The Twin Cities: United by Rail Transit (and a Shared Desire for its Expansion)

The Millennial Trains Project made its fourth stop of the 2014 journey in Minnesota’s Twin Cities on Monday, after the young innovators on board got the chance to take in the vastness of Montana and North Dakota on Sunday. The landscape, which featured broad rolling ranch lands and textured sandstone cliffs along the Missouri River valley, and on-board mentor David Bragdon (see previous post) shared Capt. Meriwether Lewis’s journal from his exploration, with Lt. William Clark, of the same places by boat over 200 years ago. We also observed the tremendous changes brought to the western North Dakota landscape by the Bakken oil shale boom, including massive new railcar loading facilities, drilling and processing sites, and hillsides dotted with very small, brand-new homes and trailers housing the large influx of oil-field workers. 

The effects of the boom were also experienced on our train’s timekeeping, as we had expected. It was obvious to this seasoned observer by watching the signals and passing trains from the dome car that BNSF was doing what it could to give our Amtrak Empire Builder priority. At one point (between Williston and Stanley, ND), the BNSF dispatcher threaded us through two eastbound and five westbound freights: a mix of oil, grain and intermodal unit trains with mixed freights. However, the sheer lack of capacity to handle the level of traffic the Hi-Line is experiencing contributed to our going a good deal slower than posted track speed for many stretches. We got into St. Paul just after 12:00 noon, about four hours late, after being over five hours late out of Minot and hardly making up any time, thanks in part to slow orders due to tie replacement between St. Cloud and Minneapolis. 

There were also delays in taking MTP’s three private cars off of the train, and reattaching them to the next day’s eastbound, the latter having to do with having to have a crew from a local company drive to the station to perform the mandatory air brake test. I found out that ours were only the second private cars to have ever parked at St. Paul Union Depot (SPUD) since it reopened as a passenger train station in May of this year — the first being Amtrak’s business car Beech Grove carrying CEO Joe Boardman to Union Depot’s reopening festivities.

The depot is a gorgeously restored facility bringing Amtrak together with five intercity bus operators, local Metro Transit buses, and Metro Transit’s brand-new light rail Green Line (opened two months ago). I was surprised to see that even Megabus — a low-cost intercity motorcoach carrier famous for piggybacking off of public facilities (including many Amtrak stations) by stopping on the curb in front of or near them without paying terminal access fees as do Greyhound and other coach lines — had its own departure board at SPUD.

The historic rivalry between the two Twin Cities quickly became apparent to our group. After arriving at SPUD, we took the 45-minute ride on the Green Line to downtown Minneapolis. We visited CoCo, a co-working space for entrepreneurs, primarily in the technology sector, housed in a beautiful colonnaded chamber, formerly a commodities trading floor, on the fourth floor the Minneapolis Grain Exchange Building (caddy-corner from the stunning historic City Hall and County Courthouse). There, a representative of the Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District shared his opinion that his city is more vibrant and entrepreneurial than its slightly older “twin,” St. Paul. When we returned to Union Depot and heard from a representative of that city’s Department of Planning and Economic Development on board the Silver Splendor, he touted that CoCo actually started in St. Paul, and said his city is just as welcoming to innovators. He described the difference in attitude between the two by calling St. Paul the westernmost eastern city, and termed Minneapolis the easternmost western city. 

One thing both cities’ boosters had in common, though, was their excitement about the investments in public transportation and other alternatives to driving that the region’s cities and counties are making. The Green Line, which only began revenue service two months ago, was seen as not only a connector between the Twins, but also as an engine for economic revitalization of the ethnically diverse but historically underserved University Avenue corridor. There was ample evidence of the line’s impact visible from the train, with many brand-new mixed-use buildings and several construction sites. Most seats were full and there were standees on each of the trains I rode, which operate every ten minutes or less during the afternoon and early evening. The region is planning additional light rail lines and an extension to the Northstar commuter line. However, Northstar could use higher levels of service as its ridership has not lived up to expectations.

Before the event at CoCo in Minneapolis, I took time to explore the Washington Avenue corridor through the University of Minnesota campus, which has a great urban feel thanks to the light rail. The Green Line bisects the central quadrangle and crosses the Mississippi River on a bridge that connects the east and west sides of campus. Part of the avenue on the east side is closed to automobile traffic, creating an attractive thoroughfare through which only city buses, pedestrians and cyclists, in addition to Green Line trains, are allowed to pass. Trains run on either side of a vegetated median with a walkway in the center. I was happy to see a motorist get ticketed by the Metro Transit Police for attempting to drive on the transit-only part of the street.