Southwest Light Rail Alignment
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 more 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.
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