Blue Line LRT

[fehler]

There is a crosstown bus at 42nd and Hiawatha, but its the same one as 46th and Hiawatha (the 46), since 46th street doesn't bridge over Lake Hiawatha. (I just really wanted to say 46 and Hiawatha as many times as possible).

I'd support the additional stations under only one request: that they are kept to a minimum of "structure". No parking lot, no bus waiting bays (well, maybe 1-2 on the cross street itself, no turn-arounds), a simple rack of bikes and maybe a Nice Ride kiosk. Make it truly neighborhood and pedestrian. Anything larger, and there goes my house.

[MSPtoMKE]

I bet the time loss would be offset by changing the rule that keeps Blue Line vehicles at a slower than design speed on the Hiawatha segment. I believe they reduced the max operational speed in that area to a level at which they do not need to sound the horn. At the slower speed, they only use the e-bell which appeases the neighbors.

But if the train stopped roughly every 1/2 mile, would it ever even be able to get up to 55 mph before slowing for the next stop?

(This thread probably should be moved to the transportation forum)

[Nick]

[mod="Nick"]Moved the topic about additional LRT stops in Minneapolis to the Blue Line topic[/mod]

[LRV Op Dude]

Tomorrow is No Pants on the light rail. Anyone going?

[mulad]

Via Bill Lindeke's TC Sidewalks blog, here's a post from the Hennepin County Library tumblr with a (looks like) 1976 doodle of how the Hiawatha LRT line might be set up.

http://hclib.tumblr.com/post/4163526957 ... enthusiast

[LRV Op Dude]

by LRV Op Dude
Tomorrow is No Pants on the light rail. Anyone going?

[BBvideo 425,350]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clgTJyaTEwU[/BBvideo]

[mplser]

I am at franklin station right now and the signs have changed. they now say:

2:08 pm. Track 2
Blue. 5 min
Blue. 15 min

[mplser]

Just changed again while Iwas looking at it. Bottom 2 lines Now say

blue. Mall of america. Due
Blue. Mall of america. 11 min

Pretty accurate timing too. the train is here

I like it!

[mattaudio]

About time! Woo hoo!

[VAStationDude]

Woo. Count down timers and new Siemens vehicles in the same week. I'm in geek heaven!

[MNdible]

Now was that so hard?

[John21]

About time.

[NickP]

Yeah this made me super nerdily excited too

[MSPtoMKE]

Hmm, NexTrip online still lists scheduled departure times. I hope real time info is rolled out for that soon, too

[VAStationDude]

Real time departures was not in use this evening. must be on the beta stage

[talindsay]

It only took 9 years to deliver a feature that was supposed to be there from the start. Snark aside, I'm glad this important feature is (almost) here at last. I'll have to keep an eye out for the Type II cars as I don't ride the line regularly any more, just when I'm going downtown.

[FISHMANPET]

I was riding last Saturday and the departure times were there but they weren't totally accurate and the signs weren't really working. I think the departure data was overwriting any other programming on the signs, so most of the time the signs were just blank.

[TWA]

They need to make a real time app for smart phones that shows the arrival times at all of the stations. Maybe right now not a huge deal, but in the future as they add more lines, or if you are transferring it would be nice to see a real time update and know before you even get off your bus or streetcar or lrt that "okay looks like i'll have 6 min to get on the next one".

And they can expand that to buses too.

[ECtransplant]

They have that. Just bookmark the NextTrip page of their mobile site

[FISHMANPET]

My only complaint about the website is that the GPS part frequently doesn't work. It just doesn't find my location, even though Google Maps can quickly find my exact location.

An dedicated app would probably work better, but I'd rather they put all their effort into making the web app perfect than spreading their time around developing apps for all the existing platforms (iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 8).