urbanMSP

Wasn't one of the big takeaways of the original Blue line and Green line that it's better to run trains down the middle of roads rather than on the side? And if so, why do we have so much side running rail in these plans? I can't tell from the plans -- are they still proposing to cross the 7th St/6t...

For what it's worth, the argument went that should buy the railroad so that TC&W wouldn't be a stumbling block in negotiations, not that they would shut it down. They could have done the necessary reroutes and then resold it to a private company as-is, or hired somebody to operate it on their be...

As soon as I saw who wrote that I clicked out of it.

Magrino again?

The excursion train thread reminded me that at one point the Renaissance Festival was supposed to be relocating, due to their lease with the quarry around them ending. A little googling found their new proposed location outside of Jordan, but then radio silence. Did I miss that they were able to som...

That fairly pronounced path that cuts down along the side of the bluff -- anybody know the story behind that? It seems too deliberate just to be a desire path.

It's stupid, but I'm sure the issue is that if they make any improvements that encourage people to cross here, and then somebody crosses and gets run over by a train, they'll be liable.

It may be a pipe dream, but I think there's still a decent chance that the Bassett Creek Valley station will eventually be surrounded by some pretty dense TOD.

Has anybody seen any updates on the big redevelopment project at Roseville?

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The City and County are making plans to reconstruct the 1st Avenue S, 10th Avenue S, Nicollet Avenue S and Pillsbury Avenue S Bridges over the Midtown Greenway.

Source.

Yeah, they're apparently planning to access the city's Inclusionary Zoning TIF money to fund the project, which requires meeting higher levels of affordability.

I don't think there's anything that precludes the railroad and the city from entering into a binding contract, though, if both were willing parties. In other words, if the city (with mostly other people's money) offers to build new storage track that is attractive to the railroad, they could sign a ...

Looks like there are some very large, expensive houses directly impacted by this, which may explain why it's a priority.

I mean, she's not wrong. They definitely were lobbying.

I'd argue that Hennepin and Nicollet should be consolidated anyway, but the problem remains dipping down quickly enough to not sever First Avenue. In theory, it's maybe doable -- about 400' of run between First and Second to drop about 20' puts you at a 5% grade, which I think is towards the upper e...

Lots of people talk about how the Minneapolis geology is ideal for tunneling, but that's only true if you're looking at a very deep tunnel that cuts through the sandstone beneath the Platteville limestone cap. This isn't really feasible for an LRT tunnel that would require long, expensive elevators ...

As somebody who almost never rides LRT into downtown, how bad is the problem actually ? And how much is it an operational problem that some dedicated tweaking of traffic signals and maybe supervision of station operations, or maybe stop consolidation, could fix? While the idea of a downtown tunnel s...

There is a much more offensive and developable parking lot right across the street, so priorities.

Yeah, unless they can relocate the substation, that lot is undevelopable.

I think you're correct. That said, right now for trains departing from Target Field, they're able to tightly control departure times since it's the terminal station, meaning that (at least for trains heading east) they're able to ensure proper spacing. That would no longer be the case, when in the f...