>>993522I average about 3 posts a week so I think it's just there a large number of people from our area.
I think the Green Line suffers from the problem where some wanted it to be a high speed train ride between the downtowns and others wanted it to serve the neighborhood. Right now its a funny in between. If they wanted a high speed train ride they should have gone through the I-94 trench but then you would still need a pretty frequent #16 bus and I don't think high speed through the U of M is possible.
On the other hand you have stops every 1/2 mile through Saint Paul which doesn't make the train a very good way to travel between the downtowns. It works pretty well to get people to a downtown or the U but the #94 is a faster ride between downtowns. I think the Green Line is still pretty successful. More businesses opened during construction than closed or moved away. Ridership in the corridor is roughly twice what it was before it opened. (16+50+94 vs 16+94+Green Line) I may be biased because I ride it every day to work and school.
>Especially vexing because there is a rail right of way a block over, which would have equally stimulated "development."I'm struggling to picture where this is. North or South? South is still pretty actively industrial and I struggle to see how it would loop back to Westgate which I think is pretty important. It seems like every time the train goes between Westgate and Raymond it stops at at least one stop light. I head one of the issues is coordinating between Saint Paul and Minneapolis the timing on their lights but that is still very frustrating. The lights are timed pretty darn well East of Fairview. Very frequently when I ride we won't stop at any lights between Snelling at Downtown Saint Paul.
