urbanMSP

Presentation for the 3/25 and 3/30 Townhall Meetings: https://metrocouncil.org/Transportation ... nHall.aspx

Town halls today at Noon and 6pm: https://metrocouncil.org/Transportation ... rials.aspx

Just wanted to follow up on these town halls. Dan Soler, the project manager, stated unequivocally that there will be no underground stations. I want that to be abundantly clear to any of you holding out hope for some kind of Broadway tunnel. There could certainly be short elevated portions of the line as needed, but please have realistic expectations that this project is not going to include a tunnel segment with underground stations. They really want all stations to be at-grade. Even Southwest, with all of its expensive grade separation out in Minnetonka & Eden Prairie, all of the stations are still at-grade. The only ones that are not are the Minneapolis stations that are up on existing bridges over the RR corridor. Not at all the same thing as a true underground station in terms of cost.

For that reason, I think it's important not to preselect Broadway as the 'one true choice'. There is going to be a lot of small business and resident opposition to any surface alignment on Broadway (and certainly Lowry too, but I think the negative impacts of an LRT guideway are probably more acutely felt on Broadway). In yesterday's corridor management committee meeting, they shared that early feedback was split 55% Broadway, 22% Lowry, and 23% need more information before making a choice or have another preference. They also stressed that these numbers were early and they are expecting to receive many more responses through community partner organizations. Here's the meeting link: https://metrocouncil.org/getdoc/a619f7d ... genda.aspx (jump to 53:00 for the part covering feedback from the surveys and town halls so far).

Q2 Could we see an elevated station and track on Broadway? SWLRT and the Hiawatha Line have decent amounts of elevated rail and these tricky parts of Broadway are super long.

Irene Fernando and Jeff Lunde: Minnesota transit funding proposal jeopardizes Blue Line Extension.
Light rail project could connect students to education, patients to health care and workers to jobs. But Hennepin County can't afford to pay Met Council's capital maintenance costs.

https://sahanjournal.com/commentary/fer ... kmeQ70upBM

Irene Fernando and Jeff Lunde: Minnesota transit funding proposal jeopardizes Blue Line Extension.
Light rail project could connect students to education, patients to health care and workers to jobs. But Hennepin County can't afford to pay Met Council's capital maintenance costs.

https://sahanjournal.com/commentary/fer ... kmeQ70upBM

The house proposal doesn’t include it, the Senate does, it will probably fall out when they have to reconcile the bills to match.


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During the BLUE LINE EXTENSION BUSINESS ADVISORY COMMITTEE (BAC) MEETING this morning 63rd & Bass Lake Road stations were confirmed to remain at their general location. Robbinsdale is now planned to get two stations, one near downtown and one near North Memorial Hospital. West Broadway alignment looks to have 1,000 citizen votes while Lowry has 500 citizens choosing that route. Here's where the discussion begins https://youtu.be/jtRF2KrdUFY?t=4825

Nothing surprising or wrong-seeming to me so far. Adding North Memorial is a no-brainer and they had clearly committed to it a while ago. Broadway is superior to Lowry, not just because it is more direct, but because it has more activity.

The tougher decisions are still to come. Putting aside the grade issue, there will be a temptation to add a bunch of stations in North Minneapolis. I hope they are judicious. The only two "must have" stations are the ones on Penn and at Emerson/Fremont which are needed to make connections to the METRO C and D Lines. Depending on the chosen route, there could be one, two, or even three plausible other station locations. But I hope that there are really no more than three stations chosen, maaaaybe four maximum if the North Loop routing is selected.

The Bottineau Boulevard section, while sort of obvious and out of mind, will also be interesting, because it's a big opportunity to make that road more human-scale. Really, the ridership of the line will partly depend on the stations being easy to access without risking death. Without any evidence either way, I'm just skeptical that the powers that be in the NW metro will easily accept a narrower and safer road. But I'm willing to be surprised.

Looks like they were downgraded?

FTA rating for Blue Line light rail extension 'under review

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... eview.html (Paywall)

Looks like they were downgraded?

FTA rating for Blue Line light rail extension 'under review

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... eview.html (Paywall)

Not really a downgrade according to the article, just a status change since the route alignment is going to change. The planners say it is standard procedure.