urbanMSP

I think ridesharing services can help fill this void, but they will not completely solve it. There will be people who will not be able to afford Uber and lyft.

The problem with shuttles is that people will not want to stand outside for 20 minutes in the winter waiting for shuttle. Trains are expected to arrive at the stations every 10 minutes, if my understanding is correct.

Making sure that there is bike share at the stations would be helpful too. People could ride from the station to their place of employment. But you can’t forget about those who may not be able to ride.


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Southwest Prime would be my best guess. Basically the public transit version of Uber and Lyft. There are proposals/plans for multiple circulator routes within Eden Prairie with at least one serving the Golden Triangle area but I won’t hold my breathe on those being successful if they even get implemented.

If they're a big employer, I could absolutely see them providing LRT-to-front-door shuttle service. As noted previously, this type of short consistent route could eventually be low-hanging fruit for a self-driving vehicle.

Wouldn't this be low-hanging fruit for "locating your front door a short walk from the train station?"

MNdible, I very much agree with you. I think self driving shuttle buses will definitely be able to fill that gap, I just wish they would be a reality sooner. That would be perfect.

What is the plan for opening day? We know that getting these types of services implemented take time, is someone working on making sure that these services exist when the light rail opens? If the services aren’t existing, those who do not support transit will throw a huge fit and said that the light rail investment wasn’t worth it.


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The point I’m getting at is that these conversations and plans need to be starting now. Before light rail is even built. These things need to be in place when it opens.

Obviously you wouldn’t start the shuttle services until the rail is open, but you need to start figuring out how they will be funded, companies need to buy the vehicles, if they plan on providing transportation.

You will have people arriving at the station in 10 minute increments in the morning. You can’t make those people wait 20 minutes for a ride, especially in the winter.

If these conversations are happening, where are the documents that discuss them?


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Have you checked Eden Prairie’s city webpage? (I haven’t but I’ve seen sidewalk projects done by cities on pages for SLP, Hopkins, and Minnetonka)

Wouldn't this be low-hanging fruit for "locating your front door a short walk from the train station?"

Yes, and I'm sure companies with property that are within walking distance will tweak their land uses accordingly. But there's lots of property that is close but not close enough for easy walking.

Rail Delivery: As early as Saturday, May 11

As early as Saturday, May 11, regular freight rail trains will not be running because a special train will deliver and unload new rail. Freight rail delivery will occur from 6:00 AM – 4:00 PM and take between two to four days to deliver the new rail segments. Approximately 54 rail segments, each roughly 1,600 feet long, will be unloaded and placed adjacent to the existing freight rail track between TH 100 and Beltline Blvd in St. Louis Park. The rail delivery train will be moving very slowly and repeatedly stopping and reversing throughout the delivery process. Signal technicians will be placed at intersection crossings to engage the rail crossing signals to allow traffic to cross the tracks. Please note, the dates and times for rail delivery are subject to change.

I would love to see how these rail segments are transported.

In Late May, FULL CLOSURE of Excelsior Blvd at the intersection of Jackson Ave N and Milwaukee St, for two 2-week periods.

In June, FULL CLOSURE of Blake Rd at the Cedar Lake Trail and freight rail crossing, for up to a 2-week period.

I hadn’t heard how the buses will be detours during these periods, but my bus stop is exactly at the Excelsior rail crossing. I hope a bus detour is posted soon.

Another closure of note...

Glenwood Avenue and Cedar Lake Trail in Minneapolis: Closing as early as June 3

Full road closure between Lyndale Ave N and 11th St N is scheduled to close as early as June 3; local access to businesses will be maintained. Generally, vehicle detours will use Lyndale Ave, Olson Memorial Highway and 7th/10th Streets. Pedestrian detour will utilize Border Ave., Holden St. and Royalston Ave. sidewalks.

If I had to take a guess, they might end up routing buses to Blake and have them turn on to 2nd St. NE and hopefully if the intersection isn't completely closed, they might be able get back on excelsior via Jackson Ave N (if not they might have to go all the way down to Washington Ave N).
This would also mean that they cannot close Blake in till they finish Excelsior which based of the time table seems doable at first glance

Or they could route Milwaukee to 3rd and not have to deal with the possibility of Blake also closing at the same time.

Going 2nd to Blake you end up dropping the Jackson Ave and Blake Ave bus stops.

Going 3rd to Milwaukee you end up dropping the 5th Ave and Depot bus stops.

Guess I found the answer about the rail delivery.
http://www.startribune.com/rails-delive ... 509854662/

Does anyone know when they will start building the tracks across 7th st next to the Highway 55 intersection and Target Field? It seems like this will snarl traffic pretty bad.

Does anyone know when they will start building the tracks across 7th st next to the Highway 55 intersection and Target Field? It seems like this will snarl traffic pretty bad.

Curious what you mean by this? They will be building a bridge over 7th Street, for the Green Line, so aside from closures to allow for that, I can't imagine this will snarl traffic horribly.

Not Southwest light rail related, but I wasn’t sure where to put it. What kind of trackwork are they doing downtown this weekend? Didn’t they do a whole bunch of work on the tracks downtown last year?


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Not Southwest light rail related, but I wasn’t sure where to put it. What kind of trackwork are they doing downtown this weekend? Didn’t they do a whole bunch of work on the tracks downtown last year?


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Repairs being Made:
Several sections of cracked track from this winter(Temp repairs were made in Jan)
UMN is inspecting WAB and working on skyways
Facilities is power washing stations.

Thanks for the info! It seems like we have this problem after every winter. Are there any innovations being made to prevent these types of cracks from occurring in the tracks?

I saw that they were working on the University skyway the other day when I was there.

Asking the above question, about the repairs to the tracks, is definitely relevant to the south west light rail. Is there something that can be done to the tracks being placed for the new light rail, that might help prevent some of the problems occurring because of the cold weather?


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I hope they give 21st Street Station an actual name. Kenwood Station seems appropriate.

It'll be neat if they could have utilized the historic depot near Penn Ave. Integrate it into a station