Blue Line LRT

[talindsay]

Is it just me, or do the Bombardiers offer a smoother ride? On the Siemens, I feel all wobbly and like I have to hang on tight. I never really noticed it before, but can't help but notice it after I heard some transit police making the observation to each other.

Funny, i kind of thought that but figured it was in my head so didn't mention it.

[UptownSport]

Is it just me, or do the Bombardiers offer a smoother ride? On the Siemens, I feel all wobbly and like I have to hang on tight. I never really noticed it before, but can't help but notice it after I heard some transit police making the observation to each other.

Funny, i kind of thought that but figured it was in my head so didn't mention it.

x2

[web]

Aren't the siemens much lighter?

[talindsay]

Aren't the siemens much lighter?

Good point, yes. The extra weight of the Bombardiers may well help make a smoother ride.

[planetxan]

Is it just me, or do the Bombardiers offer a smoother ride? On the Siemens, I feel all wobbly and like I have to hang on tight. I never really noticed it before, but can't help but notice it after I heard some transit police making the observation to each other.

Funny, i kind of thought that but figured it was in my head so didn't mention it.

x2

x3

[LRV Op Dude]

Happy Anniversary to the METRO Blue Line! Nine years ago today the state’s first light-rail line began service between downtown Minneapolis and Fort Snelling.

[mister.shoes]

Related to the earlier discussion in this thread about electronic ETA signage: Patent troll that sues public transit systems gets hauled into court

A snippet:

With so many patents out there claiming rights to basic Web-based technologies, at this point there aren't many businesses in America that are unaffected by so-called "patent trolls." But one troll, ArrivalStar, found a fresh set of targets that earned it serious scorn: public transit systems.

Many of its hundreds of lawsuits have ended without much of a fight; King County Metro Transit (Seattle) paid $80,000 to avoid a lengthy and expensive patent lawsuit. Other cities paid similar amounts.

ArrivalStar doesn't want to litigate; it wants fast cash. The company has never taken a case to trial, and last year it admitted it had only seen one case through to the early "claim construction" phase.

Now, after suing hundreds of companies and transit systems, ArrivalStar is finally being challenged by an opponent that won't give up easily. ...

I have absolutely no idea if Metro Transit or one of their vendors is a party to any of these lawsuits, but it's easy to imagine that they might be tangentially related. The whole situation is interesting, to say the least.

[LRV Op Dude]

This why the Blue Line will be shut down several night this week.Metro Transit is grinding the rail to make a smoother ride. The work is being done by Loram Maintenance of Way. Other work will also be done this week during the shutdowns.

[mulad]

Do you know if the equipment was able to get to the Blue Line via rail, or if it had to be trucked in? Loram's located on the CP rail line next to MN-55 out in farmland in Medina (though they still call it Hamel). Oddly right next to that Hennepin County Public Works building...

[LRV Op Dude]

Do you know if the equipment was able to get to the Blue Line via rail, or if it had to be trucked in? Loram's located on the CP rail line next to MN-55 out in farmland in Medina (though they still call it Hamel). Oddly right next to that Hennepin County Public Works building...

The equipment was trucked in.

[HiawathaGuy]

I live near the 50th Street/Minnehaha Park Station. Over the weekend I noticed that the trains now make a new sound when in motion. I thought maybe I was just hearing the new trains, and just hadn't noticed it before. But while riding downtown (on an old set of trains) on Saturday night, it was quite apparent that they've changed something. It's like they've upgraded the motors or something. Does anybody know what?

[David Greene]

I live near the 50th Street/Minnehaha Park Station. Over the weekend I noticed that the trains now make a new sound when in motion. I thought maybe I was just hearing the new trains, and just hadn't noticed it before. But while riding downtown (on an old set of trains) on Saturday night, it was quite apparent that they've changed something. It's like they've upgraded the motors or something. Does anybody know what?

I think I noticed this too at DTE. Maybe it's related to the rail grinding?

To me the noise was more "rough," like the wheels going over the rail equivalent of rumble strips.

[LRV Op Dude]

I live near the 50th Street/Minnehaha Park Station. Over the weekend I noticed that the trains now make a new sound when in motion. I thought maybe I was just hearing the new trains, and just hadn't noticed it before. But while riding downtown (on an old set of trains) on Saturday night, it was quite apparent that they've changed something. It's like they've upgraded the motors or something. Does anybody know what?

It is not the motor making the noise, it is the rail. After the rail grinding this past week, the rails are making the noise when the wheels go over it. I was wondering if anyone would notice. I sure have noticed while operating. I think the noise will go away after a few weeks.

[VAStationDude]

The different sound is due to rail grinding referenced by LRVOpps on the prior page. From what I understand Metrotransit and their contractor removed a very small amount of rail material with the goal of reducing noise. I live by the VA Station and my observation is trains make almost zero rumbling notice and the constant track sound is slightly higher pitched. The higher pitch I'm noticing may have been drowned out by other, lounder train noise prior to rail grinding. The high pitch isn't bothersome, just differnt.

[HiawathaGuy]

I knew they had been grinding the rails, I just never thought that would result in the sound difference! I like the new noise. It sort of sounds like a small moped or a zip line when racing quickly. I did notice that the train rode 'smoother' than it did prior to the grinding. It'll be interesting to see how long that noise lasts.

[UptownSport]

Still there. I wonder why they used so course a grinding wheel, or why it wasn't done in stages (course, med fine wheels)?

Seems 55 lights might be a little better. I do cheetah flips when there's 100 cars at idle and none using the cross streets.

Another question; why were Warehouse and Nicollet spaced so close? Station capacity?

[pfreyre]

Another question; why were Warehouse and Nicollet spaced so close? Station capacity?

I've always assumed that its for two reasons:
1. Station capacity, just like you mention
2. Parking lot/ramp access: Between Nicollet and Hennepin on the north side (behind the Xcel building), there is a parking lot with access to 5th Street. On the south side there is a an alley, and a surface parking lot (NE corner of Hennepin & 5th Street). There is simply not enough ROW width in order to: 1.) Keep vehicle lanes on the north & south sides of the LRT tracks 2.) Maintain vehicle access to both the lot and ramp (on opposite sides of the tracks) 3.) Build the LRT station.

[MNdible]

As I noted in the other thread, I recollect that the Warehouse District station was a late add. When Nicollet was to be the last station on the line, they needed the longer block between Hennepin and Nicollet to allow for the crossovers at the end of the line. So therefore, the Nicollet Station needed to be east of Nicollet, which put it sort of a long haul from the Warehouse District and Target Center, so they scraped together the extra funds to add another station and it ended up pretty close to Nicollet.

So my faulty memory tells me.

[mattaudio]

Agreed it's sort of a shame they did it that way. It would have been so much more natural to place the station between Hennepin and Nicollet. It was only a few years later when the tracks were extended anyways, so it would have been just fine if they put crossovers beyond the combined Nicollet/Hennepin station between Hennepin and what is now Target Field station.

[mulad]

[Post rewritten since I didn't do my research properly...]

I see now that construction for the diverging diamond interchange at 34th Ave and I-494 has been going on since early July. The Blue Line is not operating between Terminal 2 (Humphrey) and the Mall of America this weekend because of it, with service being replaced by buses. Presumably route 54 is being impacted by this a bit too -- any others of note?

There is a project blog which may be worth watching here: http://ci.bloomington.mn.us/road_update ... update.htm

MSP Airport has some maps showing how traffic is expected to be detoured, but they made me very confused when I first looked at them: http://mspairport.com/34th-Ave-Construction.aspx