The reason there is a difference of opinion about whether the St. Paul LRT should be on University Ave. or on I-94 (or the existing tracks North of University) is that there are differing notions of the purpose of it in the first place.
If you believe the LRT is mainly to get suburban commuters to downtown Minneapolis and a few places in between quickly, then the I-94 route makes sense. On the other hand, if you see the purpose mainly as moving local city dwellers (both St. Paulites and Minneapolitans) around town (including both downtowns), then the University Ave. route seems better. The commuter vision sounds like a high speed link to a few key nodes while the local transport vision is an efficient, nonpolluting but not highspeed way to get to local destinations, much the way the old street car system worked. These visions are not incompatible. Perhaps we need both. Many cities here and abroad have both. Philadelphia, New York and other places have both local subway (and in Philly trolley) lines as well as regional rail services for suburban commuters. I could imagine us having a trolley line (I like to call them trams) on University Ave. and seeing the Red Rock line extended to Minneapolis over existing rail lines North of University to connect directly in Minneapolis with the North Star line. That would serve mainly suburban commuters while the University Ave. tram line served local needs. Obviously, we're not going to build both at the same time. We'll be lucky to get one done. It's also been suggested here that a University Ave. route would somehow divide the city like I-94 did. I don't see this at all. We're not talking about a large trench cutting off streets and removing blocks of housing. We're talking about putting a tram line on an existing street. Charlie Swope Ward 1 _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
