Minneapolis' Light Rail & Commuter Rail Network Evolution
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
- From its beginning in 2004, Minneapolis' light rail, commuter rail and bus rapid transit network has grown to 59 stations, spanning 62 miles (100 kilometers). This animated video takes you through the timeline of when new stations were opened, forming the Metro Transit network that we know today.
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☑️ Video Criteria:
- Population given is the sum of all counties and independent cities with stations in them.
- Future extensions are shown only if a construction tender has been awarded for their completion, at the time of video publication. If a construction tender has been issued for a project not included in the video, feel free to leave a comment, and we'll add it to our list to update.
- If you find an error, feel free to let us know in the comments. Please include links to any sources that will help us correct the error. Note: comments with links might take up to 24 hours to appear due to CZcams anti-spam policies.
📸 Image Credits:
- John Watne - Flickr original page (broken link); currently viewable at www.flickr.com/photos/bmw328d... (no longer published under Creative Commons as of 2018-07-09), CC BY 2.5,
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Mulad - Own work, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Bobak Ha'Eri - Own work, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Tony Webster from Portland, Oregon, United States - Lindbergh Terminal Metro Blue Line LRT, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Michael Hicks from Saint Paul, MN, USA - img_6048, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Michael Hicks from Saint Paul, MN, USA - img_4884, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Mulad - Own work, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Michael Hicks, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
🖼 Thumbnail image: Bobak Ha'Eri - Own work, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
🚋 #MetroTransit
Minneapolis Blue Line light rail
Minneapolis Green Line light rail
Minneapolis Red Line bus rapid transit
Minneapolis Orange Line bus rapid transit
Minneapolis Northstar commuter rail
Minneapolis Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis University of Minnesota Transitway
We also have A-line and C-line BRT in operation, with D-line under construction, and B, E, F, G, and H lines in various stages of planning. Also the purple and gold lines will have significant amounts of dedicated right-of-way and are in advanced planning. The Blue line LRT extension has been rerouted in a mostly positive way but that's added significant delay to the previous schedule. Finally, early design work is also being done for a streetcar line linking St Paul to the airport.
I’ve always been partial to the design of the LRVs Minneapolis got
My only pet peeve with them is the 200 series Siemens S70 units have some rather awkward seating spots in the middle section. This is due to having a transverse/back-to-back layout. Basically four seats can't really be used by many riders as they have very little space between the seat edge and the partial wall on the articulation joint. Some other seats have minimal knee/foot space as well. The newest 300 series have fixed that however going with a perimeter/aisle facing layout in the center.
The bombardiers or the S70s?
If you ever mention them in a video call it Twin Cities rather than Minneapolis or my St. Paul soul will be destroyed
@@taylorriess748 What about Minneapolis-St. Paul?
@@taylorriess748 Everyone knows Minneapolis's little suburb St. Paul is just along for the ride!
lots of work is also going into developing the “arterial BRT” system in the twin cities, with multiple lines which should hopefully improve connectivity across the city...
would like to see additional regional rail, and the revival of some of the cities’ other big transit projects like the minneapolis streetcar
The Twin Cities Bus Rapid Transit is not real Bus Rapid Transit. No Dedicated Right of Way No signal preemption just limited stops
@@raytylicki9001 I know, that's why it's in quotes. Even though the "arterial" network is not real BRT, it has pretty good on time rates, and does a lot to extend the reach of the light rail system. The extra visibility of the system compared to normal busses also has some impact in ridership as well. Not saying it's actual BRT, but it's still a part of the transit landscape
Come visit Pittsburgh we have 4 dedicated busways in our city and 2 Light rail lines more or less with a couple of short branches
@@cubedmax come visit Pittsburgh or Miami we have dedicated bus only roadways 4 busways for Pittsburgh and 2 dedicated roads in Miami.
It should be noted that the Blue Line also has an expansion planned to the north, but it's probably not included here because the final alignment hasn't been determined yet
I'm always excited when the video goes "bringing us to the system map we know today" but there's still time left on the video, because that means near-term forthcoming expansions!
I wish you would have included the A and C Lines, they might not have dedicated lanes, but they are part of the METRO network alongside Blue, Green, Red, and Orange.
Arguably just as iconic as the light rail! And they certainly have just as many transit advantages, not to mention off-board payments *cough Red Line cough*
@@acf1016 Metro Transit is working to transition Red Line to off board payment, that’s a remanente of when MVTA operated it.
Using color names is idiotic. Hiawatha Airport Mall Line makes far more sense.
@@nonenoneonenonenone what a bad take. Try explaining the convoluted name to a first-time rider. The color denotes the line, and you can look at the station along the line to figure out where it goes.
I think the colored named Light Rail and Buses should match the color that they are named after.
The Green Line is not green. The Red Line is not red. The Orange Line is not orange. The only exception is the Blue Line.
I also wish MSP Airport would make a secure connection between Terminal and Terminal 2 that didn’t require passengers to take the Light Rail. The Light Rail is always delayed.
Thank you very much for this video. I love visiting the Twin Cities. The light rail makes it very easy to get around. I am sure that the Univ of Minnesota students like being able to go directly to campus from the Airport.
Thank you! I've been waiting for this one!
I like that you've reformatted the BRT lines to include parts in mixed traffic. Some of the older videos look odd with giant gaps when you only included dedicated ROWs.
A very underrated network
The thing I love about out light rail here in Minnesota is the fact that we’re the only ones running the Bombardier Talent flexity swift lf-70(Our Type 1 Bombardiers) and there’s legit no train that comes close to looking like our rolling stock is mad crazy and on the other hand we have the Siemens S70& S700 which every Transit system is flocking to get😂
Would love to see how you make these maps!
Yes Please! I have wanted to know for so long!
I use PowerPoint and iMovie! I had created a video showing my process, but I didn’t like how it turned out so I never released it. Hoping to re-record it in the new year though
@@VanishingUnderground Any suggestions if I want to make my own maps (for fun)? Thanks!
@@VanishingUnderground Cool
My grandma lived in that city
Great to see your videos again and that you're still alive. Great job as always. 🚈
Thanks for doing this, this is really good.
Plan to visit my relatives in Minneapolis and St Paul this September via Amtrak from Chicago. Nice work and very informative 👍
Thank you for including the mixed traffic sections of the brts
Minneapolis&St.paul's LRT is the best Metro and LRT system in Midwest USA and Lost belt area citys. 💜💜💞💞💞💞🍁🍂🌻🌺🌹🌷🍎🍒🏬🏫🏢🏙👍🚈🌈☃️ ❄
Greetings from South Korea. 🇺🇲 🤝 🇰🇷
Still looking forward to seeing your attempt at New York given that the first lines of what is now the Long Island Rail Road opened in the 1830s and the first elevated line in the 1860s with extensions still underway on the Subway and commuter rail lines, plus several transitways
It would be too much. Too many changes over the decades.
God this LRT system is so cool, every major city in the U.S. needs a system like this.
Great videos! I would like to see videos talking about past streetcar systems of the cities ( i know it's a lot of info) and then the decline and then the modern transit. Just a suggestion.
Minneapolis was one if the fastest growing cities in the US before the pandemic
One of the fastest burning during the pandemic though
@@Sean_735 LMAO that was pretty clever
Not really. MSP msa got like 10% growth from 2010-2020 while Austin msa got 30%+. Even Phoenix got 15%.
@@alexhaowenwong6122 you're right that Minneapolis isn't growing nearly as fast as the Texas Triangle cities, Phoenix, Atlanta, and so on BUT it's the only major city in the entire Midwest that is really growing even somewhat rapidly however. Compare these somewhat slow but continual growth numbers to Metro Detroit, Chicagoland, St. Louis, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Kansas City, etc. and it's clear that Minneapolis-St. Paul is actually growing quite rapidly by comparison. The only other Midwestern metropolitan areas I know of that are growing either faster or comparably fast are Madison, WI and Columbus, Ohio, and both of them are significantly smaller. The Twin Cities have the 3rd largest population in the Midwest (with the 2020 Combined Statistical Area having a population of around 4.1 million, and the Metropolitan Statistical Area at 3.7 million), behind Chicago (MSA of almost 10 million) and Detroit (CSA of 5.35 million, MSA of 4.4 million), but Minneapolis-St. Paul has the 2nd largest regional economy behind only Chicago, and the highest per capita GDP, median household income, educational attainment, and so on in the Midwest. So while it's true that Minneapolis-St. Paul isn't growing as fast as Austin, TX and the like, it has the healthiest population growth and economy in the Midwestern US, leading to a situation where Minnesota is the wealthiest US state that isn't on the coast. I moved here specifically because salaries are nearly comparable to that of Seattle, with low unemployment and excellent government services, but with a cost of housing that is lower than that cities like Portland and all our competitor cities (Denver, Seattle, Austin, etc.) My biggest gripe by far is the lack of real growth of the transit network. I live on the Green Line, and it's useful to be sure, but there's something immensely frustrating about our competitor cities all doing a far better job of more and more rail construction building impressive new networks like Denver has with RTD and Seattle and Tacoma's new transit network.
@@matthewmcree1992 Nice it's good that Minneapolis is growing and it is best so the Crime Rates will be low compared to other cities.
They need more regional rail like RTD.
There are plans for a rail line from St. Paul to Hastings, and perhaps eventually to Red Wing, as well as extending the failing Northstar Line to St. Cloud, it's original destination.
@@nonenoneonenonenone nice
Currently, there are plans forth to build higher speed intercity rail from Minneapolis to Duluth (Northern Lights Express), and in this 2023 legislative session plans to remove the gag orders from 20 years ago on studying future regional and intercity rail like the Dan patch corridor, Hastings connection, Rochester ZIP rail, etc. Northstar is also getting restored schedule with event trains coming back, and plans to finally extend Northstar to St Cloud are in the works.
@52_Pickup Gag order? Wow. And also will there be an option to connect union depot w target field directly without going on light rail?
As someone who lives in the twin cities, i love the light rail system we have.
Also just a side note, the metro area is around 4 million people. We've been growing hella fast
4 million and a single light rail line that goes to no residential area.
@@afcgeo882 it does actually, and Infact they're expanding it so it reaches more residential areas :)
@@cobalt8619 Once it’s expanded, it will. The future is not the present.
Thats a lot of baby making
@@raytylicki9001 No, a lot of people are moving to the area.
The Green Line extension is now scheduled to open in 2027 due to delays and cost overruns from the Kenilworth tunnel.
Thats fine for me I gonna wait 2023 Now to 2027
Man they should up that commuter train
We want it badly! The original plan was to run about 75 miles to the large city of Saint Cloud but the governor at the time cut it back to Big Lake. Now with low ridership, the conservative members of our state government refuse to fund further expansion even though it would greatly increase ridership and be a huge benefit the state!
Zach you have to say which downtown it is! The Twin Cities consist of both Minneapolis and Saint Paul!
The system makes it clear how dominant Minneapolis is.
@@nonenoneonenonenone Certainly true, but it's bad form not to say Minneapolis or Saint Paul
@@acf1016 Not really. The only people who give a shit about St. Paul are people from St. Paul.
@@hackel137 St Paul is just East Minneapolis
Another day of asking for Chicago ❤️😭
Me too kid
Could you please do the Long Island Rail Road?
Could you make a New York Long Island Rail Road video? It’s a really old system
Blue line extension and Gold line are also happening but the details aren’t finalized.
Gold Line has started construction and the Blue Line is getting finalized this year thankfully.
When will the video on the CTA Subway come out?
It’s about 40% complete - it’s a lot of research as you can probably imagine. Hopefully this year, but don’t want to make any promises.
It seem the system was cost conscious which is good to expand transit effectively
Missing the future Blue Line Bottineau extension on your map. There are station names on the Wikipedia page for the blue line if it's needed.
My criteria for inclusion is that a construction tender has to have been awarded. From what I can tell, the Blue line extension is still under design.
Can't Wait Until The Northern Lights Express Starts Next Year. It'll Be The First Amtrak Route To Stop At Northstar Stations.
Also: What Was The Song In This Video And The San Diego Video?
Wait, that’s starting next year?
@@nathanbakken5468 It's Thought To Start Next Year.
@@brendanu1680 well I guess with the infrastructure bill that could be a definite possibility!
Song is Staycation - Corbyn Kites
Portland is the only other one that doesn’t take more than one video. That or CT commuter rail. And a redo of San Diego with the new extension and then the DC silver line.
Do a video on the New Orleans streetcar network.
I really wanna see the New York City subway. That episode would be like 4 hours long
He should do Chicago first because its a bit easier to do than new york also there isn't a lot of updates to cta system and the red line extension is yet to be completed I have heard of this project since I was 8-9 years old and the project would be completed by the time I'm 21 yrs old.
The population of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan areas is actually slightly more than 3.8 million people. Also most of the Green line opened the same year as the blue line, but was considered part of the Blue line.
That’s actually not true. Most of the Green Line is entirely new right of way. Every part of the Green Line outside of Downtown Minneapolis was new tracks. Blue Line opened about 10 years earlier alongside Hiawatha Avenue south of downtown Minneapolis, Green Line runs East mostly along University Avenue all the way to downtown Saint Paul.
no, the Blue Line opened in 2004, while the green line opened 10 years later. They just share the downtown Minneapolis tracks that were built in 2004.
I thought the Green Line was to be extended to St. Louis Park by the end of this year, 2022. Is that not correct?
It will actually be extended to Eden Prairie. Unfortunately it might take a little longer, I’ve heard that the line won’t open until around 2025-2027
Remember everyone, the C-line is free line.
Do Staten Island Railway!
What sucks is how slow the MSP LRT is. Hiawatha line averages 18 mph and Green Line 15 mph. Now sure, it's America, and transit agencies build median LRTs because it's cheap and doesn't require land acquisition. But they should have at least elevated the Green Line to grade separate it. Fortunately SW LRT will avg 28 mph. Unfortunately SW LRT suffers from cost overruns and delays, despite having grade crossings unlike Northgate Link and Mid Coast Trolley.
Dude you forgot about the street car network that ran from White Bear Lake to the shores of Lake Minnetonka! The cities, along with organized crime, got rid of it and they bought GM buses instead!
Can I have Portland next week
It's really Mpls-St Paul
As a resident of St. Paul I am indignant at the title of this video
Is Chicago cometh?
It's a Tram.
If you consider the I-35W and MN 77 BRT, then the I-394 HOV/Bus lanes -- much older than these others -- definitely should have been included. The I-394 lanes are exclusive from regular traffic from MN 100 all the way to I-94 and Downtown Minneapolis. There are also dedicated bus stations along I-394 west of MN 100. I used to drive from Robbinsdale to the Louisiana Ave. park-and-ride just to get in and out of downtown quicker.
Not really. They're still just regular bus lines. The lanes are only open in one direction during rush times, the frequency isn't high, the park-and-ride platforms aren't designed to get on and off quickly, and there's no pre-payment. Nothing like a BRT line.
@@hackel137 - I just checked -- having left MSP long ago -- and the I-394 bus is still hourly all day long. That compares with the way the I-35W bus is exclusive through 46th St. S. But I get your point, although the quick ride out from downtown to the suburbs is a treat after a long day at work.
@@pacificostudios The line that I took along that corridor definitely wasn't, but there are multiple lines admittedly. I remember getting stuck downtown one night and having to take a $45 taxi. I think it's a shame they don't build BRT stations on 394 like they did on 35W. Hopefully that is being considered.
I honestly don’t know why people post in these videos that call any and all non NYC, non european system as trash, or a waste of money; or demand that he posts certain videos within minutes of releasing a new one.
The Minneapolis has way too many grade crossings to be considered a serious metro network
That’s why it’s called light rail
Reminder that metro is also a shortened version of metropolitan not just a mode of transit
"METRO" in a international sense means high level boarding high frequency multi car trains that run under and Elevated trains.
I never new miniapolis has a light rail system
I thought it had been around longer
It's called a city or regional TRAM. Why do people call it light rail, commuter rail, street car, etc? A street car is a vehicle on the streets. The TRAM was invented a long time ago in Britain and they still call all new passenger rail "TRAMS". Scotland calls them TRAMS. It's a TRAM. If it's city to city and High Speed it's called HS and whatever # (HS1, HS2, etc). If the structure didn't have windows it would be called a Trolley. NYC had Trolley's. That's how the baseball team Brooklyn Dodgers (later LA Dodgers) got their name "Trolley Dodgers."
They Need to secure their investment
Do the Chicago L
Some US cities have dropped the name "Red Line" due to pressure from the African-American community. Will Minneapolis follow suit?
Did you mean to say brown or black line? Or the Native-American community?
@@nonenoneonenonenone "Redlining" was a discriminatory practice against the Blacks in banking and insurance.
@@vincentng2392 it doesn’t help that in one city, the former red line was going through neighborhoods that had practiced actual redlining pretty tough.
Really? Wasn't the term coined by historians later when documenting how horrible the practice was? It's not like victims at the time were thinking "we've been red-lined." I hope this is a case of actually respecting real trauma and not just an outspoken Twitter mob proactively throwing a fuss over a non-issue.
Would love to see Philadelphia I'm disappointed
It’s coming next year
@@VanishingUnderground I asked this somewhere else, but I wonder, will PACTO be in the commuter rail video or subway/trolley video for Philadelphia. Im not sure which category it would fall into.
@@TG4164 Philadelphia could show you with illustrations how crummy streetcars are to ride in.
Only the bus "lines" are merely express buses using their own lines and having depot buildings at the stops. It's all hyperbole.
🚈🚆🚌🇺🇸
I've heard that the Minneapolis light rail is mediocre at best. Looks like it has great airport connections at least.
The Minneapolis system does pretty well with much higher ridership than most light rail systems in the US. Pre-pandemic the green line had almost 50,000 daily riders and the blue line had 30,000 daily riders. Denver, Dallas and other cities only wish they could get those numbers…
i’ve ridden this one the times i’ve been to the twin cities. it’s nice. good start so far- and the expansions will help bring in more people.
@@scottengel9965 It's just trendy. Buses could have done the same job with far less construction.
Not true. University Ave, where the Green Line runs, physicals couldn’t fit enough buses for the ridership.
And that’s all it is, an airport to downtown connection.
5:20 that project cost a lot of money and caused a lot of disruption just to shave 2 minutes off a 4 minute ride.
Incredibly bad take. As a former bus rider of the routes that the Orange Line replaced and upgraded with that pedestrian and bus tunnel, it was an absolutely necessary upgrade for reliability to shave more than ten to twenty minutes off of the ride from congestion, and the construction disruptions were inevitable and worth the trouble. The Orange Line serves the busiest commuter and express bus ridership corridor in the Twin Cities and warranted upgrades from the inaccessible, delayed, slow detours that routes like the 535 had to use as well as several other express commuter buses. The Orange Line BRT was only $150.7 million dollars for 17 miles of a corridor, and produced stations that are now heavily interlined on like Lake St & I-35W, with 12 different bus lines between the Orange Line, MVTA and SouthWest Transit routes stopping on the top level bus platforms. The Orange Line was in planning since I-35W was constructed, BRT was always intended for the corridor and stations like 46th St were already built years prior to the Orange Line's construction to demonstrate the effectiveness of upgraded and consolidated bus stations with dedicated right-of-way. We have already seen the success of the Orange Line as it has doubled to even tripled the 535 Route daily ridership it replaced, let alone supplement network overhauls that allowed for Metro Transit to reconfigure local routes to better serve cities and connect with the Orange Line, as their local fleet was freed up to better serve local routes.
Nowadays, the construction has been done for over a year, and guess what. MnDOT is going to do more reconstruction on that interchange, to replace the aging and incredibly dangerous Northbound I-35W merger with Westbound I-494, to rebuild the interchange as a cloverstack. Minnesota is always doing construction and that's the choice of drivers to choose to use highways with heavy traffic and live in a state where streets and roads don't last a decade without breaking from the weather and wear. People who don't drive deserve high quality alternatives to driving, especially when crossing a dangerous urban land barrier like I-494, where there are extremely limited and nonexistent safe, accessible, reliable crossings for pedestrians and transit riders. The Knox Ave Tunnel was an objectively good addition, as was the Orange Line BRT project as a whole.
That’s not a transit system. It’s a single transit line that is very unfortunately multi-modal and thus a huge burden to traverse. It only serves the non-residential downtown to the airport and the mall. Literally a great example of what’s wrong with transit in America.
One day it may become a system, but right now it is NOT a network of anything.
What are you talking about? You could not be more wrong! The Northstar Commuter rail is about 40 miles long serving multiple cities, though with admittedly low ridership. Blue Line serves the mall, the dense Central Station/ South Loop of Bloomington, the airport, the VA hospital, Minnehaha Falls Park (millions of visitors per year!), it connects to the A Line bus rapid transit and it serves all of the fast growing Hiawatha corridor in south Minneapolis and of course downtown Minneapolis and the multiple sports venues in the downtown. The Red Line is essentially a bus extension of the Blue line to the southern suburbs so I will give you that, but it does serve the Cedar Avenue corridor which has a new shopping mall, many new apartments and a massive park and ride facility. The Green Line is totally different from Blue Line. Green Line serves downtown Minneapolis (yes, on same tracks as Blue) before heading east to the university of Minnesota where it has TONS of ridership, then it travels along the increasingly dense University Avenue corridor. Along the corridor, it serves an MLS soccer stadium and connects to the A Line bus rapid transit, it then goes to the Minnesota capital where it turns and heads into downtown Saint Paul, helping serve the hockey and baseball field there as well as connecting to the Amtrak station. Orange Line just opened and serves mostly suburban areas outside of Minneapolis, but serves a dense part of southern Minneapolis at Lake street and also serves the Best Buy headquarters and a massive park and ride in Burnsville. The A Line, which I mentioned connects with the Blue and Green Lines. It connects south Minneapolis with the extremely busy Ford Parkway (where a massive new redevelopment is taking place) and then heads up Snelling Avenue where it serves the MLS stadium, Midway Saint Paul, multiple colleges, the state fair and some suburban malls in Roseville. There is also a C Line bus rapid transit serving the transit dependent Northside of Minneapolis. All this makes for a pretty widespread system for a metro area our size. Orange Line terminus to Green Line terminus is a 15 mile difference and separated by a massive river. Outside of downtown, the Blue Line operates miles from both the Green and Orange Lines. Lastly, on the Blue and Green Lines, ridership was extremely high. Before the pandemic, Blue Line had over 30,000 riders per day. Green Line had over 40,000 per day. This over 3,400 riders per mile! For comparison, Denver and Phoenix have about 1,600 riders per mile, Dallas has about 1,000 per mile. The only light rail systems with higher ridership are Boston, San Francisco and Seattle! Overall seems like a great system for an American city that is still heavily car dependent!