urbanMSP

The county is rebuilding University and 4th from 35W to Oak next summer. Here's the layout . University is only a state highway north/west of Central, so I guess it's the city's responsibility between Central and 35W? Though, I think bridges over interstates are the state's responsibility no matter ...

This part has the potential to be extremely funny: If the commissioners can’t agree? The bill language that was placed in the lengthy state government omnibus bill repeals authorization and recognition for the current flag and seal. So no action would leave the state with nothing for a flag or seal ...

Seems like we should have learned our lesson about bending over backwards because a couple dozen homeowners do not wish to look at a train, but I guess we'll see.

Wasn't that a previous option that got thrown out because it was going to slow the train down too much to wind through the North Loop?

It's not clear to me that signal priority would fix the 10mph speed limit, or buses stacking up behind a bus that's delayed to let a wheelchair user board because the serpentine curve that looks so nice on an aerial view makes it difficult or impossible to pass. But the next time I spend 10 minutes...

It's not clear to me that signal priority would fix the 10mph speed limit, or buses stacking up behind a bus that's delayed to let a wheelchair user board because the serpentine curve that looks so nice on an aerial view makes it difficult or impossible to pass. But the next time I spend 10 minutes ...

If (big if, between continued hybrid work/WFH and also the LRT extensions) that happens, the locals could go to Hennepin instead, maybe even with bus-only lanes to fill in the gap between the south Hennepin bus lanes and the Hennepin/1st bus lanes across the river.

Man, I hope that proposal gets some momentum before Metro Transit commits to building a third parallel BRT corridor on a third adjacent block of downtown. Even ignoring the superflous capital investment, buses on Nicollet are an operational nightmare. We shouldn't be running three high-frequency ser...

I found an update on this. Basically, the state legislature failed to extend the type of funding they were counting on in the do-nothing 2022 session, and then also didn't get to it this year. So, Phase 1 is now just rehabbing the existing Exodus building, to start next spring, while they keep tryin...

Honestly lol if the airport builds a second, parallel subway tunnel before we even officially consider one in downtown.

Fares for kids 2-12 are 50% off on Amtrak (0-2 is free), and there's also escalating discounts for groups of three or more , though the latter could probably be publicized more - I think you have to book it through that specific webpage. As far as bike fares go, it looks like the bike fare depends o...

At one point, NLX was going to be a unique trainset to operate at higher speeds. Now, if speeds are only 90 MPH max, is it assumed these will run with Venture/Charger trainsets in the Midwest pool? I wonder if the unique trainset was based on old equipment assumptions? Amtrak is operating Venture t...

For comparison, 4 round trips a day is also the service frequency of the Chicago-St. Louis Lincoln Service and the Seattle-Portland section of the Cascades , which are successful at that frequency. The only Amtrak route outside of the Northeast and California that has more than four round trips per ...

I know the platforms are going to be 500' long, which is about right for six coaches (counting the cab car), assuming that the locomotive sticks out from the end of the platform. Probably the same consist as the Great River, whenever they get that started.

This MPR story implies that most of that extra funding will go towards buying the trainsets, which were apparently not included in the previous estimates.

That's correct, the gag orders on both Dan Patch and Rochester/Ziprail were lifted.

A little frustrating that it's only stop signs, not stoplights, but thinking more about it, most stop lights that I'd be comfortable treating as a stop sign are on low-enough traffic streets that they should be four-way stops anyway, so I guess the move is to advocate for that.

I know Sydney Jordan authored that provision, and was pushing it to be Rt 10 (which goes through the middle of her district). Gotta imagine that whatever routes are chosen, it'll be the whole route - once someone's on a bus, there's not really a way for them to pay a fare midway through the ride bec...

I suspect it would come down to where the crossovers are positioned to let the trains switch tracks.

I wonder how they're getting the LRVs to the other side of the incomplete tunnel for testing? Just craning them up onto a truck?

Looks like they got another *checks notes* 1% of their office space leased up.