Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN: Metro Transit light rail

Light Rail’s Green Line Opens With Celebration, Some Protest « CBS Minnesota

That's the Central Corridor line between Minneapolis and St. Paul, and it opened June 14. It's now the Green Line, and the original Hiawatha Line is the Blue Line. The two lines share tracks in downtown Minneapolis between Target Field and Downtown East, and then diverge. Northstar commuter trains also stop at Target Field.

They have two more colored lines, the existing Red Line and the planned Orange Line, both Bus Rapid Transit systems.

Overall map: METRO System - Metro Transit

Metropolitan Council - Southwest LRT has the current status of that line. It's in early planning stages, and some of the original designs have already been revised.

Metropolitan Council - METRO Blue Line extension - Bottineau - the northwest extension - is also gradually going through planning.

Southwest LRT - Metropolitan Council - in late stages of planning with funding lined up. Construction should start later this year.

lpetrich wrote:Southwest LRT - Metropolitan Council - in late stages of planning with funding lined up. Construction should start later this year.

Good, I guess. Whenever my contacts start sending photos of construction, I’ll post them.

And the Blue Line extension hit a snag:

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BNSF refuses to negotiate with Bottineau Blue Line on right-of-way use
Kevin Miller Feb 8, 2018 Updated Feb 9, 2018

While approximately eight of the 13 miles of the Bottineau Blue Line Extension light rail extension project are planned to run in the BNSF Railway Company’s right-of-way, the railway has refused to negotiate with the project office.

“BNSF is not prepared to proceed with any discussion of passenger rail in this corridor at this time,” wrote BNSF vice president and senior general council Richard E. Weicher in a letter dated Jan. 9, 2018.

Apparently freight business on the Monticello Sub (ex-GN passenger line to Fargo via St. Cloud) is still more profitable than selling out to the government.

The article noted that Hennepin County had prevented construction of a junction between a CP Rail line and this BNSF line. They weren’t clear, but I think they mean the ex-Soo main, which the ex-GN crosses at a diamond currently. By disallowing that connection (meaning that BNSF would use CP trackage rights directly to Northtown Yard rather than going via downtown Minneapolis) the Met Council made it much harder for BNSF to vacate the southern portion of the line for LRT.

Cost jumps: ProgressiveRailroading.com

Minneapolis light-rail project cost jumps to $2 billion

Metro Transit's Southwest light-rail project has jumped in price by $145 million to more than $2 billion, Metropolitan Council Chair Alene Tchourumoff said Tuesday in a project update.

The cost increase is due to factors such as freight-rail negotiations, additional environmental analysis and the rebidding of the civil contracting, Tchourumoff wrote to the council's corridor management committee.

In addition, property acquisition costs have gone up as property values have increased since appraisals in 2016 and 2017. The cost of materials such as steel and labor also have increased.
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This line should have been/should be FRA-compatible DMU, rather than a Blue Line extension. Forget the stupid flyovers, the Twin Cities & Western relocation, and the new-build to Chaska (instead reusing the ex-M&StL), and all of a sudden you're looking at $500m rather than $2b. There, I said it.

mtuandrew wrote:This line should have been/should be FRA-compatible DMU, rather than a Blue Line extension. Forget the stupid flyovers, the Twin Cities & Western relocation, and the new-build to Chaska (instead reusing the ex-M&StL), and all of a sudden you're looking at $500m rather than $2b. There, I said it.

How much less service and capacity do you get with FRA equipment and rules? TANSTAAFL, and all that.

dowlingm wrote:How much less service and capacity do you get with FRA equipment and rules? TANSTAAFL, and all that.

A lot less, but service 4x/hour isn’t unreasonable at all if you lay a separate track for the DMUs and keep them off the Wayzata Sub, and restrict freight movements to nighttime. Maybe 6x or even 8x/hour at peak, given enough equipment.

Officials hold joyous groundbreaking for Southwest light rail project - Metropolitan Council last November 30

METRO Blue Line Extension - Metropolitan Council - northwestward, still in planning

METRO System - Metro Transit -- shows existing and planned rail lines and bus-rapid-transit lines

StarTribune.com: Supporters push for Bottineau Blue Line light-rail project

The light-rail line faces resistance from BNSF over sharing the route.

Supporters of the Bottineau Blue Line are pressuring the Metropolitan Council to push forward with the $1.5 billion light-rail project, even though key negotiations involving use of a freight corridor along the line’s route have failed to take root.

A 13-mile extension of the Blue Line, Bottineau would connect downtown Minneapolis to Brooklyn Park, serving some of the most transit-dependent neighborhoods in the Twin Cities.

But about 8 miles of the route are slated to be shared with freight-rail giant BNSF Railway — and the railroad is not interested in negotiating a deal with the Met Council.

“We don’t want to leave anyone with the impression we are negotiating. We are not,” said BNSF Spokeswoman Amy McBeth. “We’ve told Met Council repeatedly for the past several years and as recently as this spring that we are not proceeding with any discussion of passenger rail on our property in this corridor.”
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The Met Council might have to buy out BNSF on the Bottineau project; only reason they didn’t need to buy out TC&W is because their line is already government-owned through the Kenwood neighborhood. It would be better to run time-separated DMU service in my opinion, between Minneapolis and Maple Grove at least.