The estimated cost to rehab both the Expo and Millennium Lines is now topping $4 billion (now, not including rail, OHE, stations and cars) and with already $1.47 billion spent on resignalling the proprietary automatic railway, the cost now seems to be well over $5 billion for 16 km of new line!
Compare to the under $200 million that may be spent rehabbing the Minneapolis Blue Line LRT.
What is disturbing is the work needed on the Bombardier built trams, where, “work to address rust from 27 of Metro Transit’s first generation light rail vehicles, made by Bombardier Transportation, is underway in Tallulah, Louisiana. Though the agency started addressing rust on those cars in 2017, when they had been in service for around 13 years, they later found the cars had rusted to where its maintenance staff could not handle the workload“.
Rust? This either means a lack of maintenance by the operator or poor metal preparation by the manufacturer, Bombardier!
As further proof that light rail is much cheaper to build, operate and maintain is the following graph fro MetroLinx.
Metrolinx is a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario that manages and integrates road and public transport in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), which comprises much of Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe region. Headquartered at Union Station in Toronto, the agency was created as the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority on June 22, 2006. The agency adopted its present name as a brand name in 2007 and eventually as the legal name in 2009.
According to the graph, the 50 year costs of at-grade LRT is about one fifth cheaper than our SkyTrain light metro system.
This lesson has not been learned by the Premier, the Minister of Transportation; TransLink, and the Mayor’s Council on Transit and both the transit customer and taxpayer are left to pay the bills for our politicians ignorance and largess.
Where is a modern day Robin Hood when you need one?
Metrolinx 50 year cost comparison of different transit modes. Vancouver’s SkyTrain light metro system would be much more expensive, approaching that of a heavy-rail metro, than elevated LRT over a 50 year period.
Metro Transit will rebuild old Blue Line while pondering its extension
Everything from stations and train cars to tracks and signals need upgrading 20 years after the Blue Line’s debut.
A Metro Transit first-generation light rail vehicle being trucked through New Prague on its way to Louisiana. Credit: MinnPost photo by H. Jiahong Pan
Cesar Rodriguez uses the Lake Street/Midtown Station, but only if he needs to go to the nearby Target or the Planet Fitness.
“That’s the only reason why I use it. The way it’s set up, you have to go around to go up the stairs. Out of sight, out of mind. Some people take advantage of it,” said Rodriguez, referencing the drug use at the station, one Friday as he took the Blue Line to the Mall of America.
The station layout may soon change. As Metro Transit contemplates extending the Blue Line through north Minneapolis and the northern suburbs, they are about to embark on a project to rebuild some pieces that make up much of the original Blue Line that could cost around $120 million.
At least $8.75 million will go toward a near-complete rebuilding of the Lake Street/Midtown station, according to the agency. Another $101 million is budgeted toward rebuilding the tracks and signals between Cedar Riverside and Bloomington Central stations, and another $12 million may go toward removing rusted structural members from 27 of its oldest light rail trains.
Since it opened in 2004 as the Hiawatha Line, the Blue Line has carried over 170 million passengers, according to data the agency published overthe years. The original segment, from Hennepin Avenue to the Mall of America, cost $715.3 million to build and was serviced by up to 24 light rail vehicles operating in pairs. With ridership exceeding 2020 expectations by its first year, over the next decade, Metro Transit expanded its platforms to handle three-car trains, expanded the size of its two park-and-rides serving the route, built a new light rail station, and bought 20 more light rail vehicles from two different vendors.
To keep the route and service in shape, Metro Transit has been gradually replacing some of the rail, switches, and signals that tell a train operator where it can go. Metro Transit completed the first part of that work in downtown Minneapolis in 2017, as well as rail replacement and signal work between Bloomington Central Station and Mall of America in 2022.
Later this spring, they plan to replace rail and signals between Bloomington Central Station and Terminal 2 station at a cost of $18.6 million. Next year, they plan to do the same work between Cedar-Riverside and Terminal 2; the agency has not released an exact cost figure for that work to ensure a “fair procurement process.”
Next year’s rebuild will cause disruptions on Blue Line service, but how it will be disrupted is not clear. “Prior to construction, Metro Transit will launch a communication campaign using its website, social media, text/email alerts, station and vehicle signage, and station ambassadors to promote when and where replacement bus service will be needed,” said Metro Transit spokesperson Drew Kerr. Metro Transit staff expect to present more details to Met Council members at their Transportation Committee meeting on April 8.
While the track and signal work is underway, the agency also plans to completely rebuild the Lake Street-Midtown Station. “It sees a lot of foot traffic, combined with we’ve had sort of an increase at the station of repairs, replacement and damage and vandalism over the past few years,” said project manager Christina Morrison at a November Met Council Transportation Committee meeting.
The elevators and escalators at the station constantly break down. The agency and some riders are also concerned with people congregating at the station doing drugs. “It’s a terrible place,” said Rodriguez, citing drug use. Agency staff are also worried about harassing behavior, as well as how the station design can contribute to it.
The agency envisioned removing the shelters on the platforms and encompassing the entire station under one giant canopy. They may also replace the elevators and escalators with stairways and a ramp, and re-orient the stairways so they face Lake Street, as opposed to being accessed from side doors as they are today.
It’s unclear if the station will be retrofitted with faregates. “A study exploring how existing light rail stations could be improved through a variety of investments, including fare gate systems, will be completed later this year,” Kerr said. Design work by St. Paul-based 4RM+ULA architects through a $3.5 million contract began last month.
The agency anticipates construction beginning in 2025 and lasting until the following year. In the meantime, Metro Transit is halfway through a contract with Allied Universal to provide security services at the station. The agency also replaced the wall panels with repetitive floral pieces designed by Nickyworks Studio in northeast Minneapolis that also has an anti-graffiti coating. “It has reduced graffiti dramatically. You wipe it right off the surface,” Metro Transit Public Art Administrator Mark Granlund said at a March Met Council Transportation Committee meeting.
Transit rider Craig Warner has mixed opinions about what a renovation might mean for the Lake Street/Midtown Station. “It might help out the situation currently taking place right now, high drug use,” he said as he rode the Blue Line home from shopping at the Mall of America.
But Warner also wonders if a rebuilt station will be enough to quell drug use. “I’m sure they’ve done all that they can at the moment, there’s not much more they can do than to have more police officers ,” added Warner.
Meanwhile, work to address rust from 27 of Metro Transit’s first generation light rail vehicles, made by Bombardier Transportation, is underway in Tallulah, Louisiana. Though the agency started addressing rust on those cars in 2017, when they had been in service for around 13 years, they later found the cars had rusted to where its maintenance staff could not handle the workload.
The union representing Metro Transit maintenance staff says that could have been prevented. “The work should have been done a lot earlier, which would have made it a lot more easier, a lot more efficient,” said Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1005 president David Stiggers.
Amid opposition from ATU, who did not want the work to be outsourced, the Met Council awarded an up-to-$12 million contract to RailCar, a rail engineering and accident investigation firm, in late 2021 to work on the rail cars. The Met Council also pledged to remove rust from light rail vehicles more often, every seven or eight years, moving forward.
Meanwhile, three of the first-generation light rail vehicles were trucked out to RailCar’s Louisiana facilities in 2022. The agency expects for them to return this spring with new rust-free structural members. Some of the trains will also have new flooring and wall paneling.
John Lehman, a junior at Roosevelt High School, is a fan of riding the Blue Line, particularly the Bombardier trains. “I like how they look and how they sound,” said Lehman as he sat close to the front of the train on his way to the Mall of America one Friday afternoon.
If all goes well, the work being done by Metro Transit will allow people like Lehman to enjoy the trains for at least 20 more years, when Metro Transit expects to retire them.
