On blogs and social media, passengers continue to dissect Metro Transit’s new Green Line, which debuted June 14.
In “Strangulation on the Green Line,” a lengthy post charting the history of its planning, Streets.mn blogger David Markle calls the light rail a “fiasco” because travel times across 23 stations from Target Field in Minneapolis to the Union Depot in St. Paul are running around 51 minutes — too slow for the liking of many commuters.
He’d have preferred a commuter service, probably along the interstate, that would take riders quickly from downtown to downtown.
Pointing to the eerie, creepy, scary freeway stations in Chicago, writer Adam Platt responds in the comments section to Markle’s Streets.mn post thusly:
…the platforms are islands of isolation, foreboding and lonely at night, and near-impossible to run from or attract help if danger is present. Freeway transit spins off little if any benefit in adjacent housing or small retail because freeways are giant gashes that tore up neighborhoods leaving no pedestrian scale amenities for blocks in their wake.
Go to Chicago and ride the Blue Line on Milwaukee Avenue above ground, exit the stations into thriving urban neighborhoods teeming with activity and commerce. Then get back on and continue toward the airport in the I-90 median and exit a station into a sea of frontage roads or under dark, dank, block long freeway viaducts. It was all designed by freeway planners who thought like automobile drivers–get me out of town fast.
Meanwhile, despite the slower-than-expected travel times, ridership within the 11-mile Green Line corridor appears strong and steady, even without the University of Minnesota or other schools in regular session. In the second week of service, Green Line ridership even exceeded average weekday 2012 figures for the popular Blue Line from downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America in Bloomington.
A week before the Green Line’s official debut, reporters asked Metro Transit general manager Brian Lamb about travel times:
Ridership on the Green Line from June 23 to June 27 averaged 32,368 passengers each weekday, according to Metro Transit’s preliminary counts. Planners had projected the $957 million line to average 27,500 daily weekday riders in 2015.
Will winter’s chill help or hurt the ridership figures?
“It wouldn’t surprise me if by the end of the year, the numbers increase and keep going through the roof,” said Ramsey County Commissioner Rafael Ortega, who doubted colder temperatures will deter too many riders. “If I have to get in my car, and I might get stuck, and I’m going to be out in the cold anyway, you’d be surprised how many people are going to use it.”
Meanwhile, points out another Streets.mn writer, improving the signal system in St. Paul could make for a speedier trip, as well.
During a media preview a week before the Green Line debut, Lamb noted that the system that coordinates traffic signals with light rail arrivals continues to be tweaked: