I just finished spending a year and a half riding the Vomit Comet (aka “the Green Line”) to work and back most days.
At its best, it was a serviceable ride.
At its most middling, it was crowded with free-loading University kids and, early on cold mornings, homeless people curled up sleeping on the chairs.
At its worst? I navigated between puddles of vomit, stepped in a pool of urine, and was to the point of intervening as a man attacked a woman.
You can almost sense the defeat in the Met Council’s latest release:
Metro Transit is ending 24/7 service on the Green Line between downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis.
The change, which is scheduled to take effect in August, comes amid concerns about drug use, assaults and other misconduct on the trains.
Under the plan, the light rail trains will not run between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. weekdays.
General Manager Wes Kooistra said the trains will be replaced with buses that will stop near each Green Line station.
Kooistra said the two-hour shutdown will also give crews more time to clean train cars and repair tracks
Emphasis on “clean the cars”.
Back in the enlightened days before light rail, I rode the 50D between the downtowns of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, it was bad then.
There were the screamers, people who howled for no reason at all. Sometimes they talked loudly to themselves or ranted at other riders. Those were the sane ones. Others just howled.
Then there were the belligerent children, some in their teens, some in their twenties, some in their, well you get the idea. They would sit on the inside seat of crowded buses and refuse to allow anyone to sit beside them.
Let’s not forget those who generously shared their music: loud, VERY LOUD, obscene music.
And of course, the wackos, weirdos and miscreants too numerous to mention.
Rarely was anything done about them.
Then the Metro council compelled the taxpayers of the region to build a billion dollar device to concentrate all of that unsocial behavior into one long line of living hell.
Some call it utopia.
Before The Damned Train, there were three busses between downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis that served University Avenue. The 94 Express – rush hours only, stopped at Snelling only – the 50 – limited stop at a few places – and the 16A – stopped at every corner and still does.
They replaced the 50 with The Damned Train. And now they’re cutting train service, which forces people back onto the 16. That adds hours to the commute time. And who commutes by bus in the early hours? Poor people. Minorities. Working mothers. These cuts will hardest hit the people who need safe, all-hours public transportation the most.
“And now they’re cutting train service, which forces people back onto the 16. That adds hours to the commute time. And who commutes by bus in the early hours? Poor people. Minorities. Working mothers. These cuts will hardest hit the people who need safe, all-hours public transportation the most.”
It certainly does. On top of that, the 16 currently only runs from downtown St Paul to Fairview Ave in St Paul and the 94 no longer stops at Snelling, ever. The train, as designed, was always a worthless investment. It has never felt as safe for me as being on a bus. No driver to keep people somewhat honest and any stalled car on the tracks will delay everyone for hours. At least a bus could just drive around things like that. But, the one thing the train has going for it is, barring car mishaps on the tracks, it can be relied upon every ten minutes and there is usually a working time schedule on the stations. Buses get behind, don’t show up, and it isn’t always obvious while you’re at the stop what will happen. Waiting and not knowing is not something one is eager to do in the wee hours of the morning. But, I guess as long as the train runs during hours when hipsters are moving about, no one cares.
As an aside- when people who relied on transit complained about the length of time it took to go anywhere on the train, train advocates said, “but think how productive you could be? Or all the books you can read!” After the first soccer game, I saw people online complaining about how long the train ride is just to get from Minneapolis to soccer stadium. “It is unacceptable! We had to pay the babysitter for two extra hours that we wouldn’t have had to do if we had just driven!” Yeah, welcome to the world of poverty that you think everyone else should live in!
You might suggest that if you have to put plastic seats in a conveyance because people leave their waste all around, you’re going to have trouble persuading the middle and upper classes to use it. That, in turn, makes the problem of antisocial behavior on the bus or train even worse.
Don’t know how to solve this one, because you more or less have to tick off the poor by kicking them off the bus when they misbehave. That won’t go over well in City Hall.
Man, every single thing I hate about public transit covered by you guys in excellent fashion. Hilariously too:
Then the Metro council compelled the taxpayers of the region to build a billion dollar device to concentrate all of that unsocial behavior into one long line of living hell.
Now, if those trains were servicing what Swiftee calls “whypepl”, like those people on the Met Council, I’m sure it would all be good. But, alas, those people won’t go near the damn thing.
And remember boys and girls, come 2022 the Green Line will be extended all the way to Eden Prairie, surely only good things will come of that. There wont possibly be any unforseen consequences of doing this…
And remember boys and girls, come 2022 the Green Line will be extended all the way to Eden Prairie, surely only good things will come of that. There wont possibly be any unforseen consequences of doing this…
I’m sure one end of the line will view the opposite end of the line as a “target rich environment.”
After I got out of the Navy, my first civilian job required me to ride the brand new Bay Area Rapid Transit train to work.
I remember distinctly my first impression on entering the car was “hey, cool”, and the next, after eyeballing the knots of Negro youths dealing 3 card Monty on the floor was “the hell with this, I’ll suffer the traffic”.
I knew it was only a matter of time before those entrapeneurs got tired of fleecing people a dollar at a time and went straight to armed robbery. I was right.
I work too damn hard to travel with the diverse public.
Interesting that the corrupt Met Clowncil already ordered, paid for and placed a few million dollars worth of rails, BEFORE the funding has actually been approved for the SW line. The stooge representing the Clowncil at the site where the rails were placed, gleefully announced that Twins fans would be able to take the train to games. How exciting for the Pohlads; another project, paid for by Minnesota taxpayers eager to have a better Minnesota, to have another easy way to line their pockets!
Well said, BossHoss. I remember realizing a chain of events went on with the destruction of old Met Stadium. First you build the Metrodome and tear down Met Stadium. Then, Bloomington and Richfield complain about the loss of business, so you drop a couple hundred million on the Mall of America. Then downtown shopping is decimated, so they put forty million into block E, and when the demand for both doesn’t materialize, they build the original Death Train to bring more customers to the MOA.
Then the Metrodome doesn’t pack ’em in because downtown stinks, so you destroy that and build three stadiums to replace it…..and then St. Paul wants in on the action, so you get the Vomit Comet and another billion or so down the toilet. And it goes on and on….
It strikes me that if we just stopped saying “yes” to new boondoggles, the taxpayer could save a lot of scratch. Might cause some pain in Wayzata, though.