Metro (styled as METRO) is a transit network in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

serving the cities of

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

and

Saint Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

. It also provides service to some suburban areas. As of 2022 the system consists of two light rail lines (

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

and

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

Lines) and five bus rapid transit (BRT) lines ( Orange Line, Red Line, A, C, and D Lines) all of which are operated by the local public transit company: Metro Transit. The five lines connect

Downtown Minneapolis The Central Minneapolis community is located in the central part of the city, consisting of 6 smaller official neighborhoods, and includes Downtown Minneapolis and the central business district. It also includes the many old Gristmill, flour ...

and St Paul with the Bloomington, Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport, Roseville, Richfield, Burnsville and

Brooklyn Center Brooklyn Center is a first-ring suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. In 1911, the area became a village formed from parts of Brooklyn Township and Crystal Lake Township. I ...

. Prior to August 17, 2019, service along the entire length of the Green Line operated

24/7 In commerce and industry, 24/7 or 24-7 service (usually pronounced "twenty-four seven") is service that is available at any time and usually, every day. An alternate orthography for the numerical part includes 24×7 (usually pronounced "twenty ...

, the only one of 22 light rail systems in the United States to do so, but a common practice on some heavy rail lines such as the New York City Subway and

PATH A path is a route for physical travel – see Trail. Path or PATH may also refer to: Physical paths of different types * Bicycle path * Bridle path, used by people on horseback * Course (navigation), the intended path of a vehicle * Desire p ...

. The service gap from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. was replaced by bus service. Metro Transit also provides 24/7 service between the stations serving the Lindbergh and Humphrey terminals of MSP Airport; the remainder of the Blue Line operates from 3:29 a.m. to 1:54 a.m. Monday through Thursday, and 24 hours a day from 3:29 a.m. on Friday morning to 1:54 a.m. on Sunday morning. In the 1970s, roughly contemporaneous with the construction of

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

's Metro system and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

's Bay Area Rapid Transit, the newly formed

Metropolitan Council The Metropolitan Council, commonly abbreviated Met Council or Metro Council, is the regional governmental agency and metropolitan planning organization in Minnesota serving the Twin Cities seven-county metropolitan area, accounting for over 55 pe ...

contemplated the creation of a similar mass transit for the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, but the idea was eventually abandoned due to opposition from the Minnesota Legislature. For the next few decades, there were repeated proposals to build light rail along several corridors, particularly the University Avenue corridor between downtown

and

(the present Green Line), but the idea of light rail only gained steam in the late 1990s. In 1999, the Minnesota Legislature approved funding for the first line (the present Blue Line) along

Hiawatha Avenue Minnesota State Highway 55 (MN 55) is a highway in west-central, central, and east-central Minnesota, which runs from the North Dakota state line near Tenney and continues east and southeast to its eastern terminus at its intersection with U.S. Hi ...

(initially named the Hiawatha Line) in south Minneapolis, which opened in 2004. In 2011, in anticipation of the opening of the Red Line and Green Line, and in order to help passengers better identify with each of the routes, Metro Transit announced that the system would be rebranded and each line assigned a unique color. The first phase of the Red Line opened in mid-2013, and the first phase of the Green Line (also known as the Central Corridor) in mid-2014. Extensions are planned to bring the system into the western metro area, with construction anticipated near the end of the decade.

Current system

Lines

* Blue Line: Target Field Station – Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – Mall of America * Green Line: Target Field Station –

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

– Union Depot * Orange Line: Downtown Minneapolis – Burnsville Heart of the City * Red Line: Mall of America – Apple Valley Transit Station * A Line: 46th Street station – Rosedale Transit Center * C Line: Downtown Minneapolis – Brooklyn Center Transit Center * D Line: Mall of America – Brooklyn Center Transit Center The current Metro system consists of seven separate projects. There are two light rail lines: the Blue Line, which runs from

Target Field Target Field is a baseball stadium in the North Loop, Minneapolis, historic warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis. Since its opening in 2010, the stadium has been the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins. The stadium hos ...

in downtown

past Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport to the Mall of America, and the Green Line, which runs from

past the

to the Union Depot in downtown

. The

BRT BRT may refer to: Transportation * Block register territory, a method for dispatching trains * British Rail Telecommunications * Brookhaven Rail Terminal * Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, a former transit holding company in New York City * Bro ...

Red Line serves as an extension of the Blue Line across the Minnesota River, where it connects with southern suburbs at four different stations. Low ridership projections would have made the required bridge for an extension of the Blue Line economically infeasible. The Orange Line is bus rapid transit route that runs along

I-35W Interstate 35W may refer to: * Interstate 35W (Texas), an Interstate highway serving Fort Worth, Texas, and its suburbs * Interstate 35W (Minnesota), a Interstate highway serving Minneapolis, Minnesota, and its suburbs **The I-35W Mississippi Riv ...

from

south into Richfield, Bloomington and Burnsville. The arterial BRT A, C, and D lines serve as upgrades to existing local bus routes and connect with the Blue and Green lines at certain shared stations. Together, the two light rail lines run on of route. There are a total of 82 stations; five shared between the Green and Blue Lines in downtown

, one shared at the Mall of America between the Blue and the Red Lines, one shared at 46th Street station between the Blue and the A Lines, one shared at Snelling Avenue station between the Green and the A Lines, 13 exclusively for the Blue Line, 16 for the Green Line, four for the Red Line, 18 for the A Line, and 23 for the C Line. The main hub of the system is Target Field Station in Minneapolis, though

Saint Paul Union Depot Saint Paul Union Depot is a historic railroad station and intermodal transit hub in the Lowertown neighborhood of the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. It serves light rail, intercity rail, intercity bus, and local bus services. I ...

is envisioned as an additional future hub. Most trains and buses run at least every 15 minutes throughout the day, with reduced schedules at night and on weekends. All stations have electronic displays that show predicted real-time departure information, known as NexTrip. Predicted real-time departure information is also available through Metro Transit's website.

Fares

Metro uses a

proof-of-payment Proof-of-payment (POP) or proof-of-fare (POF) is an honor-based fare collection system used on many public transportation systems. Instead of checking each passenger as they enter a fare control zone, passengers are required to carry a ticket, p ...

system, requiring riders to carry tickets at all times. Fares are purchased before boarding, either at ticket machines located in the stations or by scanning a Go-To card at dedicated pedestals. Tickets are valid for 2 1/2 hours after purchase, with transfers available to other Metro lines as well as any Metro Transit bus routes. Within the two Downtown Zones of Minneapolis and St. Paul, tickets are 50¢; otherwise they follow normal Metro Transit fares: *Adults: $2.50 rush hours, $2 otherwise *Seniors, Youth, Medicare Card Holders: $2.50 rush, $1 otherwise *Persons with Disability: $1 *Children under 6: free with paying rider. Limit is 3. In addition, passes are available for various lengths of time or numbers of trips at appropriate discounts.

students also have the option of purchasing U-Passes, which give unlimited rides throughout the semester. Students and staff at the Twin Cities Campus are otherwise eligible for a ''Campus Zone Pass'' that allows rides between three stations on campus,

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, East Bank, and

Stadium Village Stadium Village is an area of Minneapolis, Minnesota near the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota. While not an official neighborhood of Minneapolis, the area is an important commercial district that serves university students with man ...

, without paying a fare. Passengers at Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport can move between the Terminal 1-Lindbergh station and Terminal 2–Humphrey station free of charge.

Future

Several expansion projects are planned for the Metro system, at various stages of completion. These include both light rail extensions and connecting bus rapid transit services.

Under construction

The Green Line extension (also known as the

Southwest LRT The Southwest LRT ( Metro Green Line Extension) is an under–construction light rail transit corridor in Hennepin County, Minnesota, with service between Minneapolis and Eden Prairie. The estimated one-way travel time from Southwest Statio ...

) is a planned expansion of the Green Line, to run from Target Field Station to several southwestern suburbs. The project was given federal approval in November 2018, and ground was broken on construction on November 30, 2018. Completion of the project is expected in 2023, at an expected cost of approximately US$2 billion. It will be the largest infrastructure project in state history. The Gold Line is an under construction bus rapid transit route to run along Interstate 94 from Woodbury to downtown Saint Paul along Mounds Boulevard. Once in downtown it would travel from the

, through downtown before terminating near United Hospital. Construction on the project began in October 2022 with service on the line expected to begin in 2025.

Engineering and environmental assessment phases

The Purple Line is a planned bus rapid transit route to run largely along the Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority corridor adjacent to the Bruce Vento Regional Trail from downtown

to downtown

White Bear Lake, Minnesota White Bear Lake is a city in Ramsey County in the state of Minnesota, United States. A small portion of the city also extends into Washington County. The population was 23,769 at the 2010 census. The city is located on White Bear Lake, one o ...

. The project's Environmental Assessment was released in May 2021 for public comment. The project needs to undergo further project development, final engineering, and construction before service begins in 2026.

Planned projects

The B Line is an arterial bus rapid transit route proposed for the Twin Cities' Lake Street/Marshall Avenue corridor, running from

Bde Maka Ska Bde Maka Ska (, previously named Lake Calhoun, its former official designation) is the largest lake in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, and part of the city's Chain of Lakes. Surrounded by city park land and circled by bike and walking ...

in Minneapolis' Uptown neighborhood to the Snelling & Dayton station of the A Line, with an extension to downtown Saint Paul along

Selby Avenue Selby Avenue is a street in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, that runs east–west from Summit Avenue (St. Paul), Summit Avenue near downtown toward the Mississippi River. The street runs through the Summit-University and Union Park, Saint Pau ...

. Planning is underway and will continue through early 2020. Station design is planned for 2020–2021 with beginning of construction anticipated in 2022, pending full funding. The E Line is an arterial bus rapid transit route proposed for the Twin Cities's Hennepin Avenue corridor. Metro Transit's 2012 rapid bus study identified a route that would run from downtown

to a future Lake Street station on the Metro Green Line extension. However, after further study in the spring of 2019, Metro Transit recommended a route from the Green Line's

stop, through

Dinkytown Dinkytown is a commercial district within the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Centered at 14th Avenue Southeast and 4th Street Southeast, the district contains several city blocks occupied by various small businesses, restau ...

to Hennepin Avenue, and then south via Hennepin, 44th Street, and France Avenue to the Southdale Transit Center. Pending full project funding, E Line construction could begin as soon as 2023. The Blue Line extension (known as

Bottineau LRT The Bottineau LRT ( Metro Blue Line Extension) is a proposed light rail line extension in the Minneapolis – Saint Paul Metro area, projected to run northwest from Target Field station in downtown Minneapolis along County Road 81 to Brooklyn ...

) is a planned extension of the Blue Line to Brooklyn Park. After failing to come to an agreement with

BNSF BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

over colocating light rail and freight trains in the railroad's corridor, the Metropolitan Council announced they would begin to "explore opportunities to advance this critical project without using BNSF Railway right of way." New alignments for the southern portion of route were presented for public comment in March 2021. The Riverview Corridor is a transit corridor connecting

Downtown Saint Paul Downtown Saint Paul is the central business district of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Its boundaries are the Mississippi River to the south, University Avenue to the north, US 52 to the east, and Kellogg Avenue to the west. It is bounded ...

and the Mall of America in Bloomington via the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. The corridor serves an area from the

to the Mall via parts of the Metro Green Line and the Metro Blue Line, and a route running parallel to West 7th Street, which runs southwest from Downtown Saint Paul. The corridor creates a triangle connecting opposite ends of the Blue Line and Green Line. In December 2017, a modern

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...

system similar to systems in Portland, Kansas City, and

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

was selected as the locally preferred alternative with an alignment along West Seventh Street and MN-5.

Proposed projects

The next three arterial bus rapid transit lines have been proposed. The F Line, G Line, and H Line would serve the Central Avenue corridor, Rice Street and

Robert Street Robert Street AO FAA (16 December 1920 – 4 July 2013) was a British academic and academic administrator. Born in Wakefield, Yorkshire and educated at Hanley High School, he was offered a scholarship to New College, Oxford in 1939, but ...

corridors, and an alignment from downtown Minneapolis to the East Side of Saint Paul along Como Avenue respectively. The three lines are planned to be built by 2030. There are also numerous proposals in early planning stages for routes along

Interstate 394 Interstate 394 (I-394) is a small east–west auxiliary Interstate Highway in Hennepin County in the US state of Minnesota. It is also commonly referred to by its pre-1991 name, Wayzata Boulevard, and by its other designation, US Highway& ...

from Minneapolis to

Wayzata Wayzata ( ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. A western suburb of the Twin Cities, Wayzata is situated along the northern shore of Lake Minnetonka about west of Minneapolis. Known for its small-town character and lakeside lo ...

, Highway 169 from Minneapolis to

Shakopee Shakopee ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Minnesota, United States. It is located southwest of Minneapolis. Sited on the south bank bend of the Minnesota River, Shakopee and nearby suburbs comprise the southwest portion of ...

, Interstate 35 from Minneapolis and St. Paul to Forest Lake, Highway 36 from St. Paul to Stillwater and Highway 61 from St. Paul to

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

( Red Rock Corridor).

Operations

Metro Transit (Minnesota) Siemens S70 arriving Target Field

The Metro system's rail lines use a combination of exclusive and shared right-of-way, depending on the circumstances. Within the two Downtown Zones, trains run on surface streets in an exclusive right-of-way, without preemption. The Blue Line runs primarily alongside Hiawatha Avenue ( Minnesota State Highway 55), along land originally acquired for expansion of that highway, except for a brief stretch in a tunnel underneath Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport. The Green Line runs along the median of University Avenue in an exclusive right-of-way, except for a brief stretch of the Washington Avenue Transit Mall where its tracks are shared with buses. The Blue Line's at-grade crossings are protected by automated grade crossing gates; the Green Line's crossings move in regular traffic, with signal priority but no preemption. Since the completion of three-car station extensions in winter 2010, Metro Transit operates one-, two- and three-car trains on the Blue Line, depending on the time of day and ridership needs. Many stations on the line were initially built to be capable of serving only one- or two-car trains, as a cost-saving measure; all of the shorter platforms were designed and built with future extension in mind and currently all stations are capable of serving three-car trains. The Green Line was built with three-car platforms at all stations.

Rolling stock

Currently three models of LRVs run in the Metro system. Type I LRVs are

Bombardier Flexity Swift The Bombardier Flexity Swift is a series of urban and inter-urban tram, light rail and light metro vehicles manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. It is part of the Bombardier Flexity family of rail vehicles, and like the others, Flexity S ...

s, utilizing a

low floor Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i. ...

for accessible boarding at all stations. Metro Transit operates 27 vehicles on the lines, numbered 101 through 127. Initially painted with Metro Transit livery, all have been repainted as of 2015 to reflect the Metro system branding. During this time, Type I cars also were retrofitted with colored LCD headboards for route destination displays and other improvements. Type II LRVs are Siemens S70/Avantos. 64 vehicles were purchased, primarily to serve the Green Line. Type II LRVs are mechanically, but not electronically, compatible with the current fleet of 27 "type I" vehicles, so while the two generations do run on the tracks at the same time and both types are able to push a malfunctioning unit of the other type, multiple-unit consists may only be assembled of one type. Type III LRVS are

Siemens S700 The Siemens S70, its successor the S700 and European variant, the Avanto, are a series of low-floor light-rail vehicles (LRV) and streetcars manufactured by Siemens Mobility, a division of German conglomerate Siemens AG. The S70 and S700 are ...

. In 2016, Metro Transit placed an order for 27 more Siemens S70 LRVs for its planned Southwest Corridor expansion. The cars in this order were considered to be model S70 at the time the order was placed, but in 2019/20 were retroactively rebranded as model S700 by Siemens. These used a modified center-

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

design that allowed sideways-facing seating in the center section, for better passenger flow. In 2018, Siemens adopted a new model number, S700, for S70 LRVs that used the new center-section design, and in 2020 it retroactively applied the new designation to all previous S70 LRVs built to the new design; as a result, all of Metro Transit's type III LRVs (301–327) are now Siemens model S700. The first two S700 vehicles arrived in May 2020.

References

External links

What is METRO?
{{Coord, 44, 59, 5, N, 93, 16, 54, W, display=title Public transportation in Minnesota Light rail in Minnesota Electric railways in Minnesota Bus rapid transit in Minnesota Transportation in Minneapolis–Saint Paul Metro Transit (Minnesota)