Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

[MSPtoMKE]

The 'Hi-frequency' system promises service every 15 minutes or better until 7 pm weekdays, and 6 pm on Saturdays.

[mulad]

Yeah, you're right. The 84 used to be every 15 minutes until 9, so they've trimmed that back closer to the minimum. At 20-minute frequencies, you can walk from University Avenue to Energy Park Drive. When there have been delays under the 15-minute schedule, I've sometimes gotten to the top of the Como Avenue ramp before a bus shows up.

[Tcmetro]

Strangely, the 84 has 15-minute frequencies until 10 pm on Saturdays and Sundays, but only until 7 pm on Weekdays.

[Tcmetro]

The new Metro Transit service from Downtown Minneapolis to Blaine, East Bethel, and Ham Lake should begin operating in August; construction underway at Blaine park and ride:

http://focus.mnsun.com/2014/06/08/contr ... in-blaine/

[mulad]

Hmm. The Bethel Corridor -- I'm not sure of the viability, but this is another route that has been tossed around as a commuter rail opportunity, branching off of the Northstar line in Coon Rapids (at Coon Creek, between the existing Coon Rapids station and the big park-and-ride at Foley Boulevard). It would be possible to leverage improvements for the Northern Lights Express to make that work, but I presume the idea is mostly sitting around collecting dust for now. There aren't good small-town "downtowns" along it, though, aside perhaps for Bethel itself and points further north (Isanti, Cambridge). Not great, but something that should be considered whenever further freeway-ification of the MN-65 corridor is discussed.

[mulad]

A route 10 bus driver had an apparent medical episode while driving on Nicollet Mall, missed a stoplight and veered off the roadway, clipping the WCCO building.

http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... 25501.html

[grant1simons2]

He's has now died

[Anondson]

Dakota County upset they aren't getting transit attention.

http://www.startribune.com/local/265913841.html

The sour grapes is reaching toxic levels.

[mattaudio]

I hope there's a mechanism to recoup all the money invested in that (can barely muster the strength to utter that shameful name) Red Line.

[mulad]

Dakota County has almost exactly the same population as the city of Minneapolis. Somebody needs to make a good set of area cartogram maps of the Twin Cities region.

[mullen]

peter mclaughlin speaks the truth there. their state reps didn't want rail.

[QuietBlue]

Is the train service that Laughlin describes Dakota county politicians as objecting to the Dan Patch line, or something else? Because I always thought the main reason for not building rail along Cedar (i.e. the Red Line route) was the cost of the bridge crossing. I'm not aware of any political opposition to rail down here other than for Dan Patch.

Rail or not, though, I don't see why it's unreasonable for the county to want to see more benefit for transit spending if they're going to participate in it. And things like the Southwest LRT fiasco don't help perceptions either.

[EOst]

Is the Red Line (and the connections from it) not worth 12% of the pot?

[David Greene]

Because I always thought the main reason for not building rail along Cedar (i.e. the Red Line route) was the cost of the bridge crossing. I'm not aware of any political opposition to rail down here other than for Dan Patch.

Are you kidding me? Until very recently, the Dakota County board was very hostile to transit. Rep. Holberg has been killing rail transit projects since before I got involved in transit.

Dakota county has done zero -- ZERO - to build the kind of transit demand that LRT needs. Hennepin county has been building transit demand for decades. It's not just happenstance that put them in place for rail transit. It has been deliberately and methodically planned and executed for a long, long time. Has the Dakota county rail authority even purchased any rail right-of-way?

Rail or not, though, I don't see why it's unreasonable for the county to want to see more benefit for transit spending if they're going to participate in it. And things like the Southwest LRT fiasco don't help perceptions either.

What EOst said. Dakota county contributes 6% of the funding for CTIB. Is a 12% payout somehow not enough? Oh, that's right, it's unfair. For everyone else.

If Dakota county isn't getting enough, let 'em leave. It's not like they contribute much of anything.

[talindsay]

Is the Red Line (and the connections from it) not worth 12% of the pot?

Yes, this is what frustrates me about Dakota county's argument. Hennepin county provides more than half the money by itself, of course the big and expensive projects are there. Dakota county gets what they contribute.

Still, I think any CTIB observer expected this - the cheerful unanimity of decisions couldn't last for long and actually six years is pretty good. I've thought we will need to either build some kind of rail to Dakota county or lose them as CTIB members - we all know the Red Line us a crap joke waste of money, and Dakota county residents do too - they see that Hennepin and Ramsey get light rail, Anoka gets Northstar, and they get a crappy bus that doesn't even go to either downtown without a transfer. We all know why, but they aren't wrong - everybody else gets the real thing, they get the budget alternative.

That said, leaving the CTIB would make the inequality worse, not better, so if they want their vote they'll keep their money on the table. Perhaps they will seriously talk about the river crossing necessary for extending the blue line, and/or appropriate options for Robert. It's hard to picture anywhere in Dakota where light rail would be appropriate, but maybe those conversations should be frankly and publicly had.

Would Dakota county support the Riverview or East Seventh lines even though they don't directly benefit, since they would help Dakota residents and provide more east side balance?

[Tcmetro]

Dakota County is getting the Orange Line, arterial BRT on Robert St. and an extension of the Red Line. There really aren't any transit guideway needs in the county outside of those corridors anyways, but I do think an extension of at least every other Red Line trip to downtown Minneapolis should be considered.

[VAStationDude]

Don't forget the Dakota County residents who use Blue Line park and rides.

[exiled_antipodean]

The cartograms would show it, but even by the standards of our suburbs Dakota County is pretty low density and the jobs are pretty dispersed.

The western/southwestern municipalities are much denser than Dakota, and LRT to the southwest is not crazy.

The productive conversation to be had here with Dakota County is how to improve the Red Line. Or kill it, if they really want to pull out of CTIB. The per-rider subsidy for capital and operating must be huge.

The other conversation that this should spark is a Counties Land Use Improvement Board. I jest, in part. We don't need another separate agency. But we do need to tie transit investments much more firmly to land use.

Ideally we'd get rid of the counties role entirely, and get an elected Met Council. It doesn't get rid of the politics, but it does mean we don't have multiple independent units of government trying to make these decisions, and then having veto power.

[mattaudio]

This sort of parochialism reminds me of the fight had between Apple Valley and Lakeville before the Red Line. Basically, thousands of Lakeville residents drove to Apple Valley park & rides every day, and Apple Valley didn't want to pay for other people's parking spaces. Lakeville didn't want to join the transit taxing district. It was a mess for quite a while, and the resolution of that along with that horrid US DOT Urban Partnership Agreement let to massive park and ride growth along with the Red and Orange BRT plans.

[EOst]

Ideally we'd get rid of the counties role entirely, and get an elected Met Council. It doesn't get rid of the politics, but it does mean we don't have multiple independent units of government trying to make these decisions, and then having veto power.

An elected Met Council is a recipe for nothing ever happening again. The only reason the Council can make the decisions it does right now is because it's (partially, at least) insulated from political pressure.