urbanMSP

This is an interesting 5-story Flatiron-esque building at 631 Transfer Rd, near University Ave, but from the F&C article I found, it looks like it's just a self-storage place (I don't have a subscription at the moment to fully verify, though). It's wedge-shaped due to an alley that comes up at a...

$4 million in upgrades planned at the Northstar commuter rail maintenance facility in Big Lake as Metro Transit prepares for mid-life overhauls of locomotives and passenger cars.

https://finance-commerce.com/2019/05/no ... m-upgrade/

Thanks for linking to that. I moved into the neighborhood in late March, so this will probably become my normal grocery, with the Lunds across the river in Highland Park as my secondary option. I hadn't thought about how they'd do checkout for the corner entrance at 46th & Snelling until someone...

Does anyone know the specific configuration of the buses Metro Transit got for this line? Here's a 2017 .pdf from New Flyer that lists a fast-charging version of the 60' bus with a 250 kWh battery pack, and long-range versions of the bus with 689 kWh and 885 kWh packs (6th page). The file (on the 5t...

I know I saw regular buses in use for extra A Line state fair service one year (the first year, I think), though I don't know if that ever happened again.

Hmm, this thread hasn't been updated in a while. The C Line will open on June 8th. Some of the buses have been running on the A Line for operators to get used to them, though I think it's only been the diesel ones so far. Since the A Line isn't set up for electrics, I think they could only make a fe...

A significant problem with Lexington is that there's very little retail along it, except for just a few intersections with other major streets. That probably depresses the transit travel demand a lot. I still really wish that Metro Transit could have picked a different vehicle type from the ones the...

Looking at this more closely now that I'm writing a message to my representatives, I see that my main objection is to the points in Section 1.2., which limits studies to evaluating DMUs and requiring that they be able to run on the SWLRT line. Section 1.3 only requires studies to evaluate quiet zone...

That bill is pretty restrictive, likely making requirements that are impossible to meet with the ways FRA/FTA rules have worked in the past. That certainly shouldn't be impossible from a technical perspective, since European rail systems allow "tram-train" operations, but it's not somethin...

Interesting note in here that Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman (DFL) would like to see a bigger bonding bill than the governor, in the range of $3 billion rather than $1.3. https://www.minnpost.com/state-government/2019/03/the-billion-dollar-bummer-why-some-minnesota-lawmakers-are-so-conflicted-...

The Camp Ripley extension would be studied with Tim O'Driscoll's bill, HF 856 / SF 1083. He seemed pretty supportive of extending Northstar at the beginning of the hearing last Friday, but then basically made a complete 180 in further comments. He said there were nine communities north of St. Cloud ...

[Argh, I'm writing a long post again...] I went up to St. Cloud last Friday to testify at the hearing, though it took me all day and I only got to speak for three minutes. I did submit a written version that was about twice as long, though, so maybe someone read that. I was kind of hoping to post so...

The governor's proposed budget was released this week: https://mn.gov/governor/budget/ Is this mostly a "bonding bill"? I've really only been looking at the transportation section. I'm not sure how much is usually directly appropriated vs. being paid through bonds. I've mostly been focused...

Well, this is a little odd to post, but an episode of Lifetime's My Great Big Live Wedding was broadcast from Union Depot last night. I grew up going to school with the groom, Rob Ronnenberg, and briefly met the bride, Jen, a few years ago (though I figured they were already married). She has cystic...

It's under "LX" ("Lindau Mixed Use") zoning with an "AR-17" (Airport Runway) overlay, and the height rules for that defer to the "2004 MSP Zoning Ordinance." Looks like LX zoning sets minimums rather than maximums, saying that at least 60% of a building must b...

I'd be disappointed (though not surprised) if that plan was accepted without being amended. The site is 14.35 acres, or about 625,000 square feet, and the eventual plan would be to add 614,000 square feet of interior space. I mean, yay for achieving an FAR of about 1, but that's a pretty big plot of...

Reminds me that I have a fairly ancient blog post and map that did a first-pass analysis of existing freeway interchanges to say whether it would be relatively easy or hard to add bus stops. A regular diamond interchange is pretty straightforward, but designs that fold ramps around or are missing on...

Taking the Northstar this morning, I see that there's finally an apartment building going up next to the Coon Rapids station.

From this 2014 MnDOT Intercity Bus Study , I see that your route is partially subsidized through the FTA's Rural Area Formula Program, S. 5311(f). Figure 2-3 on page 2-10 maps out some data for the stops that are under the subsidy program, but not the ones that are on the non-subsidized portion of t...

It would probably be best to transition to DMUs over the long term, though I wouldn't necessarily recommend jumping into that quite yet. Okay, revisiting the numbers a bit, you could probably manage something close to the existing schedule by splitting the current Northstar fleet up into five active...