urbanMSP

That is too bad. Earlier this year, thieves were stealing copper from Seattle's light rail line bit by bit. It was not in a easily visible location along elevated tracks. By the time they realized it was missing, over $200,000 worth of copper was missing. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/transportatio...

Also announced is new service to Ft. Myers on Spirit and Kansas City on Southwest.

Edit: This should probably get folded in to the other MSP airport thread that is now on the next page

How much of a demand is there for new Hotels in Downtown Minneapolis? There was a big hotel building boom that happened before the RNC, I can't recall much proposed since.

How sure are they that it will be at Target Field? They probably will want to have it up and running for at least a few weeks before a big event like that. Failing that, the other event that they will certainly want to have it open for is the Railvolution conference, which will be sometime in the fa...

Yes, 0.3% for Art does not seem unreasonable to me at all. For example, I know Sound Transit in Seattle has a policy to spend 1% of the budget for public art, and that is for all their projects, not just light rail. I do believe that attractive stations can be an asset to the community and perhaps m...

Cool, I hope you'll consider updating the map from time to time. It is a very short stretch, but there is a completed set of tracks and roadway on Cedar St. around 6th St. Some of the downtown streets that have been completed (4th as well as Robert) could also be added.

John, somehow I get the feeling that lowering the height of this building has annoyed you in some way...
That rendering isn't really designed to show off the Nicollet Residences, it is for the Xcel headquarters building, so of course it isn't going to look soaring.

It may be metro-centric, but I could see Southwest and the Saints ballpark getting funded, with the rest being split for smaller outstate projects. The Nicollet Mall rebuild was championed by Dayton (his office used one of my photos on his blog to promote the idea), but I don't think it is as high a...

I did see the signs being used for the first time today. The rightmost through lane of westbound I-94 near the 5th St. exit had a yellow arrow indicating there was a stalled vehicle on the shoulder, the rest were green arrows. No advisory speeds were shown, though.

Besides the concept renderings, has there been any indication in print that the Metrodome station will be significantly changed? A center platform here would be nice, but I do think it would be pretty difficult to change it now. You would have to tear out at least one of the current tracks to move t...

These platform doors seem much more complex than necessary. It seems like having an open platform would be more flexible to allow for different bus lengths. And I am sure the little remote controls the bus drivers use to open the platform doors would never malfunction. And from what it looks like, i...

I too love the idea of capping the interstate in this area, and connecting 17th and Oak Grove over it goes a long way to accomplishing the reconnection. But I also think just having green space or a plaza is a bit of a missed opportunity, it is almost as if it is memorializing the concealed freeway....

I agree that having it go all the way to St. Cloud and having all day service would make this a much more useful line. I doubt many more trainsets would be required, only enough to account for the increase in length assuming peak service is kept more or less the same. Capital costs would mainly just...

I am hopeful that it this is the first sign of a groundbreaking, but I am going to wait until I see something announced before I get too excited. This is an exciting project, and I look forward to being able to see it rise from my rooftop patio!

Thanks for the update. They seem to be changing the bay numbering, with the old doors labeled S-1 to S-4, buT the new doors labeled in the teens. Any idea why?

I was thinking of the same thing about google maps. Right now indoor maps are only on the android system, and since apple is ditching google maps soon, they certainly won't be supporting that feature. It is a pretty new feature, it isn't available for many buildings yet. So far in Minnesota I have f...

Of course it would be wonderful to have the intermodal station in a more central location that where it is, but where would you put it? Without a very expensive tunnel, I really can't think of a better location. Even the old Great Northern and Milwaukee Road Depots were a little out of the way, espe...

I agree it makes more sense to run buses on the outside lanes, but I seem to recall that they were at least going to experiment with running buses on top of the tracks, and leave the outside lanes for bikes and emergency vehicles. Buses wouldn't use the center light rail platform, they would have se...

Yep, those are definitely our new LRVs, thanks for the sneak peak! It really does look different with Blue instead of black, but I like each scheme in their own way... I will miss the yellow and black, though. Why would they need such heavy duty impact shielding around the pedestrian bridge supports...

I also hope that the current light rail station turns into a special events only platform, and that in regular service, both Blue and Green lines use the new station platforms. That way there will be combined 5 minute service for people traveling within downtown. I don't see why they would need to h...