Green Line / Central Corridor construction thread (archive)

[mulad]

Also: January 2014 "Making Tracks" newsletter: http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts ... ins/a204e1

[LRV Op Dude]

Hiawatha Light Rail trail from 11th Avenue South and 15th Avenue South will reopen today

[David Greene]

Excepting mulad's post above as a special case, I'm calling it.

We have now officially built a 12-mile Light Rail Transit line through the densest corridor in Minnesota faster than we repaired three elevators in our office building.

Just remember kids, government is horribly inefficient and private enterprise is the best solution for everything.

[talindsay]

Saw a three-car train pulling into the West Bank station today at lunch, with the station intercom announcing that "Northbound trains to Downtown Minneapolis are running ten minutes late". I'm sure they were just testing the intercom but I had two funny thoughts about the announcement: (1) trains to downtown Minneapolis are westbound, not northbound, so it's clearly a Hiawatha announcement; and (2) with trains running every ten minutes, isn't it impossible for a train to run ten minutes late?

[at40man]

Just remember kids, government is horribly inefficient and private enterprise is the best solution for everything.

Well, unless your name is Nan Hynes.

[mulad]

Daily Green Line operator training (weekdays) will begin next Monday, Feb. 24th. They'll start running with the regular 7-day schedule in April in preparation for the June opening.

http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts ... ins/a60c12

[exiled_antipodean]

Some photos from around the Prospect Park station
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjTfaMut

[Tcmetro]

I was poking around on the Central Corridor Bus Changes website and I noticed a few new things in the February revision of the plan:

Route 63: Layover at University/Emerald.

Routes 68 and 71: Will no longer go to Robert St Station as planned, will instead continue to stop at 14th/Jackson as is currently done.

Route 83: New southern terminal at Summit Brewery.

Route 129: New shuttle from Huron Station to West Bank during peak hours.

http://www.metrotransit.org/central-transit-study

[mulad]

Thanks for the updates. The 68 / 71 change near Robert Street station makes sense since it avoids going up and down the hill an extra time, and the bus still stops just one block away.

The route 63 extension is a great idea.

Anyway, I did see a train sitting out at Union Depot station yesterday morning, so the training has definitely begun. The tram-style vertical/horizontal white bar signals aren't yet functioning in downtown St. Paul, but I've seen them working at Rice Street, so the downtown signals will probably start working soon.

I'm curious to see what will happen with the presidential visit to Union Depot tomorrow -- I wouldn't be surprised if they have him stop by the Lowertown OMF or step onto a train at the station out front.

[widin007]

I heard yesterday he might get to ride one, but we'll see.

[mattaudio]

A train got a little too excited over all the commotion today: https://twitter.com/RachelSB/status/438 ... 65/photo/1

[talindsay]

Hmmm, that's bad news. I suppose that when trains are running every ten minutes in each direction there won't be a chance for ice to build up in the channels but regardless, that shouldn't happen. I hope it turns out to be something that's easy to address because it does point to an engineering issue in that turn.

[mulad]

Over the past week / few days, they've only been using the right-hand track in that picture at that location. Not sure why. There was definitely a lot of snow/ice built up all along the left-hand track, so it's not terribly surprising.

[Ottergoose]

Yeah; their snow fighting plan is to simply run so many trains when it's snowing that it doesn't have a chance to accumulate; obviously wasn't possible to be doing that when the last storm came through.

My wife got me a copy of "Twin Cities by Trolley" yesterday; TCRT actually had dedicated snowplow and sand spreading cars back in the day, and could clear the entire street in two passes, assuming there weren't automobiles parked on the shoulder. Crazy stuff.

And, if you think the bureaucratic nonsense today is maddening, in the TCRT days, you'd have to pay an additional fare when crossing between Minneapolis and St. Paul.

[mattaudio]

Isn't that a great book?

[Wedgeguy]

As of last week, there were sections of the tracks that were piled with snow. They will have to be dug out before the trains can run on them again.

[min-chi-cbus]

I know that here in Cleveland they have maintenance vehicles they use to add/spread rocks or other foundation, push sand and snow, or do anything else to help clear the track for the trains. When there was a ton of snow recently the snow between the tracks was the exact same height as the tracks themselves, and anything outside of the tracks was pushed up higher. In other words, the trains came in and plowed the snow off of the track and kept it at track level. You could see groove marks where the bottom of the train just barely scraped snow between the tracks.

How is the Hiawatha line maintained for snow?

[Tcmetro]

The trains are equipped with sanders, and I believe that the constant operations prevent the buildup of snow on the tracks and ice on the wires.

[HiawathaGuy]

How is the Hiawatha line maintained for snow?

Besides having built in sanders and frequent schedules (continuing through the night during heavy overnight snows), the trains also have plows built into the front & back of the train, to push aside any higher snow that does build up.

Many stations (like mine at 50th) have a recessed area where the snow on either side of the tracks is higher from the train melting/pushing it aside. And the sand is very evident as well.

The LRV are very efficient at handling snow. It's ice that causes the biggest problems.

[eazydp]

I was reading the Wiki article on Chicago's 'L'. We really missed a color scheme opportunity here by not naming this line the Maroon or the Gold line, much like the L's purple line. I suppose we could call the campus connector that in the future. Or even better, an express version of the Green line!