Southwest LRT Community Input Open Houses Coming Up!

(Population density in relation to routing options for the SW LRT (Credit: Net Density))

Yes, back to transit.

A series of open houses and community input sessions are being held on August 11, 13, 18, and 19 in Minneapolis, Hopkins, St. Louis Park, Minnetonka, and Eden Prairie.

The Minneapolis meeting will be at the Central Library on the 13th.

These meetings are the last chance for public input prior to the routing recommendation which will be issued at the end of the month. PLEASE attend and push for one of the 3C routes! Get out there and make your voice heard; you city needs you.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the line will also be released at these meetings. I expect the new, more accurate numbers to show 3C as a clear victor over 3A.

Meeting Info.

For anyone still not convinced of the merits of the 3C routing, check out this wonderful post on Brendon Slotterback's Net Density blog.

Pawlenty Commissions New Statewide Rail Transit Study

The Strib reported today that Gov. Pawlenty has commissioned a new statewide rail study initiative.

The objective is two-fold:
-To secure as much of the federal rail stimulus money for Minnesota as possible.
-To re-evaluate routing for a high-speed rail line between Minneapolis and Chicago.

The three lines being studied are the Northstar extension to St. Cloud, the Northern Lights Express line to Duluth, and the Midwest Regional Rail to Chicago. All three projects would go through planning to make them eligible for funds, and the MPLS-Chicago line would go through a route re-evaluation which would consider a routing through Rochester.

Apparently Gov. Pawlenty has already met with Jim Doyle, the govenor of Wisconsin, and Tim Walz (US rep for Minnesota's first district, which includes Rochester) to discuss the possible re-routing.

It's great news to hear about this stuff progressing forward, especiially the high-speed line to Chicago, which seemed like a distant dream just three months ago.

Letter to Southwest LRT Planning Office

Here is a copy of my letter to the Southwest LRT planning office:

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To whom it may concern,

I have carefully reviewed the available documents from the scoping study, including appendix M on the 11/12th street sub-alternative), and have come up with a proposed routing, which would achieve the goals of the proposed 11th/12th street routing (namely providing high-quality transit service to Uptown and Whittier and interfacing with the existing light rail system in such a way as to allow cooperative operation), while at the same time better preserving the community and traffic patterns (and thus businesses) on major streets in Whittier.

My proposed routing (which can be found in Google Maps form comparing it to the studied alternative routing HERE) would follow the regular 3C routing through the 29th Street Greenway trench and turn northbound onto Blaisdell Avenue. There would be a station in the trench immediately before the turn began, probably between Pleasant and Pillsbury avenues. The proposed LynLake station would remain the same. After turning on to Blaisdell, the routing would continue northbound in a trench up to the intersection with Franklin Avenue, where it would turn at-grade into the Plymouth Congregationalist Church's parking lot. As it currently stands, this parking lot covers close to half of the block. After turning approximately 45 degrees, there would be a station, and after the station, it would execute a corresponding turns to put it onto Nicollet Avenue, heading northbound, on which it would cross I-94 and assume the regular 3C sub-alternative routing.

By placing the two stations off of Blaisdell (in the Parking lot on Franklin/Blaisdell and the Greenway trench), the need to fully shut down traffic on either Blaisdell or 1st Avenue could be avoided. If project budgets allow it and/or ridership justifies it, a below-grade station could perhaps be added at Blaisdell/26th street.

I would appreciate it if you would please consider my proposed routing, because I believe that it may solve many of the issues regarding the relations between the LRT and the Whittier neighborhood.

Twin Cities Mass Transit Scores Major Victories in House Appropriations Bill

Representative Keith Ellison's office announced that the congressional appropriations bill includes the following funding for mass transit in Minneapolis:

-$20 million for the Central Corridor
-$534,000 for the Southwest LRT

This is absolutely phenomenal news, as it will keep the Central Corridor moving forward, even while the FTA has continued to withhold funding until the MPR issue is worked out.

Even better, preliminary engineering on the Southwest LRT can begin on some parts of the line, even as the Draft Environmental impact Statement is still being finished (due out this fall).

Thanks for reading!

Welcome to In Transit!

Hi, my name's Drew, I'm 17 years old and live in south Minneapolis. I'm very interested in mass transit, sensible and sustainable land use, and just urban development in general.

I created this blog as a place to post updates and commentary on mass transit in the Twin Cities. Right now there's really not anywhere online where this information is easily accessible, as it is scattered about between various government agencies, and developments are often hard to follow, since news outlets don't always pick up on it. Minnescraper is a valuable resource, though the information is often scattered among the forums and buried. My goal here is to present it in an organized, up to date fashion.

I may include some commentary on things unrelated to mass transit, and this may also function as a personal blog at certain points.

Anyways, thanks for reading!