, and connecting Riverview directly to the concourse would improve its functionality.
8. It would be more easily extended to the East Side, as Rush corridor gains traction.