# Minneapolis Hiawatha



## fredevad (Sep 4, 2011)

Had the chance today to ride Minneapolis' Hiawatha line from Mall Of America (while the kids shopped) all the way to Target Field and back. Nice ride, I wish Milwaukee had something like this.


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## fairviewroad (Sep 6, 2011)

fredevad said:


> Had the chance today to ride Minneapolis' Hiawatha line from Mall Of America (while the kids shopped) all the way to Target Field and back. Nice ride, I wish Milwaukee had something like this.


Also makes getting to/from the airport very handy...basically stops in the basement of the main terminal. Makes it easy to get

to MOA during a long layover, or downtown Minneapolis (St. Paul...not so much.) And it doesn't go anywhere near the Amtrak

station, FWIW.


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## TCRT (Sep 7, 2011)

fairviewroad said:


> fredevad said:
> 
> 
> > Had the chance today to ride Minneapolis' Hiawatha line from Mall Of America (while the kids shopped) all the way to Target Field and back. Nice ride, I wish Milwaukee had something like this.
> ...


Fortunately, the Central Corridor will open in 2014 and will fix both these issues, offering direct service from downtown Minneapolis to downtown Saint Paul. It will end at Saint Paul Union Depot, which at that point will be the Twin Cities Amtrak station (Midway Station is scheduled to close in late 2012, though FWIW the Central Corridor line will pass one block from it, too).


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## fairviewroad (Sep 7, 2011)

TCRT said:


> Fortunately, the Central Corridor will open in 2014 and will fix both these issues, offering direct service from downtown Minneapolis to downtown Saint Paul. It will end at Saint Paul Union Depot, which at that point will be the Twin Cities Amtrak station (Midway Station is scheduled to close in late 2012, though FWIW the Central Corridor line will pass one block from it, too).


Are there any plans to build a route from the airport to St. Paul? I definitely see the value in the downtown-to-downtown service, but it's kind of a roundabout way

to get from the airport into downtown St. Paul.


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## TCRT (Sep 8, 2011)

fairviewroad said:


> TCRT said:
> 
> 
> > Fortunately, the Central Corridor will open in 2014 and will fix both these issues, offering direct service from downtown Minneapolis to downtown Saint Paul. It will end at Saint Paul Union Depot, which at that point will be the Twin Cities Amtrak station (Midway Station is scheduled to close in late 2012, though FWIW the Central Corridor line will pass one block from it, too).
> ...



I don't think so. The long term plan calls for the Southwest Corridor from downtown Minneapolis to the SW suburbs to get built next. Also, I'm not sure where such a route would run - the best way from downtown Saint Paul to MSP International is via the river, where there would be very little ridership. I suppose a routing over the Ford Bridge to meet up with the Hiawatha Line might work, but how it would get there I have no idea.


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## Ozark Southern (Sep 9, 2011)

fredevad said:


> Had the chance today to ride Minneapolis' Hiawatha line from Mall Of America (while the kids shopped) all the way to Target Field and back. Nice ride, I wish Milwaukee had something like this.


I was very impressed by this service too. We were in Minneapolis back in 2007 and rode this line from Nicollet Mall (near our hotel) down to MOA to go shopping. We had actually driven to Minneapolis (it would be a couple of years before we discovered Amtrak), but we found the light rail more convenient than driving. Well done--the Twin Cities are turning into a great place for rail (future Gathering location, possibly?


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## fairviewroad (Sep 9, 2011)

TCRT said:


> > Are there any plans to build a route from the airport to St. Paul? I definitely see the value in the downtown-to-downtown service, but it's kind of a roundabout way
> >
> > to get from the airport into downtown St. Paul.
> 
> ...


Well, this is definitely an uneducated observation on my part (and largely irrelevant, it would seem), but I would have thought the the airport and the MOA would be big enough draws for direct service from downtown St. Paul that you wouldn't need to worry so much about intermediate stops...in fact a faster route along the river with fewer stops might make the service more attractive. You could extend it beyond downtown to northern or eastern St. Paul to draw even more airport and mall-bound riders. But since it's not on the drawing board, I guess this is larger a moot point.


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## TCRT (Sep 12, 2011)

fairviewroad said:


> TCRT said:
> 
> 
> > > Are there any plans to build a route from the airport to St. Paul? I definitely see the value in the downtown-to-downtown service, but it's kind of a roundabout way
> ...


I'd agree that there would certainly be ridership from downtown St. Paul and points beyond to the airport and MOA. The Hiawatha line, however, also gets commuter ridership from the neighborhoods it passes through in South Minneapolis between downtown and the mall/airport in Bloomington, which an express line skirting Highland Park alongside the river would not get. My (very uneducated) guess would be that this ridership deficit would make it unattractive for state/federal funding. As someone who used to spend a lot of time in downtown St. Paul, though, it sure would be nice.....


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## jebr (Mar 23, 2012)

Dug this up while looking up some stuff about Minneapolis.

While not as nice as a train, the 54 bus goes from the airport to downtown St. Paul...just have to go up three levels instead of down. It actually can be faster than the train from MOA to the airport, actually!


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