Minneapolis, the 'City of Lakes,' may rebill itself as the 'City of Rail' with the opening of the Hiawatha Light Rail line

Railway Age, August, 2004 by Marybeth Luczak

We understood early on that first impressions were paramount to our system's success," says Edward Hunter, assistant general manager-Transit System Development for Metro Transit (MT), operator of the Twin Cities' new $715.3 million Hiawatha Light Rail system (and provider of local bus service). That's why management's mission from the start has been to be "very responsive and sensitive to the community," he explains.

Since the Federal Transit Administration issued a Notice to Proceed in September 2000 after numerous false starts, the project team--including co-managers Minnesota DOT and Metropolitan Council, which owns the line and operates it through MT--have built a partnership with area residents. It prepared them for the June 26 opening of the LRT's first eight-mile leg--between downtown Minneapolis and Fort Snelling--through construction update meetings and marketing campaigns, and provided them with an open forum to voice concerns. The team also made customer service a priority. For instance, MT employees were posted on station platforms for more than a week following the opening to answer questions.

Taking an aggressive, grassroots approach to safety was critical to the partnership effort. Rail safety was promoted as the mutual responsibility of MT and the public. "We put ads on billboards and on the sides of buses, and direct-mailed to over 17,000 residents along the line," says Josh Collins, community outreach specialist at the Hiawatha Project Office. "Because we know that not everybody reads their mail, we went door to door to put safety information into people's hands, and spoke to local groups and at every school in south Minneapolis. It's worth it to get out there so people feel like you're their neighbor--one that's going to be part of the community, rather than a nuisance cutting through it."

The project team also encouraged residents to participate in the design process. Hiawatha's 17 stations reflect the 11 neighborhoods along its corridor: The 38th Street Station features a gabled roof, reminiscent of area bungalows, and the 50th Street Station has a park motif mirroring nearby Minnehaha Park.

Public participation carried through opening weekend planning----celebrations with food and family entertainment that went beyond free LRV rides. Such events, along with bus service integration, crowd control, policing, and advertising strategies, were culled from other light rail properties. But just when preparations were in full swing for a scheduled April 3 opening, a six-week transit strike halted them, causing a three-month delay. "Once the strike was over, people wondered why we were going to wait two months to open," says Hunter. "We were thinking: 'Will two months be enough time?'" Not only did plans have to be recast, operators had to be retrained. Despite this setback, opening weekend drew 95,000-plus riders without incident, and during the first week of revenue service, riders boarded trains 93,000 times, surpassing MT's year-end weekly goal (55,400) by nearly 68%. (Some 46 bus routes will feed into 14 LRT stations, and it's estimated that by 2005, 20% of the LRT's 19,300 weekday riders will arrive at stations this way.)

Merchants are pleased with the turnout. "The line has brought even more business to me," says Raul Sacta, general manager of the Baja Riverside Grill, which sits steps away from the Cedar/ Riverside station. Economic development along the corridor is on the rise, as well. More than 1,000 new housing units have been built since 2000, and a $600 million project, including condominiums, office/retail space, and (possibly) a water park, is scheduled to break ground this summer near Bloomington's Mall of America--the next link of the 12-mile LRT, along with the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport.

Joe Marie, assistant general manager-Rail Operations for MT, attributes the system's winning ways to a "combination of good planning and execution, community respect for the environment, and some luck." And FTA has taken notice. It will use the Hiawatha Light Rail system opening in the development of new-starts best practices, Hunter says with pride.

Overcoming obstacles

The LRT is a design-build project of Minnesota Transit Constructors, a joint venture of Granite Construction Co., C.S. McCrossan, Parsons Transportation Group, Edwards and Kelcey, RailWorks, and others. It includes separate contracts for LRVs (Bombardier) and airport tunnels (Metropolitan Airports Commission). Coordinating these groups has been a challenge, says Hunter, but making way for light rail has posed many others. Among them:

* Private utility relocation. Xcel Energy filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit in 2001, refusing to pay for relocation work. As a result, other utilities took a wait-and-see approach. It wasn't until 2002 that a U.S. District Court upheld the law requiting Xcel to pay, and work could finally begin. Even with this victory, closing intersections did not endear the rail system to local businesses, property owners, and city officials. "We had to develop trust so that everyone knew that the Hiawatha Project Office represented their interests," Hunter says.