Twin Cities (Minnesota) Local and Suburban Rail Service discussion

Amtrak25 · Nov 28, 2023

On the Light Rail system, is it a single vehicle ride between SPUD and the Target Field Northstar station ?

Silophant · Nov 28, 2023

Yep, Union Depot is the easternmost station on the Green Line and Target Field is the westernmost (until the extension opens in a few years). Takes about 45 minutes.

Chris I · Nov 28, 2023

Silophant said:
Yep, Union Depot is the easternmost station on the Green Line and Target Field is the westernmost (until the extension opens in a few years). Takes about 45 minutes.

Not ideal, but it's still a better connection than Boston North to Boston South.

OmahaRoad · Nov 28, 2023

Chris I said:
Not ideal, but it's still a better connection than Boston North to Boston South.

Yes, and riders could also take the 94 express bus! It's not something most think about, but the 94 terminates directly at Union Depot on its east end, and is essentially steps from Target Field Station (~5 minute walk or less) on the west end. The 94 runs at least every 30 minutes for most of the day, and has a ~15-20-min frequency during the rush hours.

It's an efficient and smooth ride most of the time, and runs from Ramp B/5th St. Transit Center to SPUD in only about 27 minutes, with just one stop en-route at Snelling Ave. That's not much slower than driving (~20 minutes or more) and probably about the same as Uber/Lyft when factoring in wait time, etc. And though it costs "more" than the Green Line does, you pay a max of $3.25 during rush hour--pretty good if you ask me.

NorthShore · Dec 16, 2023

Might the theorized I94 S-Bahn type rapid transit line between St. Paul and Minneapolis offer a potentially more direct rail connection for Amtrak trains to also use than the currently cumbersome routing available between the two cities stations? (Hypothetically, as I imagine it isn't extremely likely to get built.)

jebr · Dec 16, 2023

NorthShore said:
Might the theorized I94 S-Bahn type rapid transit line between St. Paul and Minneapolis offer a potentially more direct rail connection for Amtrak trains to also use than the currently cumbersome routing available between the two cities stations? (Hypothetically, as I imagine it isn't extremely likely to get built.)

I would assume so - as far as I'm aware the discussion is basically at the "fantasy map" stage currently, but the intent would be that it could serve as a through-running corridor for regional trains.

That said, I highly doubt that it'll get beyond fantasy map stage in the next 10 years (and probably longer.) There's just so many other priorities, and frankly that station-to-station transfer could probably be done with an expanded 94 express bus schedule for a far lower cost with little time difference. It does mean a couple of transfers, which isn't great, but any S-Bahn style rail connection would almost certainly cost multiple billions of dollars to do properly (since there'd almost certainly be tunneling required through both downtowns.) IMO that money would be far better spent building out the nodes of a regional rail network and letting the Green Line LRT and the 94 bus (maybe replaced/expanded with the Gold Line BRT running through to downtown Minneapolis) do the cross-city connections.