Green Line / Central Corridor construction thread (archive)

[Nathan]

I really like the Connections one, voted for it. I like the different type and that it's not obvious. It makes you look at every section of the line with out hand feeding it to you. Plus the images of the neighborhoods are awesome. Clean poster. loves it.

[Silophant]

You'll have to be more specific. Reloading the page just now, the images were in a new random order.

Ah, didn't realize that. I was talking about the very, very green one.

[Ottergoose]

Only 3 of the 5 feature blue line trains; not too shabby!

That's what they get for farming out perpetual rights through a contest instead of hiring a professional.

[LakeCharles]

Nowhere does it say this will be the official poster. It's just a poster contest to drum up excitement.

[VAStationDude]

Unless an adult entered ala Homer Simpson's cooling tower racing stripe design submitted to Burns's make your own power plant contest, these posters were done by kids.

[David Greene]

Unless an adult entered ala Homer Simpson's cooling tower racing stripe design submitted to Burns's make your own power plant contest, these posters were done by kids.

Are you speaking literally or figuratively? Because I know at least one adult who entered and is a finalist. Saw her post on a friend's Facebook feed.

[moda253]

They are all terrible. Seriously, if it isn't the work that is bad it's the detail.

[talindsay]

...they used the old Bombadier trains with the old branding, something that will never show up on the Green Line.

While that is the intention, I doubt it will work out that way in practice - I think they'll probably use whatever rolling stock they need wherever they need it, and these trains will just be harder to identify until they finally get redone. Unless they're planning to roll out the Green Line with two-car trains all day, they won't be able to take the Bombardiers that haven't been redone out of service en masse, and I doubt they'll worry about which line they're running on. After all, they don't actually identify themselves as belonging on *either* line since they aren't set up to identify their line at all.

Of course, they should all be done with the overhaul relatively soon, so at the least it will be a rare occurrence to see them on the Green Line.

[mulad]

Were the Bombardiers being overhauled again for some reason? I thought they did that a couple of years ago. They are slowly being repainted, though.

Oh, and I did just see a Bombardier unit go by on Cedar Street in St. Paul this morning -- the first one I've seen on the Green Line in a while, but they're using them occasionally. They seemed more common in early testing.

[talindsay]

Were the Bombardiers being overhauled again for some reason? I thought they did that a couple of years ago. They are slowly being repainted, though.

Oh, and I did just see a Bombardier unit go by on Cedar Street in St. Paul this morning -- the first one I've seen on the Green Line in a while, but they're using them occasionally. They seemed more common in early testing.

Okay, I guess I didn't really mean "overhauled". But they're overhauling the signage and repainting them, which is what I was referring to when I said "overhauled".

My vote goes for the "Connections" poster even though the way they spread the word connections is incredibly asinine. Other than that part, it's a good poster, which is more than I can say for any of the others. The Celebrations poster's fireworks are just bizarre, and the rest of the posters are garbage.

I just don't know why they thought they should put hyphens at the end of each line of "Connections" - if they'd just put "Con nec tio ns" it would have looked much better. Or, you know, just left that element out altogether.

[ProspectPete]

When they start running the greenline will they be running 3 LRVs? Just eyeballing the bridge over 280 and the cedar ave bridge over the commons... They look almost too short to accommodate 3 LRVs. Maybe the signals will prevent the train from being stopped on the bridges?

[talindsay]

They may or may not start with 3 car trains, that's an operations question for metro transit. However,the whole line was built to spec for three car trains - this was identified early in this process as a requirement by the FTA, which said they had to modify the budget to accommodate this, against the wishes of metro council at the time.

[Tom H.]

For the ridership numbers they're predicting for the line opening, I don't see how they couldn't run 3-car trains. Does the Blue Line even run any 2-car trains anymore?

[VAStationDude]

Two car trains run on weekends when major downtown events aren't happening. If the weather is decent, two car trains at ten minute frequencies barely cut it in midday and evenings Saturday.

[Tom H.]

I think someone mentioned earlier that they're working on re-timing the lights along the WATM, since they're routinely ignored / useless in their current state. It seems like, over the past week or so, many of the signals which used to be automatic Walk signs have been switched to beg button mode. Most people have memorized the light cycles, however, and just watch for traffic and jaywalk. The most problematic intersection seems to be Oak & Washington, where protected lefts on Washington can make for a very long light cycle if you're trying to cross Oak Street.

In any case, the strategy of "look for traffic and then jaywalk" is pretty efficient, and safe as well, in my opinion.

[ProspectPete]

The WATM is lit up like a Christmas tree. It's overwhelming visual pollution. Bikes cars busses trains peds.... All the flashing blinking almost gave me a seizure. I hope it's true they switched the pedestrian signals to on demand.

[MSPtoMKE]

I hope it's true they switched the pedestrian signals to on demand.

Um, no, you should not have to push a button to request permission to cross the street in one of the most pedestrian rich locations in the Upper Midwest.

[Silophant]

In an ideal world, no, you wouldn't. However, the original solution, with automatic timed walk signals, was/is terrible, with buses held up at crosswalks without a pedestrian in sight. The best solution is the one mentioned upthread, where the walk symbols are always on unless a bus or train is coming, when it receives the green light. Until that's implemented, though, beg buttons have almost the same effect, since college students are notorious for not bothering to use them unless actually necessary. The default state for a crosswalk is a green light, so buses can pass freely. If a ped comes to the crosswalk and doesn't see a bus coming, they'll cross, without starting a long signal cycle. Buses continue to pass freely. If they do see one coming, they'll most likely just wait for it to pass, then cross, or, if they want, force it to stop with the beg button. It'll basically act like a shared space, but without the pain of getting the various powers that be to mess with their car-centric paradigms.

Note that this will only really work as long as UMPD doesn't suddenly decide to go super draconian on enforcing jaywalking laws, as they're wont to do with the bike lanes. So, y'know, we'll see.

[FISHMANPET]

Just get rid of the lights entirely. Put up signs at crosswalks that say "watch for trains and buses" and have them light up like the walkways to center platform stations (I'm thinking like this LOOK sign at Franklin Ave Station http://goo.gl/maps/Yc7Ts). There's no need for all these signals.

[FISHMANPET]

Speaking of lights, I finally saw some buses bunched up behind a train. For some reason the train signal wasn't turning, despite the regular traffic lights cycling, so the train and buses sat like this for a few minutes. Finally the buses got fed up and pulled into the bike lane as the train signal finally turned.