Everything changed in local transit on June 26, 2004.
That was the day trains on the Hiawatha light-rail line made their maiden run with “real” passengers instead of Metro Transit personnel and political dignitaries. It was the start of an unexpected success, as light-rail transit quickly destroyed the ridership projections of even its champions. By February this year, riders had taken 21.4 million trips on the Hiawatha line. The average weekday ridership in 2006 was 28,150—14 percent higher than it was expected to be by 2020.
“People accused us we were overprojecting ridership,” recalls Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin with an amused sigh. “Afterwards, when it was clear that the Hiawatha line was a huge success, the same people accused us of low-balling our projections so that we’d look good.” Even most of light rail’s numerous naysayers got on board. “Now everyone wants a train,” he says.
We have had a great history here of investing in infrastructure; that is one of the reasons I think we have outperformed the national economy, on average.
A second light-rail line could be operating by 2014. The Central Corridor line would run between Minneapolis and St. Paul along University Avenue, and was expected to receive at least $40 million in a bonding bill this year, though that was vetoed on May 1.
But there’s also a third line that’s gotten past the we-can-dream-can’t-we stage and into the realm of possibility. That route, tentatively called the Southwest Corridor, would most likely run from downtown Minneapolis along a decommissioned railroad right-of-way between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles, through Hopkins, St. Louis Park, and Minnetonka, terminating in Eden Prairie. The exact route through Eden Prairie is still undecided, though the generally preferred one—because of its proximity to business parks and potential riders, and its greater opportunities for economic development—runs close to Interstate 494.
Until recently, the conventional wisdom was that public transit is for cities, where population densities are higher (and incomes are lower). But increased congestion, high gas prices, and the astonishing success of the Hiawatha line have made more suburbanites—and suburban business groups—more open to mass transit. Not just light rail, either; suburban transit advocates want more buses and dedicated bus rapid-transit routes to make commuting easier.
