NEWS

Ridership and cost concerns raised regarding County study of alignment options. Read More! (pdf)

Read w hat people are saying about Connecting Uptown. Read More!

BACKGROUND

Light Rail Transit (LRT) is being considered by Hennepin County to provide an improved transportation connection between the Southwest metropolitan area and Downtown Minneapolis.

The Twin Cities metropolitan area needs a network of light rail, commuter rail and bus rapid transit lines to serve its residents, businesses and institutions in the future.  The proposed routing for a southwest LRT line, originating in Eden Prairie and interlining with the Hiawatha and Central Corridor lines at the Intermodal station near the new Target Stadium, should follow a route that takes it through the areas that will serve these constituencies: in this case, through Uptown Minneapolis on the Greenway.  From the Greenway, the Uptown route should then turn into a tunnel on First Avenue South, surface at Franklin Avenue and switch over to Nicollet Ave at 15th St., then turn in a couplet on 11th and 12th Streets to wrap around the Target Stadium and into the Intermodal station.

The Uptown route will serve a large number of Minneapolis residents particularly in the Uptown area, where residential construction continues to increase, as well as businesses along the Lake Street corridor, which need to remain a viable part of the commercial community in Minneapolis.  This route will also (importantly) allow direct reverse commuting of Uptown residents to jobs in the Southwest suburbs.  It will also serve many downtown businesses and destinations, including the Convention Center, Orchestra Hall, St. Thomas University, the new Target headquarters, the Theatre district, the Minneapolis bus station, Target Center and the new Target Stadium.

The alternative route under consideration would utilize the Kenilworth corridor running between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles and run through Cedar Lake Park.  The impact on this Minneapolis Park system area will be severe both in terms of access of the public to the area and impact on wildlife in the area.  Mitigation of these impacts seems unlikely if not impossible.  At the same time, there are few residents along this corridor that would be served by the LRT (far fewer than reside in and would use the Uptown route) and there are no commercial establishments that would be served.  Direct reverse commuting to the Southwest suburbs is far less likely on this route.  It will be an LRT line that serves few Minneapolis residents and few businesses and institutions.  And, with all of this, the route through the park area will have a transit time to the first downtown station (at 5th St. and Nicollet Mall) that is 4 minutes longer than transit time on the Uptown route (as described above) to a station on 12th St. and Nicollet Mall. 

The choice of the Uptown route clearly will best serve the Minneapolis community of interests and the long term transportation needs of the metropolitan area.