MPR and Met Council Reach Deal, Hiawatha Platform Extentions Project Begins, and More!

Greetings!

I know I'm a little late posting this, but as you've all (hopefully) read by now, MPR and the Met Council reached an agreement on the Central Corridor. As part of the agreement a crossover (place where trains can switch tracks) will be relocated away from the MPR studios and the section of track will be set on a large slab of concrete which will float on a giant rubber pad. Hopefully the relocation of the crossover will cut down on noise and the rubber floats will cut down on vibrations.

Success! Hopefully the project can be approved by the end of this summer.

In other Central Corridor news, a new debate has arisen regarding the creation of a free fare zone at the U of M. The University wants to create a free fare zone between the west bank station, east bank station, and the stadium village station. Apparently this would effect the current ridership predictions. As originally planned, the stations would all be constructed to support three-car trains, but only enough cars would be bought to operate two-car trains. This was mandated by the FTA because predicted ridership was shown to be at the very maximum permitted for two-car trains, and apparently the free fare zone pushes this up over the limit, requring an additional 16 cars to be purchased.
Luckily for us, the free fare zone would not be considered by the FTA to be intergral to the line, but rather an enhancement, so this cost increase wouldn't effect the CEI (cost effectiveness index, the system used to rank one project against another while lining up for federal funding) of the project. Construction will be allowed to begin without this issue being resovled, and hopefully the free fare zone will be okay in the end if the county transit tax board comes up with the funds for the new cars.

Construction Updates!

Work began earlier this month on strengthening the Washington Avenue bridge s othat it can handle the weight of the trains travelling over it.

Construction began yesterday on the Hiawatha line's new three-car platform project. This project will be completed in March 2010 and will allow all 18 of the Hiawatha Line's stations to accomodate three-car trains, as well as purchase said trains. Seven of the original 17 stations were built to accomodate these long trains, while ten of them are being extended by this project. The new station at Target Field was built to fit three cars.