Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis' new light rail project, the "Hiawatha Line", opened June 26, 2004, after three and a half years of construction. The line is 12 miles long, connecting downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America via the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport and the Minnesota Twins Metrodome. The light rail vehicles were manufactured by Bombardier, with 24 cars ordered and 2 more on option. The articulated cars are 94 feet long with passenger capacity of 187, including room for luggage racks and bicycle storage, and are of low-floor, ADA-compliant design. Service patterns have a train arriving every 7.5 minutes during rush hour, 10 minutes between trains midday, 15 minutes evenings til 9:00 pm, and 30 minutes during early mornings and late evenings. The route includes some street running, some tunnel, and some private right of way. The Airport stations are located in a tunnel segment.

The stations are as follows: Warehouse District/Hennepin Ave; Nicollet Mall; Government Plaza; Downtown East/Metrodome; Cedar-Riverside; Franklin Avenue; Lake Street/Midtown; 38th Street; 46th Street; 50th Street/Minnehaha Park; V. A. Medical Center; Fort Snelling; Airport-Lindbergh Terminal; Airport-Humphrey Terminal; Bloomington Central; 28th Ave; Mall of America. Fort Snelling is the temporary outer terminal. Starting in December, trains will operate further south Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport and Mall Of America. A 26 acre maintenance facility is located at Franklin Ave., Minneapolis.

2009 Updates

Those stations which were originally long enough only for two-car trains are being lengthened to fit three-car trains.

The northward extension from the present downtown terminus (Warehouse District/Hennepin Avenue) to the new stadium and commuter rail station is nearing completion. The new terminus is now officially named Downtown Minneapolis / Ballpark. The signs are installed, and the adjacent commuter rail station on a BNSF main line shares the same name and signage graphic format. The commuter rail line is expected to begin service in November 2009, it is expected that the opening of the Hiawatha extension will coincide.

There is a three-block stretch of what will be non-revenue track extending beyond Downtown Minneapolis / Ballpark which will allow for layover of numerous trains in waiting for rush hours and the ends of ball games.

A new station is being built at the intersection of American Boulevard and 34th Avenue South in Bloomington, just north of Bloomington Central. As the tracks are in the median of 34th Avenue and there is an existing intersection which will not be reconfigured, designers have placed separate platforms on the far sides of the intersections. This will be the fifth station with separate platforms for each direction (all the others have a single center platform) and the only such station in which the two platforms are not directly across the tracks from each other.

This summer there have been, and will continue to be, numerous partial shutdowns of the line on weekends to allow for the construction. Rarely-used crossovers thus become regular reversal and layover points for a day or two, while dedicated buses cover the affected parts of the line.

More Information

Minnesota Transportation Museums
Photos and descriptions of streetcar operations at the Minnesota Streetcar Museum and the Ironworld Discovery Center.

Official Site - Metro Transit
http://www.metrotransit.org/rail/index.asp/
Official site of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro Transit, including schedules, maps, fares, and more!