7th Street Transit "Advantage" Bus Stops

[mamundsen]

Oh I see now. Yeah I read it as the yellow is the road, and the T is the bus stop placement. Probably just looks funny due to the 45 angle.

[woofner]

I haven't been paying close attention to this so I don't know what's been made public yet. I was told last April by Metro Transit's director of transit planning that once they finished these "super happy fun advantage" bus stops, the northbound 19 would no longer stop at either side of Nicollet Mall. Like in fall/winter of 2013/14.

[RailBaronYarr]

I think they're starting work on this already at the Mayo Clinic Square blockface along 7th. Excavating a good chunk of the street along the sidewalk from the corner.

[Silophant]

A wild curb extension appeared!

So, according to the slides posted upthread, these stations are pretty much going to be aBRT stations, with TVMs, NexTrip signs, lights, heaters, etc. Which makes sense, since the C Line and the Chicago-Fremont (D Line?)whenever they get funded, will need stops at these locations anyway. Additionally, this was apparently a pretty cheap project, as evidenced by the lack of fanfare relative to other transit improvements we've seen. Presumably, this all means that the TVMs will be the $11k version recently discussed over here, instead of the full $80k(!) LRT version. As discussed, the cheaper TVMs will not print the magnetic strips on the tickets they print, and a user who wishes to transfer to a normal bus will just show the driver the timestamp on their ticket when boarding. Until 2017, at least, normal buses are the only kind of buses that will show up at these stations. Is this a sign of Metro Transit beginning to change over to system-wide Proof of Payment? Probably not, but wouldn't it be nice?

[grant1simons2]

7th St Transit Advtg by grant.simons, on Flickr

[Nick]

A wild curb extension appeared!

Btw, lol

[intercomnut]

So the curb extension with a foundation has been sitting at 7th and Hennepin/1st for quite awhile now with no progress. Anyone know if this was delayed by the high bid for the A-line stations? Or was there planned to be a gap in work?

[Silophant]

That presentation linked to a few months ago had project completion in August, including (presumably) the not-even-begun Nicollet station, so it doesn't seem to have been a planned gap. I'd guess that it was either delayed by the high bid, or that the plan was to install both shelter/TVMs at once, and it's delayed until the Nicollet station gets its foundation built. As to why that hasn't happened yet... hard to say. Depending on exactly where they plan to put it, it looks like there might be a transformer vault in the way. Metro Transit may not have correctly accounted for the (long) lead-time required for Xcel to make any required changes to it.

Or, maybe Metro Transit just doesn't really like finishing stations anymore. The new platform at the Nicollet LRT station has been in a similar half-complete stage for, what, like a year now?

[trigonalmayhem]

Oh they are taking their sweet time on transit amenities for buses that go to the north side? I'm simply *shocked* at this surprising turn of events. /sarcasm

[grant1simons2]

Didn't this get financed by the end of the spring? And it stated that it would be done by fall? I mean it's not like road/transit projects that have been in the works for multiple years are kind of tying up a ton of construction workers right now. Try this: Call the project lead. It's really easy.

[MNdible]

But bitching about everything is even easier!

[intercomnut]

Well i went ahead and emailed the Minneapolis contact for the project and he got back to me impressively quickly! Anyways, here's his update on the project:

"There was a gap planned between the completion of the bump out and the installation of the shelter. The shelter delivery was scheduled 14 weeks from approval of shop drawings.
Fabricating metal parts generally have a very long lead time. Metro Transit will be adding the shelter to the foundation at Hennepin, sometime around Sept 15th based on the schedule I have.

The City of Minneapolis will begin the Transit Advantage work at Nicollet Mall when the current sanitary sewer and Center Point work is complete, approx. Sept 8th??
That work needed to be complete before we could start the Transit Advantage Project in that area."

So not too far out on the shelter now!

[Silophant]

According to the Nicollet Mall Construction Update email I just got, construction on the Nicollet portion of this project will start next week.

[intercomnut]

Emailed the City, who put me in contact with MT. Apparently, the shelters are just now being fabricated and will be ready for installation in December.

Gotta say, though, I was impressed how quickly everyone got back to me.

[Silophant]

Pretty much the same timeline as the A Line shelters, then. Makes sense.

[intercomnut]

It's just annoying because it was originally scheduled for September.

[seanrichardryan]

Meanwhile, for those catching the bus on 6th...

http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/b ... -room.html

[intercomnut]

Got a rider alert saying the Hennepin stop is closing for construction on the 4th. I'm guessing it's to install the shelter.

[trigonalmayhem]

So they only inconvenienced riders for six months without a proper stop at a major intersection/transfer point between some of the busiest lines in the system! Gotta love that hustle when it comes to local buses that serve mostly poorer parts of town. How long did the entire marq/2 project take?

[intercomnut]

So they only inconvenienced riders for six months without a proper stop at a major intersection/transfer point between some of the busiest lines in the system! Gotta love that hustle when it comes to local buses that serve mostly poorer parts of town. How long did the entire marq/2 project take?

I'm annoyed too. But to be fair, there was never a shelter there to begin with even before the bump out was installed. And even with that shelter area blocked off, there's probably about as much space as there was before the bump out. Plus the buses didn't have to merge anymore.