urbanMSP

The escalator will go right up next to that service desk and convenience store at the East entrance of the mall.

That’s awesome! Can’t wait for it to be finished. It’s supposed to be finished at the end of July or August, correct? It will be so nice not having to look at that ugly monstrosity that currently is the transit center. It will also be a much smoother transition from the light rail to the mall.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

After going to a movie last night, I noticed that the columns in the bus area in the mall's transit center had been repainted. There's still quite a lot of work needed for the new transit center lobby area, so I was surprised to see the new bus platforms were in use this morning when I came in to work. I haven't gotten a close look yet, but it doesn't seem like they really have any BRT-ish features. The roughly 9" curb used at many A Line / C Line stops would have been nice. Of course, the big optimizations here are that buses are no longer mixed with delivery vehicle traffic to the mall (there's a new entrance off of Killebrew Dr. for that) and buses no longer need to cross the LRT tracks.

Delivery vehicles often delayed things due to the need to interact with the people in the guard post, and often have walk-around inspections, and the trains would halt the movement of outbound buses when the gates were down, and inbound traffic often got backed up by that too (usually due to an inbound delivery truck that needed to go straight through rather than the buses which would loop around the LRT platform).


IMG_20190804_214258 by Michael Hicks, on Flickr


IMG_20190805_075811 by Michael Hicks, on Flickr


IMG_20190805_075942 by Michael Hicks, on Flickr

Delivery vehicles often delayed things due to the need to interact with the people in the guard post, and often have walk-around inspections, and the trains would halt the movement of outbound buses when the gates were down, and inbound traffic often got backed up by that too (usually due to an inbound delivery truck that needed to go straight through rather than the buses which would loop around the LRT platform).

I wonder if that awkward area west of the LRT platform could be a provision for an extra platform when Riverview LRT actually happens.

Yeah, a second platform and two additional tracks are penciled in on the diagram here (in the transit-center-specific thread that slipped my mind when I posted...): viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1264&start=60#p135976

Anyone know when the transit center opens? The new one?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Anyone know when the transit center opens? The new one?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Construction is expected to be complete in late 2019.

$25 million renovation underway at MOA transit station

A look inside of the progress by Snow Kreilich
https://www.instagram.com/p/B3BIorIFuJY/

Now delayed until the following Monday, October 14th.

Photos from this morning. Here's the entrance, just off the end of the Blue Line platform. The bus area is off to my right in this shot. The signage needs work. There had been a nice lighted sign above the entrance, but it's missing for now. They still have an old sign pointing at the old transit center:

IMG_20191014_084813 by Michael Hicks, on Flickr

Pylons for locking up bikes. These probably don't work sufficiently for certain locks, though:

IMG_20191014_084821 by Michael Hicks, on Flickr

View to the right (east) after entering. The restrooms are down this hallway, which goes straight out to 24th Ave.

IMG_20191014_084723 by Michael Hicks, on Flickr

View to the left (west), toward the mall. Unfortunately, I don't see any seating, and I'm not sure whether any is coming.

IMG_20191014_084728 by Michael Hicks, on Flickr

Further down the hallway toward the mall, a couple techs were getting a ticket machine going. I guess there's an elevator just to the right of the stairway and escalators.

IMG_20191014_084905 by Michael Hicks, on Flickr

The escalators/stairs lead directly up into the mall's east entrance:

IMG_20191014_084940 by Michael Hicks, on Flickr


IMG_20191014_085011 by Michael Hicks, on Flickr


IMG_20191014_085021 by Michael Hicks, on Flickr

Wow, that's quite an upgrade. Too bad about the bike pylons - you can always tell when the person in charge of specifying the bike infrastructure has never biked for transportation, or even really thought about it.

Absolutely night and day improvement. I love how the entryway looks in the mall. Only mistake is the poor choice of posts for the bike parking. That design always doesn't make it easy.

IMG_20191014_085011 by Michael Hicks, on Flickr

Absolutely stunning! We really are giving people a luxury carless experience when visiting the area. The other month I had to fly for work, and on my return trip I had to use the terminal 2. I was surprised at how they now have a walkway and moving walkway from the terminal 2 all the way to the LRT station. The blue line continues to enhance the comforts and the walking experiences for the riders. From MOA to Bloomington Central Station that area is becoming vastly more walking friendly. I've done it several times now on a slow summer evening walking from Ikea, I'll choose to walk all the way to Bloomington Central Station instead of taking the train.

Going forward I think what we need now is a VA redevelopment. Building a new parking ramp to allow those parking spaces to be developed into VA friendly housing long the LRT line and better connecting the train station to the actual VA would be another great victory. Also American & 34th station, that area could use some great development that helps bridge the gap and make that station more connected to the neighborhood.

It's exciting but there is still a massive amount of development possibilities that can make the blue line so much better. It's a victory indeed, but still much more work to be done!

I’m just disappointed that they didn’t go all the way back to the drawing board and move it to the north side. I hate how that stretch from 28th to MOA is pointlessly bendy.

Right? I keep wondering, if the following were planned in parallel, if it would have just made more sense to move the LRT to the Lindau corridor:
- $15.5 million for the Lindau Lane tunnel
- $25 million for a transit center
- $200 million or more on constructed and future Mall expansion
- $100+ million on new hotels
- Lindau Lane reconstruction east of 28th Ave
- A new office tower

While I wish we had considered moving the transit station north, this is still a huge improvement for transit riders.

I believe that the station is in a good place where it is, relatively, and a second station can be added on the American Boulevard side of any MOA2 expansion, starting an expansion west to close the Southwest triangle.

I guess I'm preaching to the choir here but I totally agree that the reconstruction should have been an opportunity to rethink the placement of the station, and that Lindau is a much more natural location for a variety of reasons. The most compelling, IMO, is that just escaping Bloomington can be ~7 minutes, which is a huge chunk of the half hour it takes to get Downtown! Considering that pretty much everyone is going to/from MOA on this segment, it really makes sense to invest in speeding that up. Even if we "only" shave 4 minutes, that's over 10% of the trip time for most MOA users!

Unfortunately I don't think it takes too much imagination to guess why this wasn't considered: Lindau carries tons of cars coming from Cedar and 494, and transit is still planned first around having no impact on drivers, with good service being a secondary goal.

Is anyone else concerned about MoA Station being a possible health hazard? The diesel fumes from buses combined with people smoking (despite it not being allowed) has scared me away from using it.

Yeah, kind of, though moving the buses closer to 24th Ave likely means that it's not as bad as it used to be -- there's probably better ventilation to the "outside" than there used to be. Some of the trucks and construction equipment made the air quality near the old station entrance really bad while the new bus bay and transit lobby were being built.

I'd like to see the bus routes here converted to electric buses, though if they need on-route recharging, there's probably a whole new headache for getting power cabling installed (and they're still having trouble with the C Line chargers, right?)