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Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 11th, 2021, 8:36 pm
by Bakken2016
Orange Line begins service on Saturday, December 4!
Even better, a week from today (Monday 10/18), the Lake Street Station opens for service, serving Metro Transit routes 21, 27, 535, 553, and 578; and SouthWest Transit routes 600 and 695.
Is the MVTA still on their shit list over the redline or were their buses never coming back to lake in the first place.
MVTA will be returning their buses as well!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 15th, 2021, 8:45 am
by Bakken2016
Orange Line begins service on Saturday, December 4!
Even better, a week from today (Monday 10/18), the Lake Street Station opens for service, serving Metro Transit routes 21, 27, 535, 553, and 578; and SouthWest Transit routes 600 and 695.
Is the MVTA still on their shit list over the redline or were their buses never coming back to lake in the first place.
MVTA will be returning their buses as well!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Update: MVTA will start serving the station on Nov 20th.
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 16th, 2021, 7:07 pm
by Bakken2016
There was just a car crash at the new Lake St Station, looks like the building is on fire due to it.
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 16th, 2021, 8:39 pm
by DanPatchToget
That doesn't give me a lot of confidence that the station is safe from idiotic drivers. I remember standing at the old I-35W & Lake bus stop and some drivers either mistook the bus lane for an exit or they were attempting to bypass traffic congestion. Does the new station have gates like at I-35W & 46th? I've always felt both of these stations should have heavy-duty barriers so a driver going highway speeds will slam into that instead of the station or a stopped bus.
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 16th, 2021, 8:40 pm
by Bakken2016
That doesn't give me a lot of confidence that the station is safe from idiotic drivers. I remember standing at the old I-35W & Lake bus stop and some drivers either mistook the bus lane for an exit or they were attempting to bypass traffic congestion. Does the new station have gates like at I-35W & 46th? I've always felt both of these stations should have heavy-duty barriers so a driver going highway speeds will slam into that instead of the station or a stopped bus.
They decided against gate arms, because of all the issues they have with the ones at 46th.
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Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 16th, 2021, 9:41 pm
by Korh
I was actually there today around 4:30-5:00pm on bike looking around the lower part and I didn't see anything so it either just happened right after I left or I was completely oblivious.
Saw a few news reports that the opening has been delayed as a result and officials have to evaluate the structure for issues, hopefully whatever damage there is is superficial.
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 16th, 2021, 9:43 pm
by Bakken2016
I was actually there today around 4:30-5:00pm on bike looking around the lower part and I didn't see anything so it either just happened right after I left or I was completely oblivious.
Saw a few news reports that the opening has been delayed as a result and officials have to evaluate the structure for issues, hopefully whatever damage there is is superficial.
The crash happened in the 8pm hour.
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Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 16th, 2021, 10:01 pm
by seanrichardryan
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 16th, 2021, 10:10 pm
by Tiller
There was just a car crash at the new Lake St Station, looks like the building is on fire due to it.
Car crashes are so normalized that my first internal reaction was "you gotta be kidding me, the building is on fire?! I hope my new bus station is OK
" before "oh I hope no one got hurt."
Edit: holy cow, it's a crash in the freeway section, not from lake street. That's terrible.
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 16th, 2021, 10:21 pm
by alexschief
Both occupants of the car died unfortunately. Sounds like they took the bus lanes and then just continued going at high speed without any kind of course correction. Being a Saturday night, I wouldn't be surprised if impaired driving was involved. I'm not sure what steps you can take with the highway design that are enough to dissuade someone who would moments later will drive head-on into a concrete wall. I'm unsure if there are small rumble strips on the bus lane, but that would help wake up inattentive drivers while buses wouldn't be as affected.
One thing I'm sure about is that MnDOT should strongly consider adding a crash attenuator to the sides of the station (if it's not there already, but the evidence of this crash suggests it isn't) so that the next unfortunate person to make this error is more likely to survive it.
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 17th, 2021, 9:17 am
by seanrichardryan
Are there design plans somewhere? It looks like there are protective bollards in the renderings which the vehicle may have hit.
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 17th, 2021, 9:27 am
by seanrichardryan
Best I could find. The hatched lane areas that are highlighted- what is that space intended for? Snow storage? The red circle is where the accident occured.
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 17th, 2021, 9:32 am
by seanrichardryan
fox9 image. Don't see an bollards, or pavement markings. Hope it wasn't a confused self-driving vehicle.
https://www.fox9.com/news/1-killed-in-c ... ake-street 
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 17th, 2021, 12:46 pm
by karlshea
I'm surprised there weren't crash arrestors there.
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 20th, 2021, 3:41 pm
by twincitizen
Service to the station will begin Thursday morning. No word yet on a rescheduled grand opening event. I'm guessing they'll cancel the one that was planned for Monday morning and instead just hold an Orange Line grand opening event in December, at which time the station will have been repaired. The announcement also notes that the State Patrol continues to investigate the fatal crash.
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: October 20th, 2021, 8:45 pm
by commissioner
There's huge white signs at both ends that say Authorized buses only. While I feel for the victims families, I'm guessing either speed or alcohol was a factor .
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: November 2nd, 2021, 8:21 am
by DanPatchToget
Here's the Orange Line timetable:
https://www.metrotransit.org/Data/Sites ... geLine.pdf
Service every 15 minutes throughout the day on weekdays, every 30 minutes on the weekend.
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: November 2nd, 2021, 10:52 am
by twincitizen
That certainly seems reasonable considering the present state of transit and the fact that the 535 has never had weekend service. I can't imagine the weekend numbers on the Orange Line are going to be good in the first few years of service. Building more apartments (at all stations) will help, but I don't know if it will be enough to sustain that level of weekend service. Hopefully weekday rush hour ridership is enough to get upgraded to 10-minute headways within a few years of opening, presuming more people go back to the office.
I know now is not the time to be pessimistic on a project that many of us have been excited about for a decade, but looking at the lengthy trip times between 98th Street and Burnsville Heart of the City (7 minutes northbound, 9 minutes southbound!), if there's not enough ridership to/from Burnsville, I won't be shocked if they ultimately have to end half the trips at 98th Street. That's a lot of service hours to spend on not a lot of riders.
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: November 2nd, 2021, 1:03 pm
by DanPatchToget
That certainly seems reasonable considering the present state of transit and the fact that the 535 has never had weekend service. I can't imagine the weekend numbers on the Orange Line are going to be good in the first few years of service. Building more apartments (at all stations) will help, but I don't know if it will be enough to sustain that level of weekend service. Hopefully weekday rush hour ridership is enough to get upgraded to 10-minute headways within a few years of opening, presuming more people go back to the office.
I know now is not the time to be pessimistic on a project that many of us have been excited about for a decade, but looking at the lengthy trip times between 98th Street and Burnsville Heart of the City (7 minutes northbound, 9 minutes southbound!), if there's not enough ridership to/from Burnsville, I won't be shocked if they ultimately have to end half the trips at 98th Street. That's a lot of service hours to spend on not a lot of riders.
Actually for a brief period in 2018 or 2019 there was weekend service on the 535 between South Bloomington (or Normandale College, I forget) and Minneapolis that was supposed to be an alternative to driving through the heavy highway construction that was recently completed. I forget if the frequency was every half-hour or every hour, but I do remember using it a couple times. Unfortunately the ridership was too low (I believe the average number of riders on each one-way trip was 3-5).
I think Metro Transit is trying to avoid short-routing the BRT and LRT routes so there's consistency and riders are confident in taking them to their station. The ridership would have to be horrendously bad for Metro Transit to shorten some trips to South Bloomington. That of course isn't an impossibility, especially since the Orange Line will be competing with the 460 and 465.
Re: Orange Line / 35W@94: Downtown to Crosstown Project
Posted: November 4th, 2021, 11:22 pm
by Oreos&Milk
Can’t wait until we get a Burnsville center redevelopment and the orange line is extended there as well. Would be nice to see 2-4 stations there on the end as well kinda like 494 area has 2. If it’s the end of the line why not. Provided ridership would be enhanced.
I think it might be a bit of a fantasy , but I think it’s more of a fantasy to think it will ever reach lakeville let alone that truck stop McStop. Imagine that a bus line with service to a truck stop. Would be an amazing asset for truckers but I doubt that would net more than 4-12 rides a day if even that..