Red Line (Cedar Avenue BRT)

[MSPtoMKE]

Cliff Rd. I think would be relatively simple. Build a modest station at the end of each off ramp, similar to the future 66th St. Orange Line station. There should be ample room to merge back into traffic and transition to the center to reach the new Cedar Grove online station in the center median. For Palomino, it is more complex. I don't think it would be a good idea to follow the looping route via surface streets to the existing stop. Southbound could have a side platform off off the exit ramp to McAndrews with vertical circulation to the park and ride, and a new slip ramp that skips the loop and merges back to Cedar. But northbound is harder, even with a pedestrian bridge connecting to the southbound side. There doesn't look to be room for a bus to merge over to the side with the northbound onramp from McAndrews. I think it would have to be another center median station, which would require reconstructing the Palomino Dr. bridge, as well as having multiple switches between center and side running. I'm just not sure it is worth it in the near-term. It is surrounded by a few apartments, but mostly low density residential.

I haven't noticed, has there been an announcement on the construction schedule for the new Cedar Grove station?

[mattaudio]

I think an offline station at Palomino could work just fine. I took the 477R many times which looped through Palomino/McAndrews, and it was fast. It's not the operational equivalent of Cedar Grove where the bus literally backtracks, and where there are at least 5 signals without prioritization between exiting and re-entering the freeway (at least southbound).

The current configuration would only require one stoplight wait, and that's only southbound (thanks, porkchop). Some simple changes could speed things up despite having an offline station, such as a bus-only connection to northbound Pennock to avoid the block-long backtrack to the Pennock light. And southbound there could be a small bus-only ramp from Pennock underneath the exit to WB McAndrews (along with the aforementioned slip lane continuing past the loop to EB McAndrews) which would be similar in a way to the Southwest Station bus entrance.

A new offline station shelter, along with these two ramp reconfigurations, would cost much less than an online station while providing nearly the same speed.

[twincitizen]

$13MM fix on the way, engineering contract awarded to SEH: http://finance-commerce.com/2014/12/des ... -in-eagan/

[Anondson]

The city public works director not knowing why that station got built the way it did originally made me roll my eyes.

[Tcmetro]

IPU update website: http://www.cedartransitway.com/

[Tcmetro]

Open houses were held last week. A summary is available in the DCRRA Feb. agenda, on page 9.

https://www.co.dakota.mn.us/Government/ ... packet.pdf

[MN Fats]

There was an ad for the Red Line preceding the movie I saw on Saturday at Regal Cinema in Eagan. That should solve the ridership problem.

[Tcmetro]

Apparently there will be some closures of the Cedar Ave Bridge, which will force the Red Line to operate on a reduced 30 minute schedule instead of the regular 15 minute schedule.

http://www.mvta.com/news/new-page-2/

[Nick]

[Tcmetro]

The Red Line will have some tentative schedule changes in August, the first service change since the line opened two years ago.

- Travel time will improve by 2 to 4 minutes.
- Two additional weekday and four additional weekend early morning trips will improve usability for airport workers.
- Four NB and three SB weekday trips during low ridership periods will be eliminated; however, hours of operation will remain the same.

Also, options for new stations are being narrowed down. Stage 3 will include stations at Cliff Rd and Palomino Dr, Stage 4 will include the 181st St extension and a new park and ride in Apple Valley, and Stage 5 will include the 215th St extension.

The projects that didn't make the cut for the 2040 timeframe were the 147th St. Skyway and the stations at 161st, Glacier, and 195th. It seems strange to count those out, as any extension should feature intermediate stops.

https://www.co.dakota.mn.us/Government/ ... packet.pdf

[mattaudio]

So maybe this will be "LRT on tires" by 2060 or so?

[twincitizen]

Palomino Station appears to be quite useful. Lots of apartments and townhomes within 1/4-mile, and a decent amount of ped bike infrastructure already in place. Some ped connections will need to be improved, but the area actually looks pretty accessible (all things considered)

[kellonathan]

I see an item on Stage 2 called "Mall of America Station Improvement."

Does anyone know if it's something like this? Or is it an entirely separate project?
http://www.lsadesigninc.com/#!mall-of-a ... ter-p/cq5o

(They made that draft language to read as generic and vague as possible...)

[Tcmetro]

As far as I know, that is the concept being floated for the reconfiguration of MOA Transit Center. I also believe it received CMAQ funding last year, and construction should be complete sometime before 2020.

[Mikey]

Seems odd that they're gonna convert Cedar Grove to a median station and build a median (online) station at Palomino, but Cliff Rd is planned as a highway shoulder (inline) station. That's a lot of weaving - seems like all the freeway portion stations should be the same

[mulad]

That's a very good point. Buses on I-35W avoid serving both the shoulder stops at Lake Street and the median stop at 46th because of this problem, and they're two miles apart, though the bigger problem is with buses going on MN-62, which only have one mile to get across four lanes. Considering access ramps, the distance between Cedar Grove and Cliff Road is pretty similar to the 46th to MN-62 problem. There aren't as many lanes to deal with, but the cynic in me says they'll want to add some more to MN-77 in the process of adding stations...

[Tcmetro]

I think that the potential idea could be to have the Palomino station platforms on the right side of the freeway, similar to the current Lake St. setup. This would fix the weaving problem, but would require the maintenance of both HO/T lanes and bus shoulders. Certainly the most ideal fix would be to have both stations in the median of the freeway.

[PigsEye]

As far as I know, that is the concept being floated for the reconfiguration of MOA Transit Center. I also believe it received CMAQ funding last year, and construction should be complete sometime before 2020.

wait wait wait... really?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8pkTowqshc

There is a plan to include retail into the basement station? Is there enough traffic to get some decent shops? I kinda figured at BEST we would have MOA opening up a small coffee stand with prepackaged sandwiches and way overpriced soda! Could we actually see say a Burger King, Starbucks, and a Subway? How much traffic does this station get on a daily basis? I couldn't imagine to many retailers wanting to be down there! Don't get me wrong I would love to see something pan through but is it realistic to think retail can be successful down here?

[Silophant]

It is the busiest transit station in the Metro Transit system. I could easily see a convenience store or coffee shop down there. And a Subway, since they can apparently survive anywhere.

[FISHMANPET]

After the nuclear apocalypse all that will be left is cockroaches and five dollar footlongs.