Whiskey Tastes Better…

During my recent visit to Chicago, I had plenty of opportunities to utilize their public transportation. I was very impressed with their rail system, commonly referred to as “The L.” In the upcoming decade, I’m hoping to see similar levels of service here in the Twin Cities. But while comparing some Chicago Transit Authority stats with our Metrotransit stats, I see that Minneapolis-St. Paul has a lot of ground to make-up:

Waiting for the Red Line at the Addison Street Station

Length of Rail
Metrotransit: 12 miles
CTA: 224 miles

Ridership
Metrotransit: 10.2 million riders in 2008
CTA: 198.1 million riders in 2008

Equipment
Metrotransit: 27 rail cars
CTA: 1,190 rail cars

Rail Stations
Metrotransit: 17 stops
CTA: 144 stops

Frequency of Service
Metrotransit: Every 7-8 minutes rush, 10-15 mins. normal, 30-60 mins. late-night
CTA: Every 4-7 minutes rush, 6-11 mins. normal and late-night

Train lovers in Minneapolis should be getting excited by a few things here, though.  The Northstar Line is scheduled to open by the end of 2009 and connect the Northwest suburbs to Downtown Minneapolis.  The Central Corridor line is going to begin construction next year and will connect Downtown Minneapolis to Downtown St. Paul.  It is scheduled to open in 2014.

So will this help the Twin Cities catch up with the Windy City?  I think one of these new rails will.  The Northstar Commuter Rail is a great addition to our metro area’s transit system.  It will travel at high speeds with limited stops to give suburban commuters a better option for getting to work each day.  The train will be quicker and cheaper than driving and parking downtown.  This will also benefit those who remain on the road since there will be less cars on the highway.

"The L" on its elevated tracks

But I am questioning the effectiveness of the Central Corridor.  In Chicago, I mostly rode the CTA’s Red Line that connected the North and South sides to Downtown Chicago.  The fundamental difference between this line and the to-be-constructed line connecting Minneapolis-St. Paul is that the Red Line was either above or underneath the ground.  This meant that the train only had to stop at the stations.  There were no pedestrians, bikers, cars, animals, or traffic lights to impede its progress. 

With the Central Corridor running at street level, it will have to deal with all of these obstacles.  This makes a regular bus route just as effective at connecting these two cities.  To make up for this, the rail route has fewer stops than the bus, spaced out almost a mile apart on University Avenue.  While these stops are at some of the busiest intersections on University, it still leaves out all of the residents who live in between.  They will be forced to walk further to the train station or wait for a bus that will probably be running less frequently since there is also a train serving that route.

Light rail train traveling through Minneapolis

This is where these projects must get really difficult from a funding standpoint.  I can’t imagine how many strings need to pulled to get money from county, state, and federal governments.  The Central Corridor is budgeted around $1 billion as it is now.  If they were to make it completely elevated or underground, it would likely cost double.

I hope the civil engineers putting this project together program the traffic lights to give the train the right of way.  The current Hiawatha Light Rail is set up this way, and it really flies once you get out of the downtown area.  If the Central Corridor can do that, it will seem a bit more worthwhile in my eyes.