5 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

This thread can be used to talk about our time in the Twin Cities, from arrival late Friday night 7/17 until departure Sunday morning 7/19.  This will include any rides on Metro Transit light rail lines or Northstar, as well as other activities we might do during our time in the area.

[KevinKorell]

Upon arrival into St. Paul on Friday night, I went off on my own on a  7-block walk because I was the only one in a different hotel for the first evening. The others got themselves to their hotel by various means, be it cab, Uber, or 1 stop on the Green Line light rail.

 

This morning (Saturday) I moved to the other hotel where the rest of the group was staying, and dumped 2/3 of my baggage.  We then purchased our tickets (most used the round trip Northstar ticket as a Day Pass) and rode the Green Line to our official start point at St. Paul Union Depot.  Jeb joined us there.  We sat a while and also had more time to explore the refurbished depot before it was time for the 10 of us to begin our scheduled runs for the day.

 

We knew of a service disruption with substitute bussing affecting each line on the downtown end, but the original announcement said that it would be over by 11:30, so we expected to miss it. However, somewhere along the line Metro Transit decided to extend the disruption by an hour to 12:30, so now it did affect us. The effect on us was double, since we had to get off the Green Line at Stadium Village, take the bus to Downtown East, find where the bus was in the other direction for the Blue Line (it was across a construction site), and then take that one to where the Blue Line resumed service.  So with a 2-vehicle ride becoming a 4-vehicle ride, we got our first destination, Mall of America, about 20-25 minutes late.

 

The mall was our lunch stop, so we split into smaller groups and ate at various places, agreeing to meet by 2:30 to resume our travels.  Since we all got to the meeting point before that time, we agreed to set out earlier than planned just in case the substitute bus situation was still in place.

 

It turned out that the light rail lines were fully in service by the time we got to the downtown area.  We continued onward to the end of the line at Target Field Station.  Down we went to the Northstar tracks.  Our consist was open and waiting for us, so we boarded and took advantage of its air conditioning.

 

Northstar was a delightful trip.  Wonderful operation.  Our outbound trip was delayed a little by a passing oil train, but with a scheduled 18 minute layover at the Big Lake end of the line, and the same consist being used, we did not worry about missing our inbound trip.

 

Once back downtown, it was time to head for dinner.  Most of us ate at one of two locations, and then returned to St. Paul and our hotels.  Both sub-groups took about the same time to get through the dinner process.  We travelled back to St. Paul one train (10 minutes) apart. Dave however returned to St. Paul earlier than us, and he reported that there was a police incident on his train that delayed him a little.  Despite the bus substitutions in the morning, we did succeed in "acing" the light rail system on our return trips with things fully open. 

 

Back in our hotel we plotted our plans for the next morning.  See the Empire Builder Eastbound thread for more on that.

[pennyk]

I am looking forward to meeting the group for 7am breakfast at hotel.

[KevinKorell]

Found there is no hotel shuttle available on Sunday mornings, so we will get to Union Depot some by walking, some light rail, and a couple by Uber. We are looking at an Empire Builder departure probably about 3 hours late.

[steve4031]

This was an enjoyable fest. The twin cities have done a fine job building their system. St. Paul union depot anchors the east end and the mall of America anchors the south end. The connection at target field is well designed and easy to use with elevators.

[KevinKorell]

Aside from the busways we're not interested in, the Twin Cities isn't done yet with building out their system.  Look for the light rail to go beyond Target Field, with the Green going southwest to Eagan and the Blue going northwest along the Bottineau Corridor. There are also plans for more commuter rail corridors serving both Target Field Station and St. Paul Union Depot, and perhaps a couple can also run between them by using the connection opposite the one that Northstar uses.

 

I too was impressed by Metro Transit's system.  Aside from the necessary weekend service disruption we experienced, they did a good job.  They keep trains running like clockwork every 10 minutes or so. It took me longer to wait for and ride my elevator at the first hotel I stayed at in St. Paul.  The ligh rail trains are three cars long and thus have a lot of capacity too.

 

I would give them negative marks for their honor system fare structure.  We did not see one fare inspector throughout our travels, akin to Salt Lake City last year.  As a transit advocate you want to see enforcement so that the provider is ensuring that they take in the proper revenue.  We did a lot of research on the fares, but while all of us are smart enough to know not to take the risk of a hefty fine for fare evasion, we could have ridden for nothing.