Casualties Of Light Rail
By Mitch Berg
The Met Council’s next plan, after building the nearly -useless Ventura Trolley from downtown to the Airport, is to basically destroy Saint Paul.
The current plan is to drive a light rail line from the current Ventura Trollley line through the University of Minnesota, then down University Avenue to downtown Saint Paul.
Now, Uni in Saint Paul has been, if not a spectacular success story, at least a good one over the past twenty years. Bit by bit, a strip – from the Minneapolis border to the Capitol – that used to be a blighted toilet has become, if not a showpiece, at least cleaned up, with actual stores in storefronts that used to be empty. Asian business – Vietnamese, Lao and H’mong – swarmed to the cheap storefronts between Lexington and Rice, turning what had been a blighted wasteland into a place that at least had legitmate human activity going on.
The Met Council would like to screw all of that up. And not just by spending seven years tearing up the street, and to hell with the businesses that have established themselves there. No, they’re going to run a light rail line down the street.
For those of you who don’t know or care, “Light Rail” is like the Ventura Trolley; it’s relativeliy fast, built to stop at big stations every mile or two. In the great scale of rail transit options, it’s in the middle – between “heavy rail” (think the Metra in Chicago, or the Northstar Line when it starts running – big, full-size trains with passenger cars, for hauling people between larger stations) and “streetcars”, basically trolleys that stop every couple of blocks and don’t have a much bigger footprint on the street than buses (and, at least in terms of fuel used to move a passenger a mile, are much more efficient).
Now, let’s assume for a moment that any of those options makes economic sense for connecting the downtowns (it’ll take some work, but work with me here). Given that “light rail” only stops every couple of miles, and given that plenty of right-of-way exists in the rail-glutted area between Northeast Minneapolis, through the Midway Transfer Yards and all the way to downtown Saint Paul along the lines of tracks south of Como Avenue, wouldn’t it have made sense to either:
- put a “light rail” line through the rail lines that already exist, and avoid tearing up the core of the inner city for years on end, or
- put streetcars on University, provide more appropriate service for the corridor, and avoid turning the University Avenue corridor into an urban wasteland – again?
Oh, but it gets worse.
To accomodate both the train and the huge volume of traffic at the intersection of Snelling and University, they’re going to need to basically turn the intersection into a superhighway, tearing down huge swathes of the now-very-successful Midway Center and business around it, and building an underpass on Snelling.
This was posted on a Saint Paul discussion group:
The reconstruction takes the form of a “below grade crossing.” Snelling goes UNDER University. To accomplish this, according to preliminary drawings, traffic flows between Snelling and University would have to be accommodated
resulting in:** Demolition of the American Bank Building at Snelling & University.
** Demolition of part of the Midway Shopping Center
** Demolition of the CVS building and structures on that side of Snelling in
the block immediately north.In short, the Ramsey County Commissioners’ vote is about putting a superhighway interchange right in the middle of our neighborhood. A modified
cloverleaf that will speed motorists driving to the State Fair each August. That will give people driving to work from the northern suburbs an easier
commute, at least for awhile.All of this stems from a Snelling University Capacity Study (SUCS) that
was completed at the end of last year. You can find more about this
(including an executive summary and the complete study) by Googling it.
So let’s go over the scorecard so far; the Met Council wants to:
- Tear up Saint Paul’s main street for most of a decade, destroying a small, scrappy and growing commercial base
- Destroy the commercial hub of the Midway
- Spend a billion dollars or so…
…to build a train that will be a colossal money pit, serving a tiny film of commuters that go between the downtowns (and I happen to be one of them right now), an area that has little to do with the Metro’s long-term development, and won’t even make the faintest dent on light rail’s supposed mission, reducing congestion.
Where’s the good part?
July 9th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
What you are saying is that there a large number of outstandingly good reasons to NOT build light rail down University Avenue, and NO good reasons for doing so. So, why is it being pushed forward so vigorously?
July 9th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
If the goal is mass transit with even less CO2 and CO emissions, why go to all the trouble and expense of tearing out the buildings and tearing up roads to put in light rail? (not to mention the huge amount of greenhouse gas emissions that result from such construction).
With the same type of overhead electrical grid as used for trains, they could run electric or hybrid electric/diesel buses. I’ve been on these in San Francisco. The bus can run as a normal bus does now, but when it gets to an electric route, there is a swinging arm that hooks to the overhead grid and bingo – electric mass transit.
The answer is that trains make the MetCouncils life-size SimCity game look a whole lot sexier.
July 9th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
I like light rail. It makes sense. Once you spend a boatload of taxpayer funds on it, it is cheaper to run. Lasts much longer then roads and buses. More people ride it then will ride a bus (including me). Is energy efficient (check the thousands that cram into the trains during rush hour or for Twins games). Does result in smart development near the stations….see Bloomington Central as an example.
Yes, the whole rebuilding the city around it has nothing to do with the actual construction of the line. As you say, it’s a chance for the gov’t planners to create a new planned city around it.
One curious thing is that some liberals in St Paul oppose the central corridor because they said that will increase property values along University Ave. They perfer to remain poorer (and have not quite as high property taxes).
July 9th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Wow.
I’ll have to pay a visit to Midway Book Store to see what the owners plan to do; I’ve known them for 30 years. Spent lots of money there.
July 9th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Paul,
The owners of Midway Books plan on fighting until the bow slips beneath the waves. They were opposing the Central Corridor before it was cool. That is one of my favorite stores in the whole metro, to say nothing of St. Paul.
Chuck,
In principle, I like rail in general for the technical reasons you site – relatively low costs once you get over the initial hump, the mechanical advantages of the low rolling resistance of wheels on tracks, that kind of thing. It’s why I supported at least ONE version of the Northstar and Red Rocks lines; if they buy used rolling stock and resist the urge to build stations that are monuments to the vision of the people who ordered them, they could actually be fairly cheap (no need to buy right-of-way) and even revenue-neutral, sooner than later.
But that’s predicated on government doing the smart thing; using existing right of way rather than building down the middle of friggin’ University Avenue. Gaaaah.
July 9th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Yes, I shudder at the huge start up costs. MetroTransit released some numbers this winter or spring that allows some comparison of bus vs train. Don’t have the numbers handy (probably on their website) but they compared what percent of their total revenue the Hiawatha line contributes to their system, to what percent of total operation costs it takes to run it. It wasn’t even close. The lower costs to operate vs the high volume of riders, including many new riders, make it more efficent by far.
Now, you have to calc in the several hundred million dollar startup cost and allocate that out. I do have to agree with you. With what they spend on one light rail line construction, you could have several commuter lines up and running and subsidized for several years.
July 9th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
The owners of Midway Books plan on fighting until the bow slips beneath the waves. They were opposing the Central Corridor before it was cool.
I knew that. I’ve listened to Tom’s rants about that corridor for decades. I meant which specific action he and Kathy were going to take.
That is one of my favorite stores in the whole metro, to say nothing of St. Paul.
I first entered that store in 1976 when Tom was an employee, and there was a shoe store next it on University and a flower shop next it on Snelling in that building. Almost every Marvel Comic I own came from that store, along with plenty of books. Unfortunately, I don’t get to visit it as often as I like, since I moved from St. Paul ten years ago.
July 10th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_6340698
“”The Ramsey County board this morning tabled a proposal to seek a federal grant to build a viaduct for Snelling Avenue under one of St. Paul’s busiest intersections at University Avenue.
Six of the seven commissioners voted to table the application, due later this month. The vote likely kills the plan, championed by county board member Tony Bennett – the sole vote in favor of the plan.
“Snelling and White Bear Avenue are the only north-south streets all the way through the county,” Bennett said. “We need to do something about that intersection.” It is one of the most congested and most polluted areas in the state.
But a tunnel beneath University Avenue and a much-anticipated light rail line isn’t the solution, opponents said.
“This is a $1,000 saddle on a $50 horse,” said Ward 4 city council member Jay Benanav, who attended the meeting with his Ward 1 colleague, Debbie Montgomery, to express opposition to the plan.
Montgomery said she was also upset by the lack of public input into the idea. Although the county has been studying the area for some time and has held public meetings on alternatives for the intersection, action on potential funding only appeared on the county board agenda last week.
The motion to table the application requires five votes to reverse, unlikely given this morning’s action. Bennett, who also championed the ill-fated proposal to loop downtown with light rail service, said years will likely pass before there is another opportunity to seek federal aid for the project again.””
As for the viaduct, Mitch and Jay Benanav on the same side. Mark your calendars!
Flash