urbanMSP

As a runner who ate a Chipotle burrito before taking off for a 12 mile run yesterday I can tell you I wish there were *ANY* kind of restroom between the river and LAKE CALHOUN along the Cedar Lake trail. That was a brutal five miles.

Four stars, would read again.

Well, that just made my afternoon. Sorry to take joy from your intestinal distress, Tom.

I'm for more public bathrooms all around the city (especially if they are 24/7), but the problem is if they aren't staffed or cleaned often, they are bound to be a real craphole in a very literal sense.

I worked maintenance for Byerly's, and it just seems like some people make it their goal in life to ruin public restrooms. It's still a bit surprising there isn't at least a portajohn on the Cedar Lake trail though because I think there is even a couple along the Gateway Trail.

Yeah, society is its own worst enemy.

It's still a bit surprising there isn't at least a portajohn on the Cedar Lake trail though because I think there is even a couple along the Gateway Trail.

Yes, it was quite surprising to me too.

There's a portapotty on west side of Cedar Lake. I think this stretch of trail may be without potty service because of distance from roads? Just my guess. However more trees if one is truly desperate.

St. Anthony Main has public bathrooms that have bailed me out on runs before.

...or maybe this would have been a good location for the metro transit police station:

http://m.startribune.com/local/?id=255019841&c=y

St. Anthony Main has public bathrooms that have bailed me out on runs before.

Pun intended?

So maybe I'm the only transit nerd who missed this in the plans for "the Interchange" but holy tail tracks batman! There's definitely more than a quarter mile of tail tracks beyond the station, wrapping all the way around the HERC and ending up back at the far end of the Target Field decking. They were operating trains on the tail tracks today at lunch and I was downtown for some business so I took a pile of pictures. I'll upload them momentarily.

So maybe I'm the only transit nerd who missed this in the plans for "the Interchange" but holy tail tracks batman! There's definitely more than a quarter mile of tail tracks beyond the station, wrapping all the way around the HERC and ending up back at the far end of the Target Field decking. They were operating trains on the tail tracks today at lunch and I was downtown for some business so I took a pile of pictures. I'll upload them momentarily.

Those aren't tail tracks so much as they are stubs for the Blue and Green line extensions.

Sort of, although it's strange that the tracks wrap back southeast along 7th St even though the Green Line extension will go south on Royalston.

Yes, the short segment parallel to 7th St N is intended to be tail tracks I believe.

So maybe I'm the only transit nerd who missed this in the plans for "the Interchange" but holy tail tracks batman! There's definitely more than a quarter mile of tail tracks beyond the station, wrapping all the way around the HERC and ending up back at the far end of the Target Field decking. They were operating trains on the tail tracks today at lunch and I was downtown for some business so I took a pile of pictures. I'll upload them momentarily.

Those aren't tail tracks so much as they are stubs for the Blue and Green line extensions.

Yeah, sorry that's what I thought at first but that's certainly not the case because the tail track turns back way past Royalston, parallel to 7th, heading straight back toward the trench rail tracks. *SOME* of the new track is eventual extension stubs, and I expected that part. The unexpected part is the long tail track along the south side of HERC.

They have a very odd and awkward protrusion on the north side of the raised section continuing straight as the tracks turn west and south, I'm guessing that's for a potential bridge across 5th for Bottineau though I'd always assume the extensions would get to the 7th/Royalston intersection before diverging. The Southwest tracks of course are expected to cross 7th and head down Royalston. Much of the tail track heading east parallel to 7th is single track, but not all of it.

Could it be temporary storage space for trains to accommodate Twins games getting out?

Slides 40 & 41 from this presentation show the area really well:

http://www.metrocouncil.org/getdoc/91b8 ... ation.aspx

Slides 40 & 41 from this presentation show the area really well:

http://www.metrocouncil.org/getdoc/91b8 ... ation.aspx

Yup, looks like I was asleep at the wheel - I completely failed to process what these slides were showing last year. It was a big surprise to see all that trackage but now it makes sense. The odd raw edge is actually where *both* extensions continue, meaning that even if the whole system is built they're planning to have an insane amount of train storage by the Ballpark. Not a bad idea, but that essentially amounts to a huge subsidy of transit for baseball patrons in the long run. Interesting.

The odd raw edge is actually where *both* extensions continue.

Both extensions, except for the eastbound Blue Line into the station, which would rise to the viaduct using the new/built tail track and a new switch.


Very similar, in that sense, to my proposed interchange for the Midtown LRT to use the existing Blue Line elevated station at Lake Street/Midtown.


Midtown Corridor eastern terminus concept by mattaudio, on Flickr

Weird, I hadn't noticed the odd way that they're expecting Bottineau to flank Southwest, with the EB tracks using that short section of tail track to merge into the SW tracks. I guess it all has to do with where they have enough space for the switches, but this is going to be a switching mess, no doubt about it.