Midtown Greenway - Transit Planning Overview
January 2007

Transit planning in the Twin Cities has long been complicated by the multiple jurisdictions involved. This is especially true of the Midtown Greenway where the Minnesota state legislature, Metropolitan Council, Hennepin County (through the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority (HCRRA)), and Minneapolis have all been active. In addition, the Midtown Greenway Coalition found it necessary to fund its own Streetcar Feasibility Study in 1999.

A description of the work of each of these organizations follows:

• Minneapolis Streetcar Feasibility Study
• Hennepin County study of Southwest LRT Corridor alignments
• Met Council plans a for a busway in the Greenway
• Greenway Coalition advocacy for a streetcar line in the Greenway

In addition, the following may be of interest:

• Midtown Greenway Coalition January 2007 paper favoring a Kenilworth SW LRT Alignment
• History of transportation in the Greenway Corridor from 1882 to 2006
• Link to earlier (1999) Greenway Coalition Streetcar Feasibility Study and advocacy

Minneapolis

In 2006, the Minneapolis City Council allocated $300,000 for a city-wide Streetcar Feasibility Study to be conducted as a subset of a larger study, its Ten Year Transportation Action Plan (TAP). The transit elements of the TAP focused on a Primary Transit Network similar to Portland, Oregon’s, Frequent Service Network. Fourteen bus routes were to receive high frequency service along with fancy buses and shelters. The Streetcar Feasibility Study began by evaluating all 14 routes for possible conversion to streetcar lines and four lines were eliminated during Phase I. On December 14, 2006, Phase II of the study was presented and the ten remaining candidate routes were narrowed to seven. The Midtown Greenway corridor is one of the seven. The final and third phase of the study will take a more comprehensive look at the potential of each remaining corridor.

For the Phase I report, click here (5.42 MB pdf file)
For the Phase II report, click here (5.80 MB pdf file)

For links to more information from the comprehensive project known as Access Minneapolis, click here.

Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority

In 2006, HCRRA began evaluating alternative alignments for the Southwest LRT line which would run from downtown Minneapolis to Eden Prairie. At its December 2006 meeting, the Southwest Corridor Project Advisory Committee (PAC) voted to continue three potential alignments. The alignment choices from Lake Street, just northwest of Lake Calhoun, to downtown Minneapolis are of particular concern to those involved with the Midtown Greenway. The Southwest Corridor PAC is evaluating two options while  a third option, the Network Alignment, is favored by the Midtown Greenway Coalition and the Midtown Community Works Partnership.

• Kenilworth, officially 3A, utilizes the Kenilworth Corridor which runs between Lake of the Isles and Cedar Lake
• Nicollet, officially 3C, is routed east through the Midtown Greenway to Nicollet Avenue where it turns north and enters a tunnel emerging to street level near Franklin before crossing over I-94 for access to downtown Minneapolis
• Network Alignment, not yet officially recognized by the HCRRA’s Southwest Corridor study process, would utilize the Kenilworth alignment for light rail combined with a streetcar line in the Midtown Greenway.

Since any light rail construction would have to follow construction of the Central Corridor light rail line, it would be some 15 to 20 years out. Choosing the Nicollet alignment would also preclude any transit development in the Greenway for years. The Coalition believes that a streetcar line in the Greenway could be implemented much more quickly. This is important as development is occurring at a rapid pace along the Greenway and rail transit would encourage development in a more bike, ped, and transit friendly form.

To view a comprehensive paper explaining why the Coalition prefers the Network Alignment over the Nicollet alignment, click here.

Much information on the Southwest corridor is also available at www.southwesttransitway.org.

Metropolitan Council

The Met Council, our regional government, is responsible for transit planning in the 7 county metropolitan area and it also controls the transit system, Metro Transit. In 1999, the Minnesota Legislature provided funding to the Met Council for construction of a busway in the Twin Cities region. The Midtown Greenway Corridor was chosen. Neighborhood opposition stopped construction.

Midtown Greenway Coalition

Many of the actions described below were collaborative efforts of the Met Council, the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority, and/or the Midtown Greenway Coalition. They were all driven by the Coalition so it seems appropriate to list them here.

• MGC, interested in a constructive alternative to the proposed busway, adopted a resolution in 1999 opposing buses in the Greenway but supporting rail transit (either streetcars or LRT) instead. To read that resolution, click here.
• Appalled by the thought of a 28 foot wide asphalt busway through the Greenway, the Midtown Greenway Coalition and local citizens confronted elected and appointed officials at a public meeting in January 2000.  At this public meeting a commitment was made by the Met Council to study streetcars for the Greenway as an alternative to buses.  In the year 2000 this study was undertaken cooperatively by the Met Council and the HCRRA.
• The Coalition was dissatisfied with two assumptions in the Met Council/County study: 1) that it must be double track all the way, thereby unnecessarily escalating costs and environmental impacts; and 2) that the east endpoint of the Greenway line would not make it all the way to the Hiawatha line to offer riders a seamless transfer opportunity between the two rail lines.  To address these shortcomings, the Coalition hired streetcar expert Jim Graebner from Denver to conduct its own Streetcar Feasibility Study.  This study was funded primarily by Greenway neighborhoods and handful of individuals. It was completed in 2001.   
• Both the Met Council/HCRRA study and the Coalition’s study found that streetcars in the Midtown Greenway were both technically and economically feasible. 
• After lobbying by the Coalition, in 2003 the state legislature passed a law prohibiting further study of buses in the Midtown Greenway. 
• By late 2003, 14 of the 16 Midtown Greenway neighborhoods had passed resolutions supporting the implementation of streetcars in the Midtown Greenway as soon as possible.
• On October 26, 2006, the Midtown Greenway Coalition Board of Directors passed a resolution recommending a Kenilworth alignment for the Southwest LRT line. To read that resolution, click here.

For more information about the Coalition’s earlier advocacy for a streetcar and links to its 1999 Streetcar Feasibility Study, click here.

Transit Planning History of the Midtown Greenway Corridor

1882 - The Midtown Greenway first became a rail corridor 125 years ago as a part of the Milwaukee Railroad’s main line to the west coast. Back then, the rail line was on the southern fringe of Minneapolis but, as the city grew, there were more and more conflicts with the many trains crossing streets at grade. In 1912, the Minneapolis City Council directed the railroad to undertake a grade separation by placing the rail line in a trench between Cedar Ave. and Hennepin Ave. This project took place between 1914 and 1916 and was the largest civil works project in the state after James. J. Hill’s Stone Arch Bridge crossing the Mississippi.

1992 – A handful of people began sharing ideas about turning the 29th Street rail corridor into an amenity rich bike trail and the Midtown Greenway Coalition began meeting as a group of volunteers.

1993 - Rail traffic in the corridor had slowed to a trickle and MnDOT wanted the eastern end severed so Hiawatha Ave. could be rebuilt. The Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority (HCRRA) purchased the corridor for future light rail.

1995 – The Midtown Greenway Coalition was incorporated as a non-profit and hired its first staff person on an contract part-time basis.

1999 - The Minnesota Legislature provided funding to the Met Council, our regional government, for construction of a busway in the Twin Cities. The Midtown Greenway Corridor was chosen. The Midtown Greenway Coalition board of directors passed a resolution opposing a busway and calling for light rail or a streetcar line instead.

2000 - At a public meeting in January, the Met Council agreed to conduct a study of streetcars in the Greenway. The Coalition disagreed with some of the assumptions and undertook its own Streetcar Feasibility Study. The Coalition hired a nationally known consultant, Jim Graebner, who designed a system that would have cost $53 million in 2005 dollars.

For more information on that feasibility study and the Midtown Greenway Coalition’s advocacy work for a streetcar line, click here.

2001 – Rail service in the corridor was abandoned. A year later, the remaining railroad tracks between Hiawatha and Chowen Avenues were removed. The segment east of Hiawatha remains active.

2006 – Minneapolis began a Streetcar Feasibility Study and Hennepin County through the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority (HCRRA) began evaluating alternative alignments for the Southwest LRT Corridor. In a December 13, 2006, meeting, three alternative alignments were selected for further study. One of the alternatives would run a light rail line east through the Greenway as far as Nicollet.