urbanMSP

Perhaps also roll out some PSAs showing the cleaning crews who have to clean up other people's messes on buses, trains, and stations. Like smoking, it confounds me that so many people just don't care about littering on our taxpayer funded vehicles and stations. I also wonder if having small trash bi...

I mean smoking on a train/bus probably should be a prosecutable offense but I think a busy and focused DA office should be spending their energy and attention elsewhere on far more serious offenses. Even if some is caught dead to rights for smoking a cigarette on a train (multiple witnesses, video ...

Is smoking on the train a non-prosecutable offense? It should be since it's a health and fire hazard. The latter probably isn't likely, but lighting a cigarette requires fire, and god forbid that tiny flame somehow turns into an inferno.

A reminder that the zoo monorail was not removed because it was inherently bad or poorly performing at its purported mobility function - they literally couldn't service the equipment because decades later, no companies remained in business to repair or replace things as they broke. The Hyperloop wo...

Both options assume mixed traffic operations north of Grand, and it sounds like the push is for less dedicated right of way, not more. I'm well aware of the mixed-traffic operations being proposed, and as I mentioned earlier in the thread Ramsey County planners seem to be leaning towards the option...

I recall that they are looking at using the smaller 80-foot long Siemens LRV and I would imagine that the stations would be designed for that. In my opinion, they should at least use the 90-foot version for interoperability. Agreed. It would be absolutely foolish not to use the same exact LRVs we u...

All the more reason to do 100% dedicated ROW then.

Train length is another issue... Will these stations only be built for 1-LRV trains? Hiawatha was built with some 2-LRV platforms but with a pathway to extend those platforms (happened within a few years). I recall that they are looking at using the smaller 80-foot long Siemens LRV and I would imag...

How about we just don't build a streetcar and build light rail Agreed, but if we can only choose one of the streetcar options then I'd say Option 1 because it has the best chance to be converted to 100% dedicated right-of-way later on. From the meeting last evening, it sounded like the main or only...

For those curious, during the CAC meeting yesterday it was said that the cost in 2033 dollars for the new Mall of America Station and Highway 5 Bridge would be approximately $100 million and $240 million, respectively. Maybe it was just me, but the presenters seemed to talk more highly of Streetcar ...

If you're bored and want to kill over an hour, check out this video from the cab of a locomotive going south on the Dan Patch Line from St. Louis Park to Savage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtgBttVstc0 In the beginning of the video you can kind of see where the Green Line's Louisiana Avenue Stat...

Northstar trains have to use the east/southbound track (the westernmost track) to access Fridley Station, so building a station at Foley Boulevard with only a platform on the west/northbound track (the easternmost track) would require adding a crossover somewhere between Fridley and Foley.

I think it's worth noting the $2.1 billion dollar budget includes replacing the bridge over the Mississippi with a new bridge which is certainly a big part of that number That said if this thing can't get into a completely dedicated ROW and interlined with the Green Line for that number aBRT is the...

Adam Platt writes in the Strib about the 2040 plan hinging on a transit system the city has zero control over. https://www.startribune.com/the-2040-equation-density-minus-transit-equals-failure/600337693/ 30-minute times come in for big criticism as affecting reduced transit use. Crappy transit wil...

A trail bridge over Excelsior Boulevard also would've been nice, and it would make the South Cedar Lake Trail free of road crossings from 5th Avenue in Hopkins to Cedar Lake Parkway and James Avenue on the Kenilworth Trail and Midtown Greenway respectively.

This might sound stupid But part of me thinks it would of been better to put the bike trail in the tunnel instead. Today I learned Bergen, Norway did that with a nearly 2-mile bike/pedestrian tunnel, but it's *in addition* to a light rail tunnel. :shock: https://en.visitbergen.com/about/sustainabil...

In my more cynical moments I kinda view some politicians who are "transit advocates" as people who want to either be the ones who will sign a bill/law that gives a project funding or to be the ones that cut the ribbon when it opens but make sure to be missing when its neck deep in constru...

Bringing back this thread with the discussion over a Highway 36 BRT in the Purple Line thread. Also here's the highway BRT study from 2014 for those who haven't seen it or want to take another look at it: https://metrocouncil.org/Transportation/Publications-And-Resources/Transit/TRANSITWAYS/HTCSFina...

It's certainly an unfriendly reminder that the process for making transit/passenger rail projects reality in this country needs to change. Doesn't need to be like China where the government can just swoop in and grab land with no questions asked (well, that's supposedly what it's like that over ther...

We could've been a real city: https://64.media.tumblr.com/1bf81e6cff561ccce173386a171478d1/tumblr_nak4ulY9711qfkgweo1_1280.jpg I'd love to know how that proposal came about and how long and how serious it was being considered. As much as I don't like light rail going through Kenilworth, I'll take i...