Green Line LRT

[IllogicalJake]

From Metro Transit's Twitter:

Blue Line: minor delays are expected for the next hour due to a mechanical issue in downtown Minneapolis. Thank you for your patience.

"Minor" delays. Every train going westbound was stopped because of a technical malfunction at Target Field, according to a train op. The trains were stuck like that for quite a while.

[Tom H.]

Well, the backup of trains inbound to Target Field caused extreme delays on outbound trains (both Blue and Green Lines), so I ended up walking a few miles to the U instead of riding. So at least I got some exercise out of the deal! Also, the announcements at the station indicated that the problem was around Target Field, but I'm not sure what it was.

[LRV Op Dude]

Train has been moved and service is returning to normal.

[HiawathaGuy]

My southbound Blue Line train was over 15 minutes late this morning. I called Metro Transit and found out about the mechanical issue with a train between the Target Field & Warehouse stations. As always, I understand that things happen. That's life - but what I don't understand and find incredibly excusable, is MT's inability to rapidly update their SCROLLING MESSAGE BOARDS at EVERY PLATFORM with simple communication. I'm not asking for real-time train information (actually, yes - yes I am!), but I digress.

I had a representative from MT call me back after lodging my complaint. I spoke with him regarding the very simple "low-hanging fruit" issues that they could quickly remedy. I see basic communication for both lines of rail being just that. How difficult is it to have a message scrolling at all platforms alerting the general public to trip delays?! They know about it, why can't they share?! Anyhow, I assumed that the Blue Line delay also spilled over to the Green Line - or more accurately, effected each line congruently.

[IllogicalJake]

Amen. The lack of communication from them during a problem or outage always amazes me. They have the capability, they simply choose not to use it.

[HiawathaGuy]

Amen. The lack of communication from them during a problem or outage always amazes me. They have the capability, they simply choose not to use it.

Ironically, the MT representative who I was speaking with (very nice guy), said that over 70% of the complaints they receive deal with communication issues! He said it's either lack of information on the platform, or lack of information once on a train and it comes to a stop - where the driver doesn't give the riders any updates.

Again, these are both incredibly easy things to solve! Seriously, there should be a Standard Operating Procedure put in place for any rail disruption. The people updating the general public don't have to be those in communication with the rail operators either (at least in my mind). But there should be a very clear, very straight-forward plan, where LRV operators know exactly what to say/do in the event of an issue. Much the same as the RCC should be able to communicate a message to someone to enter into a computer to update the message boards at impacted stations.

[nate]

The station by station ridership was posted in the comments of this article: https://streets.mn/2014/10/15/lrt-beats- ... -corridor/

2008 EIS 2030 Projected Ridership:
Target Field Station 400
Warehouse District/Hennepin Avenue 3,700
Nicollet Mall 6,690
Government Plaza 1,050
Downtown East / Metrodome 4,120
West Bank Station 1,200
East Bank Station 6,680
Stadium Village Station 970
29th Avenue Station 960
Westgate Station 1,130
Raymond Avenue Station 1,250
Fairview Avenue Station 1,900
Snelling Avenue Station 2,930
Hamline 600
Lexington Parkway Station 930
Victoria 400
Dale Street Station 710
Western 600
Rice Street Station 1,200 + Capitol East Station 390 = 1,590
10th Street Station 1,860
4th and Cedar Streets Station 1,200
Union Depot Station 2,120
Total Daily Boardings 42,960

September 2013 actual ridership:
1,124 Target Field Station & Platform
1,720 Warehouse Station & Platform
2,897 Nicollet Mall Station & Platform
1,327 Government Plaza Station & Platform
2,099 Downtown East Station & Platform
2,168 West Bank Station & Platform
5,105 East Bank Station & Platform
1,772 Stadium Village Station & Platform
782 Prospect Park Station & Platform
1,301 Westgate Station & Platform
1,195 Raymond Ave Station & Platform
1,119 Fairview Ave Station & Platform
2,346 Snelling Ave Station & Platform
1,507 Hamline Ave Station & Platform
1,503 Lexington Pkwy Station & Platform
737 Victoria St Station & Platform
1,460 Dale St Station & Platform
744 Western Ave Station & Platform
1,213 Capitol & Rice St Station & Platform
695 Robert St Station & Platform
844 10th St Station & Platform
2,611 Central Station & Platform
1,115 Union Depot Station & Platform
37,385 Green Line Total

Interesting that the University Ave stations are blowing away estimates, while the downtown stations (especially Nicollet Mall) are below estimates (except for Central, which is seeing twice the projected riders)

This tells me that people are using the line more heavily than expected for short hops within the corridor, and less heavily than expected for commuting to downtown. Could Central Station have so many more riders because of higher than expected bus transfers from the West 7th corridor and East Side of St Paul?

[Elliot Altbaum]

I made a table of expected and actual ridership at each station. I included the absolute and % difference in ridership from expected. I was hoping to paste this in as a table but cannot figure it out. Someone want to take this CSV and fix it?

Station Name Expected 2030 Sept '14 Expected-Sept'14 % performance
Target Field Station 400 1,124 724 181
Warehouse District/Hennepin Avenue 3,700 1,720 -1,980 -53.51351351
Nicollet Mall 6,690 2,897 -3,793 -56.69656203
Government Plaza 1,050 1,327 277 26.38095238
Downtown East / Metrodome 4,120 2,099 -2,021 -49.05339806
West Bank Station 1,200 2,168 968 80.66666667
East Bank Station 6,680 5,105 -1,575 -23.57784431
Stadium Village Station 970 1,772 802 82.68041237
29th Avenue Station 960 782 -178 -18.54166667
Westgate Station 1,130 1,301 171 15.13274336
Raymond Avenue Station 1,250 1,195 -55 -4.4
Fairview Avenue Station 1,900 1,119 -781 -41.10526316
Snelling Avenue Station 2,930 2,346 -584 -19.93174061
Hamline 600 1,507 907 151.1666667
Lexington Parkway Station 930 1,503 573 61.61290323
Victoria 400 737 337 84.25
Dale Street Station 710 1,460 750 105.6338028
Western 270 744 474 175.5555556
Rice Street Station 1,200 + Capitol East Station 390 = 1,590 1,213 -377 -23.71069182
Robert Street Station 0 695 695 #DIV/0!
10th Street Station 1,860 844 -1,016 -54.62365591
4th and Cedar Streets Station (Central) 1,200 2,611 1,411 117.5833333
Union Depot Station 2,120 1,115 -1,005 -47.40566038
Total Daily Boardings 42,960 37,385 -5,575 -12.97718808

[HiawathaGuy]

September 2013 actual ridership:

What this a typo? It should be 2014, correct?

[mister.shoes]

Code: Select all

Station Name Exp 2030 Sept'14 Exp-Sept'14 % perf ------------ -------- ------- ----------- ------ Target Field Station 400 1,124 724 181.00% Warehouse District/Hennepin Avenue 3,700 1,720 -1,980 -53.51% Nicollet Mall 6,690 2,897 -3,793 -56.70% Government Plaza 1,050 1,327 277 26.38% Downtown East / Metrodome 4,120 2,099 -2,021 -49.05% West Bank Station 1,200 2,168 968 80.67% East Bank Station 6,680 5,105 -1,575 -23.58% Stadium Village Station 970 1,772 802 82.68% 29th Avenue Station 960 782 -178 -18.54% Westgate Station 1,130 1,301 171 15.13% Raymond Avenue Station 1,250 1,195 -55 -4.40% Fairview Avenue Station 1,900 1,119 -781 -41.11% Snelling Avenue Station 2,930 2,346 -584 -19.93% Hamline 600 1,507 907 151.17% Lexington Parkway Station 930 1,503 573 61.61% Victoria 400 737 337 84.25% Dale Street Station 710 1,460 750 105.63% Western 270 744 474 175.56% Rice Street Station 1,200 + Capitol East Station 390 = 1,590 1,213 -377 -23.71% Robert Street Station 0 695 695 #DIV/0! 10th Street Station 1,860 844 -1,016 -54.62% 4th and Cedar Streets Station 1,200 2,611 1,411 117.58% Union Depot Station 2,120 1,115 -1,005 -47.41% Total Daily Boardings 42,960 37,385 -5,575 -12.98%

[MSPtoMKE]

Some of the projections are just weird. For instance, assuming Central Station would have the lowest ridership of the 3 main Downtown St. Paul stations just defies logic.

[Tyler]

Some of the projections are just weird. For instance, assuming Central Station would have the lowest ridership of the 3 main Downtown St. Paul stations just defies logic.

But... science!

[twincitizen]

There appears to be an error in the table above.

Robert Street and Capitol East are actually the same thing. It was renamed Robert Street after they realized most Capitol workers would actually board at Rice.

[seanrichardryan]

So this showed up in the St. Paul issues list:

http://youtu.be/HGFXjW9mkEU

[IllogicalJake]

So this showed up in the St. Paul issues list:

http://youtu.be/HGFXjW9mkEU

Was posted to CityPages a while ago. MetroTransit is sticking by the "light rails don't follow the red and green light system like typical cars" comment, although it'd seem odd if the train did have a vertical bar signal that instructed it to cross a green-lit intersection...

[FISHMANPET]

I have seen the train signals not activate, so the driver will wait a cycle or two, then lay on the horn and bells and go through slowly. The narrative presented with that video isn't correct, you don't see the train pull into the station, so you don't know how long it was sitting there, and also I don't see many people moving about the platform so I doubt it had just let passengers off.

[IllogicalJake]

I have seen the train signals not activate, so the driver will wait a cycle or two, then lay on the horn and bells and go through slowly. The narrative presented with that video isn't correct, you don't see the train pull into the station, so you don't know how long it was sitting there, and also I don't see many people moving about the platform so I doubt it had just let passengers off.

Agreed – I believe this is one of those situations. The video claims the train "almost hit!" a car, but it seems to clearly see the car, slow down, and then proceed out of the station when the car passes.

[IllogicalJake]

So I tried to send a commendation of a really helpful train op on Monday – filled out the online form describing the time, station, route, vehicle number, driver description, and a comment.

Of course, two days later, MetroTransit "lost" everything except the comment, so they contacted me saying that without more information they would not be able to commend the "bus driver." Then my attempts to follow-up went unanswered.

Sigh - why does MetroTransit make it so hard to even say something *nice* about them?

[xandrex]

So I tried to send a commendation of a really helpful train op on Monday – filled out the online form describing the time, station, route, vehicle number, driver description, and a comment.

Of course, two days later, MetroTransit "lost" everything except the comment, so they contacted me saying that without more information they would not be able to commend the "bus driver." Then my attempts to follow-up went unanswered.

Sigh - why does MetroTransit make it so hard to even say something *nice* about them?

Maybe shower the driver with praise on Twitter instead?

[Anondson]

Nah, social media is for showering scorn. But that too might get them to clean up their act so that it gets easier to praise them.