urbanMSP

Welp, used the emergency phone on the station platform for the first time, to report a dude completely passed out drunk on the train.

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Welp, used the emergency phone on the station platform for the first time, to report a dude completely passed out drunk on the train.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

That's a rough monday!

I know all the reasons people think we shouldn't focus in light rail, and I used to ride the 50 often enough to know its schedule and stops. But this morning I did something I never would have done before the Green Line - I had my wife drop me off before a race in downtown Saint Paul, and took the light rail home after. Could I have done that with the 50? Of course. But on a weekend when parking and traffic are easy and I have a bunch of stuff in tow I wouldn't have done it because it would have seemed like too much hassle. The Green Line changed the equation, right or wrong. And with the next train signs working, it was a really nice experience.

Two anecdotes, which basically equals data:

I'm perfectly happy to ride the bus. I bus to and from work when I'm carrying something heavy, or its rainy, or I'm lazy, and I'm good at using NexTrip and maps to figure out the bus system. But, in the almost five years I lived here before the Green Line opened, I took the 16/50 east of Midway exactly once. I did stuff in DT St Paul, but always in a car, despite getting lost almost every time. (I've never had a problem navigating DT Minneapolis, but St. Paul always throws me for a loop. idk.) In the seven months since the Green Line, I've been to DT St. Paul probably 20+ times, and have driven exactly once.

I live at 13th and Hennepin, and often visit a friend in Stadium Village. Taking the Green Line involves walking 8 blocks to Hennepin Station on the DT end, and walking 4 blocks on the Stadium Village end. Taking the 6U involves the same walk in Stadium Village, but a half-block walk to/from my apartment to the bus stop. I've taken the bus exactly once, when I just missed the train, it was an hour to the next one, and the next 6U was only 5 minutes away.

tl;dr: Rail bias is a big thing, and it's important that Metro Transit and the Met Council take it into account.

(By putting the Midtown streetcar/LRT in the official plan already.)

I've lived a block off University for six years, and I've already taken more trips on the Green Line than I ever did on the 16.

I saw a whole bunch of people taking the train into St Paul on Saturday for the Winter Carnival/Crashed Ice/Hockey tournament. I took a westbound train into Minneapolis at about 7:00 PM on Saturday, and the four eastbound trains I passed were all jam-packed, three car trains. It was great to see.

I took the train to and from St. Paul that night, and overheard a lot of conversations implying that it was a lot of first time riders, which was great. Also a lot of whining about how long it was taking and why couldn't there be an express train, but whatevs.

^I was among the people who took the Green Line to Crashed Ice this weekend. It's a much less stressful experience. Several of my "car-happy" friends insisted on driving for a while, despite being mere blocks from an LRT station in DT Minneapolis, but I convinced them otherwise. That definitely wouldn't have happened if it was the bus (I probably would have driven too) and it ended up being a very smooth experience. Getting off at the Capitol/Rice Street stop was no further than a lot of event parking at a fraction of the price (or stress).

Here's the view from the parking ramp near Central Station in St. Paul on Saturday. Love this spot!

Here's the view from the parking ramp near Central Station in St. Paul on Saturday. Love this spot!

Great pic!

Are there plans for anything to go into that triangular empty space next to the station or is it just going to stay an open grassy area?

Plans would be too strong a term, probably. The city (or at least the mayor) wants a Central Station development that would straddle both sides of the station and track with a building housing 250 units of housing and around 200,000 square feet of office and retail. I'll believe it when I see it, but it's a nice idea.

Am I the only one who thinks a development that "straddles" the station would really hem in those platforms and make this station feel too closed in? I hope to see development, but something that really focuses on keeping this station open and connected on all corners.

Am I the only one who thinks a development that "straddles" the station would really hem in those platforms and make this station feel too closed in? I hope to see development, but something that really focuses on keeping this station open and connected on all corners.

Wouldn't it essentially become an indoor station? Sounds like in that plan, the building would simply be built on top of it.

I like this idea. Considering that almost all of the stations are outdoor open-air stations, something indoors would be special if done tastefully (IE not like the MOA station). Heck, let's just copy the Disney world monorail hotel station.

Smart Corner in San Diego is a great example of what could be done here. The train cuts through diagonally just like Central Station.

Here's a couple relevant documents from St Paul's "Central Corridor Development Strategy" that I found:

http://www.stpaul.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/4774

http://www.stpaul.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/4775

Am I the only one who thinks a development that "straddles" the station would really hem in those platforms and make this station feel too closed in? I hope to see development, but something that really focuses on keeping this station open and connected on all corners.

Eh. It'd still be open air, not anywhere near as hemmed in as, say, a subway. Not even as much as something like the Disney monorail at the Contemporary hotel. Besides, with the dozens of stations open to the air that we've got, I don't think having one in a bit of a different environment is a problem.

I like the idea of an enclosed station that feels more open. The SD example with a glass arcade-like roof would be nice and not feel too closed in (like the Canary Wharf example in the pdf). But given DT StP's office/res market right now... good luck with any of those visions. Maybe start with a 6-story residential building on one side and hope for something later on the other, meantime a good little public space?

given DT StP's office/res market right now... good luck with any of those visions.

DT St Paul's residential market is actually quite strong lately...

I think an ambitious and tall residential building could do quite well -- perhaps even a hotel. Having the Green Line pass through the heart of the building would be a formidable selling point. Heck, in the doldroms of the 1980s, the Galtier Towers apartments and condos consisting of the 46-story Jackson tower and 30-story Sibley tower filled quickly and certainly weren't suffering for tenants. Of course, the retail component of that project was over-built and suffered.

More recently, the Farmer's Market Lofts filled up quickly, as did the Penfield.


I do like the idea of having an enclosed station ala Disney's Contemporary Hotel. It's really quite slick! For those who have never been to Disney World -- here's a photo. And if you visit this site and haven't been to a Disney park, get to one! Walt Disney's ideas for urban planning, passion for mass transit, and his love of trains certainly shine through.

Green Line run time, effective March 7, is reduced by 2 minutes, all of the schedule time savings is along university avenue. My recent experience is that the train is slow in the downtowns, particularly west bound. East bound trains are almost always on time into the capitol station. Outside of the downtowns rice street and 280 are other trouble spots.