Green Line LRT

[IllogicalJake]

new york is an entirely different animal. we don't have throngs of tourists.

You're gonna love February in 2018...

[MinnMonkey]

I've heard more than once around the Prospect Park and Westgate stations while on board, "Are we in St Paul/Minneapolis now?". I have to say, the Mpls-StP border has got to be about the worst for placement treatment anywhere: no one knows which city they're in and even I had to keep checking for a little while before I got a handle on it. No matter whether it's on the Green Line or Ford Express Pkwy or Lake-Marshall you better really know your city boundaries because it's a very subtle transition. Unless your a cyclist, in which case you're wondering where all the bike lanes and racks disappeared to (hint: to the west).

I can't believe how many people I have overheard that thought the East Bank station is still St. Paul, (yesterday someone even commented on how East Bank was the U of M St. Paul campus). People don't seem to realize both cities straddle the river. A lot of people really don't know MSP geography, even when they have lived here their entire lives.

[Minnehahaha]

Of course, I always expected new and exciting energies to come bubbling up around the Green Line... I just never thought so much of the new action would be beer related!

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_ ... green-line

[grant1simons2]

"But it's going to ruin small businesses and take out restaurants"

-people in 2013

[mulad]

The big antenna tower at KSTP sits right on the border. Their building stretches across it, and the old main entrance is right on the line as well.. Emerald Street is the dividing line to the south.

[mullen]

new york is an entirely different animal. we don't have throngs of tourists.

You're gonna love February in 2018...

for five days whoopee. make sure you get of out town to avoid the hordes infringing on your urban experience.

[IllogicalJake]

new york is an entirely different animal. we don't have throngs of tourists.

You're gonna love February in 2018...

for five days whoopee. make sure you get of out town to avoid the hordes infringing on your urban experience.

I never said anything about disliking tourists...? Tourists are commonly a part of the urban experience.

[mulad]

The signal priority system through the University of Minnesota area appeared to be disabled when I went through around 5 pm yesterday. At least one intersection (Huron Blvd & Washington Ave) had red lights flashing. How did things go for people going to/from the Vikings game later in the evening?

Did they end up blocking off any roads to car traffic during the game like they'd typically do at the Metrodome?

[illman00]

I went to the game and rode it from west bank station to the stadium station and it was very full. The way back we just walked and saw people who couldn't get on at east bank station because it was so full. So at least it looked like a lot of people used it!

[xandrex]

I've heard more than once around the Prospect Park and Westgate stations while on board, "Are we in St Paul/Minneapolis now?". I have to say, the Mpls-StP border has got to be about the worst for placement treatment anywhere: no one knows which city they're in and even I had to keep checking for a little while before I got a handle on it. No matter whether it's on the Green Line or Ford Express Pkwy or Lake-Marshall you better really know your city boundaries because it's a very subtle transition. Unless your a cyclist, in which case you're wondering where all the bike lanes and racks disappeared to (hint: to the west).

I can understand how on University it might be tough to tell the difference (and I've wondered why neither of the cities have a sign here...St. Paul strangely has one on Como, but not University), but the other two spots you mention have the two cities literally separated by a (fairly wide at that point) river. Is that really what we can call "subtle"?

[seanrichardryan]

What a strange complaint. The only one of those routes mentioned that is missing signs is University. Are you expecting a memorial arch or something? Emerald Street is the border, so Westgate is *just* into St. Paul. It could be better marked on the Greenline maps.

[MNdible]

It's easy to forget that the checkpoint, barbed wire, and watch towers have only been gone for 23 years.

[VAStationDude]

Met Council member Jon Commers @commers reports green line ridership is over 38,000 per day.

[nate]

Whoa.

[Minneapolisite]

The big antenna tower at KSTP sits right on the border. Their building stretches across it, and the old main entrance is right on the line as well.. Emerald Street is the dividing line to the south.

I just rode down Emerald today; one side has dense apartments and the other SFHs. If I had to guess which side is which, I would've been wrong.

[bubzki2]

Met Council member Jon Commers @commers reports green line ridership is over 38,000 per day.

Impressive. First, what year was this line supposed to carry this many daily, and two, what impact, if any, will these numbers have on funding & building out more LRT. I have to imagine models would show a synergy in ridership the better the network becomes. Might this also move streetcars forward faster?

http://www.metrocouncil.org/Transportat ... Facts.aspx

"Projected ridership of over 40,000 weekday boardings in 2030"

[Mdcastle]

Wonder what this does to the chances of getting Riverview built as LRT?

[nate]

While its great news that we're exceeding expectations, its too bad that the ridership projections were so low. With more accurate projections, things like the East Bank tunnel and the Snelling tunnel would have looked better on the CEI and might have made it into the project.

[bubzki2]

While its great news that we're exceeding expectations, its too bad that the ridership projections were so low. With more accurate projections, things like the East Bank tunnel and the Snelling tunnel would have looked better on the CEI and might have made it into the project.

Hopefully tunnels at Snelling and others will be considered someday. I have to imagine cut and cover wouldn't be prohibitively expensive now that the ROW is secured.

[twincitizen]

Or better yet, signal pre-emption in downtown Minneapolis.

The high ridership is helping by collecting more fares, but the slower than projected travel times are still putting a massive strain on Metro Transit's budget. I doubt MT will easily give up the fight in getting full preemption at lesser intersections along the line. They've gotta get this thing down to 48 minutes consistently (preferably even lower, obvs)

EDIT: Responding to nate's comment. That's an interesting point I hadn't thought about. They revised the projected ridership UP for this line, on multiple occasions during the planning process. Once Hiawatha ridership matured, they revised up, and then again just in the last couple years they revised up slightly more, based on the added 3 stations & whatnot. Meanwhile in some other cities, LRT lines are missing projections. I think it's always better to estimate low and then have smashing success, but you bring up an excellent point regarding the CEI. I for one am not sure the East Bank tunnel would be a better overall result than the ped plaza and traffic calming we got instead of a tunnel. An East Bank tunnel would basically mean the status quo above ground on Washington through campus (i.e. lots of car traffic). For Snelling though, St. Paul (or MNDOT) definitely should have pushed harder for grade separation there. I think they probably gave up that fight too easily.