[This is from the Midtown Greenway Coalition September E-News. An LRT station disrupting the Greenway does not seem sensible to me and it costs more. Find out more at the Midtown Greenway site.]

There is much hullabaloo about the route that the proposed Southwest Light Rail Transit (LRT) line will take through Minneapolis, and the outcomes have enormous impact on the Midtown Greenway. 

Your voice is needed at:

A Public Hearing on SW LRT
September 17, 2009 (6:30 pm - 8:30 pm)
Hosted by the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority
on behalf of the Southwest Policy Advisory Committee
at the Eisenhower Community Center Theater
1001 Highway 7 in Hopkins

Of the two possible routes for the SW LRT once it enters Minneapolis on its way downtown from the suburbs, the one that passes through the Greenway to Nicollet Avenue is not favored by the Midtown Greenway Coalition. This Greenway/Nicollet route would block the bike trail at Nicollet Avenue, requiring bikers, joggers and walkers to come up out of the Greenway, cross Nicollet Avenue, and then go back down into the Greenway.  In addition, 60% to 80% of the south bank of the Greenway west of Nicollet Avenue would be replaced with a high concrete retaining wall.  Instead, the Midtown Greenway Coalition prefers modern streetcar vehicles as the way to bring rail transit into the Greenway alongside the trails. This streetcar line would connect with the Southwest LRT on the west and the existing Hiawatha LRT on the east, all as part of the “Network Alignment (see image above).  Unbelievably, the cost for the Network Alignment that includes both the SW LRT through Kenilworth and the Greenway streetcar would be $400 MILLION LESS THAN the SW LRT Greenway/Nicollet alignment by itself!  Learn more about the two LRT options and a streetcar in the Greenway at southwestlrt.wordpress.com and please attend the September 17 public meeting to raise your voice in favor of the SW LRT Kenilworth alignment.

[This text refers to the image.] The Network Alignment: Kenilworth 3A + the Midtown Greenway Streetcar (the “Green Line”) would serve more Minneapolis population, employment, commerical nodes, growth centers, transit-oriented development, and transit-dependent riders than any other SW LRT alignment.

Posted via email from Peter's posterous