Gold Line BRT - Downtown St. Paul to Woodbury

[Trademark]

https://www.masstransitmag.com/manageme ... hing-funds

[Bakken2016]

https://zan.mysocialpinpoint.com/goldlinebrt#/

Interactive Map of Gold Line final design

Utility work starts soon, and heavy construction starts this fall.

[Tcmetro]

Gold Line construction has begun according to this Twitter post:
https://twitter.com/GoldLineBRT/status/ ... hHdvw&s=19

According to the project website, the utility relocation started back in April.
https://www.metrotransit.org/gold-line-construction

[Tiller]

I don't think it's been said yet, but it looks like this is now gonna be finished before the green line extension will be!

The Rush Line probably would have tied with SWLRT if it wasn't for that dumb election in WBL that happened.

[Bakken2016]

https://twitter.com/GoldLinePrtnrs/stat ... 61229?s=20

Gold Line has received its FFGA!

[StandishGuy]

Meh. I hope the region will stop building these expensive BRT routes after this project is done and ridership falls well below projections. The Red and Orange BRT lines have proven that serving car-oriented sprawl with more car-oriented sprawl doesn't draw people to use transit. Maybe they can spend the $500+ million planned for the failing Purple Line to fund 3-4 ABRT routes?

[Nick]

The Gold Line was always a dumb idea, but I was very hopeful for the Orange Line and have been pretty bummed out that it opened at the worst possible time.

[DanPatchToget]

Had the Orange Line opened around the same time as the Green Line it would've been a massive success. Not that it's necessarily a failure now, but it's going to take a long time to get the ridership that was hoped for pre-pandemic.

As for shifting funding to aBRT projects, it's not as easy as just switching it from 1 BRT project to 3 or 4 aBRT projects, especially when some of that money is from the federal government.

[daveybabymsp]

This is so far from the best way to spend our transit money by almost any metric. I just want my greenway rail and A-Z aBRT lines

[Trademark]

There will always be better ways to spend money, but this is not a bad project. For one the amount of dedicated lanes and guideway will make this plausible to convert to rail in the future. This project will become a spine for the East Side and support some dense areas, and provide better connectivity. Yes I wish this was rail. But full-BRT projects are still worth it.

[Tom H.]

Are we taking bets on which route / street will host the Metro Z Line?

[Bakken2016]

Meh. I hope the region will stop building these expensive BRT routes after this project is done and ridership falls well below projections. The Red and Orange BRT lines have proven that serving car-oriented sprawl with more car-oriented sprawl doesn't draw people to use transit. Maybe they can spend the $500+ million planned for the failing Purple Line to fund 3-4 ABRT routes?

Gold Line serves the same market as the route 63 on the east side, except with this you get more coverage to areas that the 63 doesn't currently go, plus you get a dedicated transitway.

Orange Line for opening during the pandemic is actually doing pretty well. I will say again and again, extend the Red Line to either of the downtowns and boom ridership(no one wants to park at Apple Valley or Eagan, and make a connection to the Blue Line, when they can just drive to 30th Ave Station).

Purple Line via White Bear Ave instead of Bruce Vento is actually giving me hope, it will definitely serve more dense neighborhoods along Maryland and White Bear Ave.

[Silophant]

How do we get the Gold Line to extend down 94 to Minneapolis, using the shiny new BRT stations on 7th/8th?

[Trademark]

How do we get the Gold Line to extend down 94 to Minneapolis, using the shiny new BRT stations on 7th/8th?

Rumor has it that it might be part of I-94 reconstruction

[daveybabymsp]

How do we get the Gold Line to extend down 94 to Minneapolis, using the shiny new BRT stations on 7th/8th?

Rumor has it that it might be part of I-94 reconstruction

BRT with dedicated ROW on 94 between the downtowns with a fancy station at Snelling would be pretty great - would make the no highway removal pill easier to swallow. I hope they would make it more express/limited stop compared to the green line.


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[Tom H.]

The extension to Mpls seems like a real no-brainer, given the tailor-made access to I-94 via 5th St. If I had my druthers, there would be high-quality inline stations at Huron, Snelling, and possibly one of Lexington/Dale.

Speaking of the Huron Blvd interchange - it seems way overbuilt, considering its average daily volume appears to be ~7,500, which is less than most of the other simple diamonds further east like Dale, Lexington, and even Cretin. It would be nice if a quality BRT station could be built there in conjunction with a simpler interchange and a traffic-calmed pedestrian gateway to the U via Huron Blvd. It's an apartment/dorm-heavy area that would utilize a quality transit connection.

[COLSLAW5]

it may be 7,500 average but when any U of M event is happening it gets pretty heavy usage. I still like you are right though that the whole area and street could use a remodel to make it much more pedestrian friendly

[Tcmetro]

A U of M-Gold Line direct express bus at peak hours would probably be a good idea as well.

The current Huron station is pretty awful, but if the interchange can be redesigned there should be consideration for a connection to one of the University Campus bus routes.

[Trademark]

The extension to Mpls seems like a real no-brainer, given the tailor-made access to I-94 via 5th St. If I had my druthers, there would be high-quality inline stations at Huron, Snelling, and possibly one of Lexington/Dale.

Speaking of the Huron Blvd interchange - it seems way overbuilt, considering its average daily volume appears to be ~7,500, which is less than most of the other simple diamonds further east like Dale, Lexington, and even Cretin. It would be nice if a quality BRT station could be built there in conjunction with a simpler interchange and a traffic-calmed pedestrian gateway to the U via Huron Blvd. It's an apartment/dorm-heavy area that would utilize a quality transit connection.

I want stations at Dale, Snelling, Huron, and Seward.

[daveybabymsp]

Instead of Lexington or Dale it should be Victoria, in the middle of the brand new highway cap (assuming I’m reading the political winds correctly and that is the route they will go)


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