The Met Council will vote today, Wednesday, July 9, on whether to approve station locations for the A-Line, a bus rapid transit project that would travel along Snelling Avenue and Ford Parkway by the end of 2015.
The $25 million line, which is fully funded but has not entered final design, would link the Blue Line’s 46th Street station in Minneapolis to the Rosedale Mall in Roseville. Service would roll out every 10 minutes, with 1/2 mile between stations, instead of 1/8th mile like a typical bus.
Metro Transit officials say BRT lines provide many of the benefits of light rail, including limited stops in fancier-than-normal vehicles, but much cheaper. By way of email and counterpoint, St. Paul resident Maureen Horton tells the Scoop that she’s entirely opposed to the project.
As bad as Snelling can be today, it’s a picnic compared to what it will be like. … I think people will be jockeying to get ahead of the buses, as they do now, but with a greater urgency. … Then there is the problem of traffic trying to merge into one lane every few blocks. Or of traffic diverting to less busy streets.
Snelling Avenue has a sort of rapid transit now, with buses stopping at only certain intersections, cutting ride times. What is 25 million dollars suppose to buy us that the present system doesn’t?
The owners of Stoltz Dry Cleaners at Snelling and Grand avenues had a more narrow objection to a possible bus stop by one of their three driveway entrances.
Stoltz Cleaners owner Joel Tracy said Metro Transit had originally planned to move the bus stop in front of Garrison Keillor’s Common Good Books by Macalester College until the college objected to the loss of parking. When plans shifted to Tracy’s corner by Grand and Snelling, he reached out to St. Paul City Council Member Chris Tolbert and Met Council Member Jon Commers. Negotiations with Metro Transit caused him some extra gray hair.
“It was a hell of a job trying to keep them from closing my driveway,” Tracy said.
Instead, as a result of discussions (and probably media coverage), the new shelter will be built at an existing stop to the south. The Met Council is still discussing acquiring a few feet of driveway from the business.
Tracy is still wondering if the increased bus service will impact Snelling Avenue traffic. He’s keeping an open mind. “It’s not stopping that often, and when it does stop, it doesn’t stop for very long,” he said. “I honestly don’t know. I’ll have to wait and see what happens with it.”
Metro Transit officials hope to debut a dozen BRT lines over the next 12 years or so. The bus lines, which are cheaper than light rail but similarly stop at modern shelters outfitted with electronic signage and security cameras, would operate in normal traffic, receive signal priority at traffic lights, and make fewer stops than a typical bus.