Planning for Minneapolis Midtown Transit Corridor gets underway

Residents of Minneapolis came together at the Whittier Park Recreation Center on January 29 for an open house on a proposed Metro Transit project connecting the Hiawatha and Southwest light rail lines, by using either light rail, streetcar, bus rapid transit, or a dedicated busway. Meeting facilitators emphasized that, “Everything is on the table currently.”

The project will provide faster east-west service for transit users, and increase accessibility to major employment and commercial centers in the area. Michael Mechtenberg, the project manager and a planner at Metro Transit, said transit investments would also “catalyze and support economic development,” as well as to “support a healthier community.” A general excitement about the project was unmistakable as a regular flow of attendees circulated amongst the poster boards and maps on display.

The Midtown Corridor Alternatives Analysis, officially launched in September 2012, will study the potential benefits, costs, and impacts of developing a transitway either on Lake Street or along the Midtown Greenway. During the Alternative Analysis phase of the project, Metro Transit along with project contractors will evaluate different routes and types of transit modes to determine what the best fit for the corridor is.

Once completed, the new transit corridor would provide expanded transit service between the Hiawatha Light Rail line and the Southwest Light Rail line, on which construction is slated to begin in 2015. Additionally, the transitway would connect with the existing Chicago-Lake and Uptown Transit Centers, as well as the proposed I-35 Bus Rapid Transit Orange Line.

Metro Transit sees this as an opportune moment to move forward on the project for several reasons. First, there is clear evidence of demand, as transit ridership in the area is already high: the Lake Street station on the Hiawatha line is the third busiest along the line and the number 21 bus route that runs on Lake Street has the second-highest number of riders in the state of Minnesota. With the alignment of the Southwest Light Rail line finalized, planners also now know where the western terminus of the Midtown Transitway would be.

The Federal Transit Administration committed $600,000 in 2012 towards the completion of the study, the first step in getting any major transit project off the ground. A planning framework is also already in place going into the project, as plans looking at the feasibility of putting a streetcar on the Midtown Greenway and bus rapid transit on Lake Street have been produced within the last five years.

The Midtown Corridor Alternatives Analysis project period is expected to extend into January 2014. Upcoming stages of the analysis will include developing a final list of alternative routes and modes, the evaluation those alternatives, and a final assessment, which will be in the form of what is known as a Locally Preferred Alternative. Between now and January of next year community members will have four more opportunities to weigh in on the project at different stages during the analysis. More information on the project and ways to get involved can be found on the Midtown Corridor Alternatives Analysis website: http://www.metrotransit.org/midtown-corridor.

Related story: New transit planning for Midtown Corridor

• Good points all. Thanks for the concise reporting. - by Steve Bachler on Tue, 02/05/2013 - 1:02pm
• We're just idiots if we keep falling for the same things that didn't work before. How many jobs were created from the Hiawatha Light Rail Line? I'm not talking about jobs constructing the line but jobs that people had to get to. None I bet. And it's costing millions of dollars to subsidize the Hiawatha and more millions for the soon to come Central Corridor line. These projects are not built to help the people but they are for the special interest folks who make all the money building them and the peasants march into the well planned meetings thinking that something's going on to help them. Total b.s. Debt is incurred to build the lines and money has to be collected to subsidize the lines. For what? To get people from Burnsville to find parking on the street near the Hiawatha stations so they save a few bucks from parking downtown. The entire transportation discussions are a huge scam for special interest folks to make a lot of money. They're like the Bechtel, Halliburton, etc. contractors who make fortunes from wars. Our local yokels make their fortunes from exciting the peasants to think that a rail line connecting Hiawatha with an unneeded southwest corridor scam will mean something to them or their posterity. Totally sickening people with no leadership. Unless you call Mark Dayton a leader. Sheeeeesh! Leslie Davis for the People. P.S. How about getting the fluoride out of our water? - by Leslie Davis on Thu, 02/07/2013 - 12:18am
  • "How many jobs were created from the Hiawatha Light Rail Line? I'm not talking about jobs constructing the line but jobs that people had to get to. None I bet." None I bet. Thats not exactly the beginning of a strong argument, and its certainly isnt credible with no source. And you cant just skim over the construction jobs, with the economy down who wants to build things and give these skilled workers paychecks? No one really, but the LRT gives these workers who may have been hit the hardest in all this downturn some income. Maybe its just me personally but I find the current LRT a wonderful thing, even a someone who regularly commutes by car, and I am even more excited for the Central Corridor to open. I myself am a student at the U of M, studying architecture and metropolitan design. The Central Corridor goes through campus, and this would allow me to skip the hour+ long commute to school for me and take the light rail in without having to worry about bus routes and schedules. This will also increase traffic and revenue sales around the lines, with increased foot traffic around the stations, and with visual cues, or people seeing certain businesses along the route and shopping there. The LRT also allows our bike friendly cities to become even more accessible. As someone who deal with pollution and the like Mr. Davis im sure you would have seen the benefits from mass transit like this, all the commuters that are on the LRT means one less car on the road. And with the new expansion to Eden Prairie will increase its "market" for commuters to go by mass transit and rail, helping to keep roads that are awful during rush hour like 494 and 62 a little better, and as I said before, less pollutants from those cars, which everyone loves right? It would also gives those who are primarily city dwellers who dont leave much an easy opportunity to go out to the suburbs and spend their money for goods and services, stimulating the economy. And it comes down to preparing for a future, it may seem like a stupid thing now, but 20+ years from now who knows how large the Twin Cities will be. Having these rail lines (and hopefully more) will ensure that the future for the metro area will be much more secure and prosperous. Sure we had great bus routes, but would busses alone be able to handle higher volume in the years to come as it become increasingly expensive to drive with gas prices going up and up, and more people seeking mass transit as an alternative? No. For the Central Corridor project the state only spent $92 million out of the $900 million. And yes it goes to the contractors, that are nothing like these military contractors. There isn't anything fundamentally wrong with large companies, it makes projects like this go much smoother. So yes give them money, in fact pay them more. Pay those 3,000 construction workers more. They deserve it for helping the Twin Cities future grow. Mr. Davis your way of thinking is exactly what has put the world in its position its in now. People only reacting to, and thinking for the now, not thinking for the future. If we want to make any change in our country and our world we need to stop reacting to situations, and getting locked up in debate we need to prevent them from happening. I can relate it more to you, global warming wouldn't be as much problem today if we dealt with it 40 years ago. Think for the future, not for yesterday. - by Dan Aasland on Fri, 02/08/2013 - 10:12am
• We had great transportation from Minneapolis to St. Paul with the 16, 50, and 94 buses. No one looks at the clogged downtown traffic when there is an event and 5th Street can't handle traffic. No one looks at trying to cross Hiawatha when the trains are coming and you have to wait for two or more lights. When you have a state that elects people like Mark Dayton, Linda Higgins, Mark Stenglien, and the rest, what do you expect? Debt debt debt is all they know. Debt for the Lowry Bridge, debt for rail line to nowhere, and interest on top of it all. Dayton borrowed half a billion last year (they call it bonding but they have no bonds) and he will do worse this year I think. He doesn't know a dollar from a demerol. When he heard my Money Plan he said it was not "real" dollars but when pressed to define real dollars he went into a coma. That's coma not comma. Sheeeesh! Agaom. You're all getting (*&%#^ so just bend over and take it like the next Mayor. - by Leslie Davis on Thu, 02/07/2013 - 12:28am
• Leslie Davis, my partner has been taking the Hiawatha line to work for many years. And regularly runs into people he knows during commuting hours who are also on their way to work as well. - by Brian Finstad on Thu, 02/07/2013 - 12:31pm
  • How about getting the fluoride out of the water?! - by Jeff Skrenes on Thu, 02/07/2013 - 12:51pm