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Central Corridor LRT: Frequently asked questions

Bells & horns Budget & funding Business mitigation Bus service Downtown St. Paul Job opportunities Maintenance facility

Parking Public involvement Ridership Travel time Union Depot University Avenue University of Minnesota Washington Avenue Bridge (new page)

 

How will the light rail vehicle bells and horns sound?

• Bells and horns are regularly used as warning devices on light rail vehicles. Of these two devices, bells are quieter. Horns in the vicinity of Lowertown in downtown St. Paul would be sounded only in an emergency or other extraordinary situation, such as when maintenance personnel are conducting track work. It is standard operating procedure for light rail vehicles to sound their bells as they enter and depart a station platform to warn waiting passengers that a train is approaching.  Bells are also sounded at all locations where a roadway or bicycle/pedestrian path crosses the tracks regardless of whether the intersection is signalized. This practice is in place on the Hiawatha light rail line.  Where complaints have arisen, negotiations have led to the modification of standard operating procedures to the satisfaction of both the residents and Metro Transit operations staff. 

 

Budget & funding

• The project has a $914.8 million budget. The current financial plan requests 50 percent from the federal government for construction, 30 percent from the new Counties Transit Improvement Board, 10 percent from the state, 7 percent from Ramsey County and 3 percent from Hennepin County.

 

Business mitigation

• What is being done to help businesses survive financially during construction of the Central Corridor LRT line?
  
  The Central Corridor Partnership, an alliance of St. Paul and Midway area business leaders, will be providing assistance to help businesses with marketing strategies and business planning to survive the construction process and let their customers know they are still open. The partnership is developing a business management plan and seeking funding sources.  The Central Corridor LRT Project will be handling construction, which includes providing information about detours, signage, etc.

 

 Bus service   

• What will happen to Route 16 once the LRT line begins service? 
  Route 16 service on University Avenue will be reduced from every 10 minutes to every 20 minutes while new routes are being added to bring riders north and south of University Avenue to the corridor.
• Aside from reducing Route 16 and eliminating Route 50, are any other bus routes being affected?
  The concept for Route 94 – express service between the two downtowns – is for service every 15 minutes peak and every 30 minutes off peak.  Some Route 94 trips today also serve the Capitol; that branch will be replaced by Central Corridor LRT.  Future Route 94 service in the off peak times likely will leave the freeway to make a customer stop at Snelling Avenue.
• How will bus transit service to LRT be increased to give the public access to the transit line?
  Route 83, which will run mainly on Lexington Parkway between West Seventh Street and Rosedale, is proposed as a 30-minute service on weekdays during the peak and midday, but no night service. It is proposed to run every 60 minutes on Saturdays. No Route 83 service is proposed on Sunday.
  Route 60, which will serve University/Victoria/St. Clair/Hamline, is proposed as a 30-minute service that will operate seven days a week.
• How will Central Corridor LRT riders get to the stations?
  The transit system is being designed so that most riders will walk, bicycle or ride the bus to an LRT station. (No park-and-ride lots are planned for the Central Corridor LRT.) Bus routes serving the Central Corridor LRT stations will be spaced about a half mile apart in many areas, and most homes and businesses in the corridor will be within a quarter of a mile of a bus stop that provides connecting service to an LRT station. On the Hiawatha line today, one-third of the riders walk on average nearly a half mile to get to a station and another one-third take one of the 27 connecting buses routes to reach an LRT station.

 

Construction

• How will the public get construction information?
  Details about construction will be available at www.centralcorridor.org and the public will be notified in advance about work, including detours and road closures. Project outreach coordinators began surveying business and property owners in the spring of 2008 for details on their points of access to help engineers design the line and plan construction.
• How will the project mitigate the effects of noise, sound and vibration from LRT trains?
  The engineers are studying mitigation strategies on a case-by-case basis. The Final Environmental Impact Statement will address impacts identified in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Supplemental DEIS.   
• When will construction begin and end?
  Heavy construction will begin in 2010 and end in 2013, with passenger service to begin in 2014.

 

Downtown St. Paul

• What will be the route through downtown St. Paul?
  The route will be on a diagonal through the vacant Bremer Bank building from Cedar and Fifth streets to Minnesota and Fourth streets, combining two stations to save costs. The line’s eastern terminus will be in front of Union Depot.

 

Job opportunities

• Are there job opportunities for women-owned and minority-owned businesses with this project?
  Yes. Visit the home page of www.centralcorridor.org for the section on Disadvantaged Business Enterprise. Sixteen DBE firms are working on preliminary engineering.

 

Maintenance facility

• Where will it be located?
  East of St. Paul’s Union Depot, under the Lafayette Bridge.
  

 

Parking

• What will happen to on-street parking on University Avenue?
  University Avenue will retain 175 of its 1,150 on-street parking spaces after 675 spots are removed to make way for mandatory elements such as the 15 LRT stations, 250 are eliminated to accommodate non-signalized pedestrian crossings, 40 are removed to provide secondary station access, 20 are lost to make room for three-car station platforms and 40 are eliminated to allow space for minimizing traffic lane transitions. Project studies show 560 on-street parking spaces are available on north-south cross streets within a block of the corridor and 15,300 off-street parking spaces are available within one block of University Avenue. A 2006 city of St. Paul study found 25,000 spaces in private lots within one-quarter mile of the 15 LRT stations. See the City of St. Paul's parking strategies (pdf). Outreach coordinators have gone door-to-door to survey businesses about their parking needs.

 

 

Public Involvement

• What is the purpose of the community outreach staff?
  Their initial responsibility is to engage the public in the preliminary engineering process and share their concerns with project engineers to explore how to resolve potential negative impacts. As the project progresses into construction, the outreach staff will be key in notifying businesses and residents of construction plans, road closures and bus re-routes as well as being a point of contact for construction related emergencies such as power outages.
• How can I comment on the project?
  The outreach program provides many avenues for people to submit comments and concerns. The outreach team forwards your comments and concerns to the engineers.
• Central Corridor email:  centralcorridor@metc.state.mn.us
• Phone line: 651-602-1645
• Attend a public meeting. See the Central Corridor meetings page (updated weekly).
• Who do I call if I have questions?
  Contact one of the community outreach coordinators. See a map of outreach staff's areas of responsibility and contact information.
• Can someone come and talk to my business association, community group or neighborhood organization?
  Absolutely, please contact one of the community outreach staff or submit a speaker request form.

 

Ridership

• What is the projected ridership for the Central Corridor LRT line?
  The current ridership projection is 42,170 average weekday boardings in 2030.

 

Travel time

• What will be the travel time between the central business districts of the two downtowns?
  39.13 minutes. Travel time between St. Paul’s Union Depot and Minneapolis’ Multimodal station will be about 40 minutes.

Union Depot

• Where will LRT trains stop at the Union Depot?
  Central Corridor LRT trains will drop off and pick up passengers in front of Union Depot on Fourth Street between Sibley and Wacouta streets.

 

University Avenue

• To what extent will University Avenue be reconstructed?
  The street surface, curbs and sidewalks will be torn out and reconstructed, but the roadbed or subsurface is in good condition and won’t have to be replaced, shortening the construction time and reducing costs.
• Will there be stations at Hamline, Victoria and Western?
  Underground foundations will be prepared during construction so stations can be added at these locations more easily and less expensively in the future. The underground work will include running conduits for electrical systems.

 

University of Minnesota

• Where will the LRT line run through campus?
  Central Corridor LRT will run at street level on Washington Avenue, which will become a transit-pedestrian mall, and across the Washington Avenue bridge on the vehicular level. Stations will be on the East Bank at Union Street, the West Bank on Washington Avenue between 19th and Cedar avenues and at Stadium Village.