Light Rail is Business Friendly

Light Rail Myth #2 - "It's business friendly."

 ▼ Logic: I am in business (property flipping).
                I like light rail.
                Therefore, light rail is business friendly.

Can't argue with logic, except by quoting other business people and their experiences with Central Corridor (Metro Transit Green Line Light Rail).

“The light rail is killing all of us. It is beating us to death,” Pete Lebak said. For 32 years, Pete Lebak’s Barbershop has been on University Avenue. He talked with Molly Novak of the Minnesota Daily earlier this month. He had the time. The Central Corridor light rail construction has driven away more than half his customers.

Stores that counted  on street parking on University Avenue have been hardest hit, Hmong Pages said. Tam D. Vo’s Viva Video has lost about 90% of his business since the beginning of light rail contruction. Larida Thlang's Battom-Bonc has lost 80% of her customers. Ngoan Dang's Mai Village has lost 40% of his customers. According to the Highland Park Villager, Mai Village has lost $20,000 in sales since light rail construction began this spring. Star Tribune said Mai Village had to cut back on servers from ten to five. (Star Tribune: "To save Mai Village, It'll take a Village.)

Hai Truong, owner of Ngon Vietnamese Bistro, 799 University Av, St. Paul, likes light rail. But when the light rail workers from Walsh Construction parked in the one hour parking spots in front of his restaurant, he complained to a Central Corridor construction supervisor. So on Friday, June 29th, Walsh Construction workers picked the restaurant's sidewalk (front door to back patio) to sit and eat their lunches, according to the Pioneer Press story. Central Corridor officials promised to apologize to Truong. On Monday, July 2nd, Walsh light rail workers were again parked in front of the restaurant. (Pioneer Press story parts 1, 2, & 3...)

In Stadium Village, a Campus Pizza waitress told Reg Chapman at WCCO that she's been lucky to get a few tables of customers in six hours.

And Central Corridor light rail construction has blocked fire truck access, according to Joe Kimball at MinnPost. The fire department and Walsh Construction have some work arounds. Although some of Walsh "work arounds" are to drive dump trucks and front-end loaders down residential streets that parallel University Avenue, against contract specifications (Pioneer Press). Walsh Construction is a contributor to President Obama's campaign finance.

“Devastating is what it was to my business,” said Al Loth, owner of Midway Pro Bowl told Tom Steward of Watchdog.org. “My customers are not going to lug bowling balls on the train to come bowling,” Loth said. He and 207 other business received a total of $3.8 million but with sales losses of as much as 84%, the handouts were (nice, well-meaning) drops in a bucket.

The co-owner of Big Daddy’s Old Fashioned Barbeque at 625 University Ave W, Ron Whyte told the StarTribune “one day I looked up and they put a Port-A-Potty right at my front door! What kind of advertising is that for a restaurant? [Business] really, really went down when the work began, but we survived. Big picture? I’m not sure how it will work out. But I’m hoping it will.”

 ▼ On the bright side, shoplifting is down.

Crime is up and down University Avenue. KAAL-ABC, Austin, MN reports St. Paul police say the number of people getting robbed on the street is up along the Central Corridor light rail route, typically at bus stops and on street corners. In the past month, more than half of all the robberies in St. Paul were on University Avenue. But the construction is causing the number of other crimes to go down. Police have seen a 22 percent drop in in shoplifting in April through June of 2012 because businesses are not accessible.

▼ It's not Earth-shattering, permanent damage.

Some permanent damage has been caused to the foundation of the Charles Building at 979 University Av due to the light rail construction tearing up University Av all the way to the building. Betty Charles, owner of the building and Shear Pleasure salon, told Finance-Commerce called the Central Corridor project staff and was told someone would visit soon.

Light rail construction damage has also been reported at Latuff Brothers Auto Body (outer brick facade), the Minnesota Da'Wah Institute (foundation damage, basement flooded), New Fashion (metal awning pulled away), and others according to a Minnesota Public Radio report.

Walsh Construction's work on the Central Corridor provided the basement of Marty's Second Hand Store accidental sunlight, according to a Pioneer Press story by Frederick Melo. A dozen other businesses on the 900 block of University Avenue have outstanding claims for damages.

Trends Lounge was the first business to fight through to a legal settlement of $7,500. Marty's Second Hand, Safety Care Inc, and Shear Pleasure hair salon each filed the maximum conciliation claim allowed in small-claims court ($10,000). In February 2014, those three businesses reached a settlement with Walsh Construction, days before their cases were scheduled to be heard, according to the Pioneer Press. However in April 2014, the Pioneer Press reported that despite the court victories, the businesses have not been paid by Walsh Construction. The three businesses returned to court on March 7th, but Walsh Construction failed to appear.

 ▼ It's not like businesses are closing.

Eisenberg's Market at 170 East 10th Street closed in October 2012 after 75 years downtown Saint Paul, a victim of light rail construction. Owner Max Eisenberg told Frederick Melo of the Pioneer Press, "According to the city [of Saint Paul], we never existed. You don't recall Mayor Coleman saying there's no grocery store downtown? Honestly, the last nail in the coffin has been the two years of light-rail construction. Our business dropped off 30 percent the minute they started light-rail construction again in April." 

General Nanosystems closed in July 2013, after suffering through the Central Corridor light rail construction. General Nanosystems, which opened in 1995, had sold and repaired computers at 3014 University Ave SE in Minneapolis. “It’s sad,” owner Khalid Mahmood told Meghan Holden of the Minnesota Daily, “The light rail has affected us quite a bit, unfortunately.”

Station 4 lost about $1 million due to two years of light rail construction on Fourth Street, co-owner Steve Ledin told the Star Tribune in June 2013. By April 2014, any plans for continuing Station 4 had ended and the building was put up for sale, according to the Pioneer Press.

Tony Panelli has closed his University Avenue restaurant Caribe Caribbean Bistro, after two years in business in what had been the job of his dreams. He'd lost over half his customers due to the construction. “Customers tell me they don’t want to come down here. Traffic is brutal, absolutely brutal,” Panelli told James Schugel of WCCO.

Campus Pizza, 825 Washington Av SE, closed in March 2015 after 56 years serving the University area. Light rail construction was a barrier to business but the long term effect was just as bad. “The light rail took off all the parking on Washington and that killed a lot of traffic,” co-owner Jim Rosvold told Barry Lytton of the Minnesota Daily. “It’s the sad end of a chapter.”

Midway Bookstore owner, Thomas Stransky, told Christopher Lancette of Fine Books Magazine, "We'll probably have to go out of business." He has battled the Central Corridor plans for two decades. Stransky said, "It's tough to get people to walk anywhere in a Minnesota winter. They're not going to walk from a transit station to get here. People aren't going to stop here when they drive by during construction, either. Traffic is going to be horrendous."

A Quiznos franchisee on Washington Avenue, Carla Harris, told the Star Tribune's Neal St. Anthony that she was "running negative cash flow." Iric Nathanson, of the Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers, said, "Unless Carla can find a way to bring new customers into her store, she is facing the prospect of closing her business." Quiznos closed.

The Edge Coffee Shop at 2399 University Av W (at Raymond Av) and the Kentucky Fried Chicken at 1089 University Av W (at Lexington Av) have closed, according to Frederick Melo of the Pioneer Press.

 ▼ Have they told the mayor?

In August 2012, University Avenue business owners met with Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and others, reported Josie Clarey of the Pioneer Press. Customers have had car damage from construction, including tires flattened by nails. Businesses like the M.A.I. Spine Center and United Medical Imaging expressed concerns about vibrations and noise from the construction and the eventual trains being disruptive to their businesses. Kunrath Van, owner of the Cheng Hang restaurant, was worried about not having sufficient funds for the property taxes due to tax increases and customer decreases. 

An article by Frederick Melo of the Pioneer Press reported on a survey of 64 businesses taken by the Asian Economic Development Association listing 237 business complaints:
          ♦ 79 business access complaints
          ♦ 47 utility problems, including 33 water shutoffs
          ♦ 44 parking complaints
          ♦ 19 dust and air-quality issues
          ♦ 15 cancelled appointments
          ♦ vibrations blurring MRI scans
          ♦ overtime pay before or after daily construction
          ♦ vibrations dropped a speaker into a glass case

 ▼ But have they told the Central Corridor Commission?

In May 2012, Jim Segal, owner of Ax-man Surplus, compared the Central Corridor EIS -- that said businesses wouldn't lose more than 2 ½ percent of revenues -- to a roll of toilet paper, at a public hearing. Dan Heilman of Finance-Commerce reported Segal would lose $100,000 in revenue for just the first six months of construction. Segal said, “The pedestrian environment is going to be terrible while construction is ongoing, and there will be a permanent change to people’s driving and parking patterns. That wasn’t discussed in this report.” The owner of Impressive Print, Mike Baca, said, “This project is going to destroy businesses.” Added Value Improvements owner, Tim Holden said, “The planning on this has not been done correctly. Taking away parking has rendered the properties west of Snelling and University uninhabitable. My customers are confused – they don’t know where to park. Businesses up and down the avenue have not been accounted for.” Twin Cities Photography Group owner, Diane Pietro, said construction workers came in and tore up a newly renovated hallway to install water pipes. “This project is ruining my service. Families don’t want to come in and sit for a portrait when there are workers walking in and out. Both of our entrances are blocked and the sidewalks are closed.”
Read Dan Heilman's Finance-Commerce story for more details.

 ▼ Is that it? Disgruntled business owners?

No. Central Corridor has been faced with lawsuits from Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), the University of Minnesota, and a Rondo Neighborhood coalition (St. Paul branch of the NAACP, the Community Stabilization Project, Pilgrim Baptist Church, and several local businesses and residents). All of the lawsuits have been struck down. The Central Corridor Commission altered plans for the rail line running in front of the Minnesota Public Radio studios to include a (supposedly) sound dampening slab of cement over crushed rubber pieces. (Like that's going to work.)

Anyone out there know how potholes are formed? Water seeps into or around pavement, freezes and melts, expanding and contacting, expanding and contracting (rinse and repeat), pushing stuff like "shredded rubber tire pieces" aside, leaving empty pockets, and the slab of pavement breaks under pressure from a 25+ ton train. It's expensive (throw money at it) but not proven to do anything. If it does anything, three or four winters should undo it.

[March 1, 2016 update: Metro Transit settled one MPR lawsuit and agreed to pay MPR $3.5 million due to light rail trains rumbling, rattling, and shaking the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) station. The 'floating slab' experiment failed. - MPR, Star Tribune, Pioneer Press]

The University of Minnesota wanted something similar to the MPR agreement (or similar to the University of Washington agreement with Sound Transit) for the eighteen research labs along Washington Avenue.

The Central Corridor Commission said, "No."

The Central Corridor opened in June 2014, but light rail trains conducting test runs in April 2014 were already disrupting recording operations at MPR. “The floor is vibrating, the ceiling is shaking, the structure is making noise, and that affects the recordings,” Nick Kereakos, chief technology officer and operations vice president for MPR told the Star Tribune.

Eleven intersections with freshly-poured cement already have cracks due to faulty work from Walsh Construction, according to Laura Baenen for Central Light Rail Corridor and James Walsh of the Star Tribune. “It should not have cracked this quickly.” In April 2014, Walsh construction crews were re-tearing out the intersection of University and Vandalia Street. It's just more business-friendly construction, plus the cost of rerouting traffic, signage, and more inspections.

Beautiful downtown Buffalo, New York got light rail running through it. They haven't recovered. They are talking about un-doing what was done.

To use a Colbertism: Is light rail good for business or great for business?

The Central Corridor - Green Line opened on June 14, 2014 and had 13 crashes and its first fatality by the end of August. In September 2014, the City of St. Paul assessed University Avenue properties $2.2 million for street improvements related to the light rail construction. Best Steak House owner Evangelos Hatzistamoulos told Tom Steward of Watchdog, “I think it sucks.” Hatzistamoulos received a $1,585.82 tax notice. Skip Brist, owner of American Radiator, has a $3,428 bill for street improvements caused by a light rail line he vowed to never ride. “When you’re talking about a little garage like mine, we have two stalls, the volume isn’t there anymore. In the end, none of it makes any sense.” [more]


In October and November 2014, a survey question was being asked:

17.  Please select your preference for the combination of travel lanes and parking lanes on University Avenue, from near Arthur Avenue in Minneapolis to Marion Street in St. Paul:  
___ I prefer University Avenue with two travel lanes and limited on-street parking.
___ I prefer University Avenue with one travel lane and one lane for parking on one or both sides.

The survey doesn't ask if the city should create mid-block parking lots, which works for congested portions of Grand Avenue, or any other options other than to make University Avenue more impassable. Parking lots could help University Avenue businesses, customers, and Green Line riders. Send your opinions to the City of St. Paul, the City of Minneapolis, Metropolitan Council, and the MN Department of Transportation.

Green line light rail trains have exceeded limits for electromagnetic interference along Washington Avenue through the University of Minnesota's research corridor. The University voted to give Metro Transit one more year to figure a solution. - May 2015

“Nearly 80 percent of the 204 business owners that responded to a survey by Wilder Research said they’ve lost business since construction started in 2011.”
 - Finance-Commerce, August 2015

“Half of all businesses said they still don’t have enough parking... Service businesses reported somewhat fewer disruptions than shops that sold products, the survey found... The Metropolitan Council said that as of June 2014, when the line opened, 134 businesses had opened and 121 had closed or moved away.”
 - Star-Tribune, August 2015


Light Rail Construction in Charlotte - April 14, 2015
“Our customers are surprised we're even surviving right now,” said Evan Perez, owner of Touch of Precision Barber Lounge. [WSOC-TV]

Light Rail Closes Barbeque After 58 Years - Charlotte, NC - April 4, 2015
The Old Hickory House BBQ in North Tryon has a 60% decrease in business due to LYNX blue line light rail construction. [WCNC-36, WSOC-9]

Light Rail Moves Hardware - Charlotte, NC - November 28, 2014
Faulk Brothers hardware owner Gerald Simpson told Don Boekelheide at the Charlotte Observer that he moved his store away from the LYNX blue line extension light rail project for several reasons. The design of the light rail project posed major problems, Simpson said. The light rail project makes parking and vehicle access difficult, if not impossible, at the hardware store. “There will be no parking in front of the old store, no room to maneuver. How am I going to get pickups hauling trailers or box trucks in and out?” Simpson said.

Stop Light Rail

Linear momentum is mass times velocity:

The momentum of the oncoming train bearing down on you and your stroller, whose wheel is caught between the rail and the pavement, is the mass (weight times gravitational acceleration) multiplied by the velocity:

You try pulling the stroller from different directions and nothing seems to work, while wondering if the gravitational acceleration might be increased by the declining slope.

The gravitational acceleration doesn't matter as much as the friction (~0) of steel wheels on steel rail or operational inattention (∞), as the stroller seems to want to collapse instead of decoupling from the rail.

If only that were a bus bearing down on you and the stroller. A bus is much lighter than a 51+ ton light rail train (25 or 26 tons per light rail train car). Bus tires are wider, made of rubber, and run on pavement (Friction City). Bus operators are actual drivers; they can brake for pedestrians, steer the bus, and are used to reacting to their environment.

This isn't theoretical; light rail kills. The trains are unstoppable.

Yesterday's post included the story of a mother pushing a stroller who was struck and killed by a Metrolink train last October in Riverside, California. She had been pushing her two year old toddler when the stroller wheel got stuck in the track. The mother was able to push the stroller out of harms way, but she lost her own life. The train couldn't stop; they never can.

What does it take to stop light rail?

The stopping distances are compared at Stop Light Rail, but it's metric and somewhat of an over-simplification. Gravitational acceleration is not a constant. Trucks, buses, and cars have differing stopping distances. But the concept and the ratios are there.

Bombardier Flexify (Hiawatha Line - Blue Line) v. Siemens S70 (Central Corridor - Green Line)

Light rail manufacturer Siemens says the Siemens S70 (25 tons per car) has an emergency stopping rate of 4.9 mphps (in good weather, on a level grade). The key word is emergency. The standard stopping rate of the Siemens S70 is 3 mphps. The Hiawatha Line's Bombardier Flexify (26 tons per car) standard stopping distance is 1.2 mphps.

Miles per hour per second (mphps)

The formula is SD = v² / (7200 x BR)
     where SD is stopping distance in miles
     v = speed in mph
     BR = average braking (deceleration) rate in mph/sec

Digging through reports instead of using the math, we find a National Technical Information Service (NTIS) order #PB-254738 titled Automatic Train Control in Rail Rapid Transit - May 1976 - appendix A page 179, says:  While [people] can act to prevent some accidents, [they] cannot prevent all of them, partly because [they] simply cannot stop the train in time. If one were to assure an instantaneous response and brake application along with a rather high braking rate of 3 mphps, it can be calculated that the minimum stopping distance from 60 mph for a typical train is 880 feet, and 220 feet at 30 mph. Clearly, there are many situations in which the potential hazard is either not visible at this distance or is created within the stopping distance of the train, (Suicide attempts are the classic example here.)

Car Stopping Distances

To put braking distances in perspective, Consumer Reports compared the dry/wet stopping distances in feet from 60 mph of six common cars and pickup trucks (model year 2012) in their September 2011 magazine. They said the Ford Focus hatchback stopped at 137/146 feet, the Honda Civic at 143/158, and the Ford F-150 pickup at 142/155.

Car and Driver magazine says the 2012 Ford Focus has a 173 foot stopping distance from 70 mph, and the Honda Civic Hybrid has a 196 foot stopping distance from 70 mph.

Motor Trend magazine says the 2012 Camry Toyota LE drops from 60 mph to zero in 120 feet on dry pavement, the 2012 Hyundai Sonata GLS stops at 128 feet, the 2012 Volkswagen Passat SE at 130 feet, and the 2012 Chevrolet Corvette stops at 94 feet.

Again, the stopping distance of a 60 mph train that can stop at 3 mphps is 880 feet. From 30 mph, it's 220 feet. According to Eddie Wren of Drive and Stay Alive, icy conditions can cause braking distances to be ten times longer than on dry pavement (or rails).

Light Rail Braking Systems

An engineering report from the University of Maryland says light rail trains have three stopping mechanisms: standard braking, emergency braking, and track braking (rarely used). In accident investigations, a key unasked question is, "Which braking systems were applied?"

 Examining the crashes listed in the previous post, there are some common threads:
       ♦ light rail trains can't stop
       ♦ light rail operators don't pay attention (not that they could do anything anyway)
       ♦ people -- pedestrians & drivers -- do stupid things (and don't have an overview of what's going on)
       ♦ light rail trains do not belong on roads

The news stories show many train accidents in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Denver, Portland, Houston, and other light rail cities. Trains that run underground (subway), elevated, or (here's a thought) through rail yards (instead of front yards) have fewer accidents.

According to the Independence Institute: accidents point out the key flaw in rail transit: It is simply not safe to put vehicles weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds in the same streets as pedestrians that weigh 100 to 200 pounds and vehicles that typically weigh a few thousand pounds. Heavy rail (subways and elevateds) avoid this flaw by being completely separated from autos and pedestrians, but are still vulnerable to suicides. Light rail, which often operates in the same streets as autos, and commuter trains, which often cross streets, simply are not safe. Aside from being lighter than railcars (and thus less likely to do harm when they hit you), buses have the advantage that they can stop quicker. Rubber on pavement has more friction than steel wheel on steel rail, and the typical bus has many more square inches of wheel on pavement than a railcar. No matter how good the brakes on the railcar, it is physically impossible for it to stop as fast as a bus, for if the brakes are too good the wheels will just slide. This is why light rail kills, on average, about three times as many people for every billion passenger miles it carries as buses. Commuter rail kills about twice as many people as buses. Only heavy rail is safer than buses, and then only if you don’t count suicides. Autos on city
streets are a somewhat less dangerous than commuter rail, while autos on urban freeways are somewhat less dangerous than buses. Safe transportation thus means more freeways and buses, not more rail transit.

Stopping Light Rail
          •   Policy Analysis - The Case Against Rail Transit (Cato Institute)
          •   No Light Rail (Vancouver)
          •   No Light Rail on Byron Avenue (Ottawa)
          •   No Tax for Tracks (Florida)
          •   No Tolls, No Light Rail (Vancouver)
          •   No Train (Wisconsin)
          •   RIP Gateway Corridor (Minnesota)
          •   Stop Light Rail (Paradise Waters, Queensland)
          •   Stop light rail in its gold-plated tracks (Seattle)
          •   Stop Light Rail, Now (Virginia Beach)
          •   Stop the Light Rail Obsession (Minneapolis)
          •   Wham-Bam-Tram (Houston)

Shouldn't it be safe to stroller down the street?

Light rail is not Green

The solution to climate change and over population is not to build more and develop more land.

The solution to climate change and over population is not empty street trains (light rail), slowly clanging and chiming all hours of the night (Metro Transit green line).


It is not slow, empty BRT (bus not-rapid transit) on dedicated lanes past the urban sprawl of St. Paul into undeveloped Lake Elmo or Woodbury (Gateway - gold line plan).

The Gateway planning people flew out to Los Angeles to study their transit, but Los Angeles Metro has fewer riders now than three decades ago, when buses were the county's only transit option. Metro has spent $9 billion of light rail trains, tracks, and subways but lost more than 10 percent of its riders from 2006 to 2015. “It's a bit perverse,” USC engineering professor James E. Moore II told the LA Times. “You're spending all this money and you're driving ridership down. If you're investing heavily in transit, you'd hope ridership would increase.”


Light rail (LRT) is not environmentally friendly. Walking is. Biking is. Light rail trains are not.

Light rail makes long traffic light cycles causing traffic to idle, waiting for the empty light rail trains. Minnesota took its busiest intersection, University and Snelling, and threw a slower-than-express-buses street-train into the traffic mix. Drivers wait longer or avoid the area.

Light rail removes all the big CO2 filtering trees and is infrastructure heavy. It is a huge building (& repairing) project, requiring miles of cement forms and pavements, thick enough to hold the weigh of a 50 ton train plus (some) tons of people.

"Cement manufacturing releases CO2 in the atmosphere both directly when calcium carbonate is heated, producing lime and carbon dioxide, and indirectly through the use of energy if its production involves the emission of CO2. The cement industry produces about 5% of global man-made CO2 emissions, of which 50% is from the chemical process, and 40% from burning fuel. The amount of CO2 emitted by the cement industry is nearly 900 kg of CO2 for every 1000 kg of cement produced... The high-temperature calcination process of limestone and clay minerals can release in the atmosphere gases and dust rich in volatile heavy metals, a.o, thallium, cadmium and mercury are the most toxic." - from the Cement wiki

Greenhouse gases... heavy metals... very un-green.

The Central Corridor (to be known as the Green Line -- snicker, snicker) will connect Minneapolis and Saint Paul downtowns. Its concrete will be 2' deep x 28' wide x 11 miles long (58,080'). It has to hold the weight of a 25 ton train, plus passengers.

Let's see, uh, 2 x 28 x 58,080 = 3,252,480 cubic feet
and one bag of Portland cement (50kg) makes 1.25 feet³
so there might be 2,601,964 bags or 130,099,200 kg (cement calculator)...

...converting kilograms to kilograms of CO2 emitted (900 kg of CO2 for every 1000 kg of cement)...
117,089,280 kg of CO2 or 117,089 metric tons of carbon dioxide...

And that's just for the rail bed itself, not the:
          ▲ reworking of the roadway
          ▲ curbs
          ▲ train stations
          ▲ utility forms and tubes
          ▲ deep footers for power line trees ¥...

What does the Central Corridor Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) say about the environmental impact of the project? Nothing.

What it says is that during construction, there will be trucks, and they will pollute when idling. It talks about that for several pages.

The FEIS says nothing about the environmental impact of all the cement, plus 22 miles of power lines and 44 miles of rails, or the trains themselves and power from power plants, like Minnesota's high polluting Sherco plant that emitted almost 14 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2011.

The closest it gets to comprehensive air quality issues is a response to a comment.

Responses to FEIS Comments Received (FEIS attachment C): Air Quality Impacts (AQ-1)
"One comment was received on the air quality analysis and questioning whether there would be any benefits to air quality as a result of the project. Response:  The focus of the air quality analysis disclosed in Section 4.5 of the FEIS was on identifying the potential for any adverse effects related to the proposed action. There was no discussion of proposed project benefits and this analysis has not and will not be completed as part of the NEPA process for the Central Corridor LRT project.  The project is included in the MPO’s regional transportation plan, which has been shown to be in conformity with air quality plans for the area; any significant benefits of planned transit system improvements, including the Central Corridor LRT project, were taken into account during the regional air conformity analysis of the metropolitan transportation plan."

I love this answer. It says, "Uh, that's not our job. Act like it's good." It also acts as if the materials are magically created and cured. Construction sites are just a bunch of idling trucks.

The New York Times quoted a 2009 study by Mikhail V Chester and Arpad Horvath of University of California, Berkeley, that compares light rail and regional commuter rail systems in Boston and California with small, medium and large aircraft, as well as buses and cars. "Neglecting to take into account the emissions associated with constructing buildings like train stations and laying the tracks may make train travel appear far more environmentally friendly than it actually is, the authors found... 'Most current decision-making relies on analysis at the tailpipe, ignoring vehicle production, infrastructure provision, and fuel production required for support.... We find that total life-cycle energy inputs and greenhouse gas emissions contribute an additional 63 percent for onroad, 155 percent for rail, and 31 percent for air systems' relative to those vehicles’ tailpipe emissions."

The study says, "Vehicle non-operational components often dominate total emissions. Life-cycle criteria air pollutant emissions are between 1.1 and 800 times larger than vehicle operation. Ranges in passenger occupancy can easily change the relative performance of modes."

It is a myth that light rail trains are green. But that's not the worst of it.

Three complications

There are three complications that make the environmental matters worse in the Gateway Corridor fiasco.

1. Destination. The Hiawatha Line connects the airport and Mall of America to downtown Minneapolis. That's going from destination to destination. The Central Corridor goes from downtown Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul. That's a destination to (nearly) a destination. Gateway Corridor wants to go from downtown St. Paul to nowhere. That encourages urban sprawl. And urban sprawl is bad for the environment.

2. Residential. It's one thing to put a huge construction project along a railroad right-of-way like the Hiawatha Line. It is another thing to plop a train down on a residential street with a speed limit of 30 miles per hour.

3. Pointless. Half of the bright ideas for the Gateway Corridor have the train slowly zig-zagging through residential St. Paul, working its way up a hill (Hillcrest) only to wind its way down the hill. What is the point of that? It's a waste of energy. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of money. And it hurts the environment.

Report Writing 101 - Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

"If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, blind them with your bullshit."


The Central Corridor Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be a template for the Gateway Corridor EIS and all the other EIS's. Let's take a look at the Central Corridor EIS to see what's in store.


It's almost blinding.

Except for the funny stuff. According to this piece of fiction (pictured above), parking and turn lanes and buses can all occupy the same space. Plus, there's trees! The first thing the project did was to take out the trees. Trees will return, but it won't look anything like what is shown in the picture, and that will take some explaining.


Attachment C of the Final EIS for Central Corridor has Responses to Comments Received. You'll want to get out your bullshit-filtering glasses for this one. 


One comment was received requesting analysis of an alternative alignment that would acquire homes and properties north of University Avenue, to avoid issues regarding traffic and access. Response:  An alternative requiring the acquisition and demolition of multiple homes and businesses was not considered in the project development process because these impacts are avoidable with the Preferred Alternative.   - CC-FEIS attachment C page 3


This is important to understand. This is the light rail enterprise-zone life-cycle. 


#1. The light rail train project tears out trees (like the Native American tree grove near Minnehaha Creek), and tears up the road. Local businesses complain. The LRT project ignores the businesses [page 4-5] or (if necessary) offers a low-low (war-zone market low) price on the property and a couple bucks for moving expenses (for a move around the corner). The business waits it out. After all, it's only a couple years worth of construction.


#2. Construction ends. Light rail trains run down what had been a road. Businesses think they've survived, but there is no parking, no truck access, no driveway access, no left turns, no trees, and no business. The rug road has been pulled out from under them. The entire neighborhood has been affected by the changes. And if the property isn't by a station, no one wants it.


#3. Vacant properties sit idle for a bit. Then they get bulldozed by the city. Now, trees can grow in the vacant lots.


The light rail enterprise-zone life-cycle allows economic change to alter the neighborhood around the train tracks. The project doesn't have to fix everything. All they have to do is throw around the bullshit long enough to get the tracks built.

Here's a prime example of grade A bullshit. The costs of the light rail project are large (and ongoing), but the costs of the existing MTC bus system are larger. So even though there is no correlation, the bus costs are thrown in to the EIS to make the light rail costs look small, disguising the high infrastructure and huge costs of light rail, both upfront and in perpetuity.


The bullshit adds noise to the information, even when the subject is noise.

This chart show noise impacts. What the eye sees, says that there is no noise from construction sites... "none, none, none, none, none, none!" By putting back on your bullshit-filtering glasses, you only see stars, the little stars that represent having an impact. Not that this is science...

Here's a map of locations. Isn't it odd that some of the Hasselmo Hall microphones were clumped together in Coffman Union instead of in Hasselmo Hall?


There are issues missing from the Central Corridor EIS, like snow removal. Apparently snow is self-removing from light rail tracks in a way not identified by the EIS.


However that's nothing compared to what will be identified in the next post.

Signs of the East Side

The Gateway Corridor Commission doesn't seem to know too much about the East Side of Saint Paul, or they wouldn't be talking about building a railroad on its residential streets.

They seem like nice people, just out of touch.

If I were to show them around, I'd show them the rowdiness of Friday nights and the quietness of weekend mornings. I'd show them how nature weaves its way through the area and what local residents do to preserve and accommodate wildlife in a residential setting. It would knock their socks off. I'd show them a crowd of neighbors planting their snow shovels upright to push the car of an elderly nut who had to drive even though the roads weren't plowed. And I'd have them count how many schoolchildren cross the path the Gateway Corridor Commission wants to barricade, and how many locations kids cross that path, all afternoon each school day.

I'd show them the signs of the East Side.

From the "Deaf Child Area" sign to the "This Is Not A Used Car Lot" elementary school sign, both within spitting distance of the train they want to run through, I'd show them the signs of the neighborhood.

And I'd bet that they've never seen any of it.

Gateway Corridor - The Train to Nowhere

The Gateway Corridor is a plan in need of a goal.

The original plan for the Gateway Corridor was a high speed rail connection to Chicago. That was not going to happen. Amtrak has the Empire Builder from Minneapolis - St. Paul to Chicago. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said no to a train connecting Madison and Milwaukee.

The next plan was a light rail connection to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. That was stopped by Wisconsin.

The next plan was to connect to Hudson, Wisconsin. That was stopped.

The Third Street and Minnehaha Avenue neighborhoods rejected the trains.

The Seventh Street neighborhood has also rejected their front yards becoming rail yards.

The Gateway Corridor is currently a gateway to Woodbury. Wow. Woodbury to St. Paul.

And for that, they want $3 million dollars of study money.

Alternatives to Ridiculousness

If you have a plan and you want it to be a good plan, don't crap it up with lousy ideas.

Don't say, "I want to commute from point A to point B but have vacation spots throughout."

Federal money (FTA alternatives analysis) requires alternatives, not crap. The Gateway Corridor shouldn't have to say, "The reason we are talking about these ideas is to get the federal money." When they say that, the ideas aren't real alternatives, they're just bullshit.

"We have three ideas, do nothing, build a straight-line commuter route (either bus or train), or build a zig-zagging route for those who like dot-to-dot artwork... also by bus or train."

The emperor has a backed-up toilet. His shit is all over.

Does MTC (Metro Transit) spend millions of dollars to make a bus route decision? Doubtful. But half of the Gateway Corridor alternatives are for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). A high-speed bus. A fast bus. A bus that either speeds through residential neighborhoods (Alternative #4) or a bus that speeds down Interstate 94 (Alternative #3).

MTC buses currently drive that part of Interstate 94. "Yes, but not all day."

MTC buses currently drive that part of residential Saint Paul. All day. Every day. "Yes, but not at high speeds."

So this is millions of dollars spent to decide if buses should drive faster in residential neighborhoods?

"We're having an open house to discuss Gateway Corridor Alternative #4. People interested in having buses drive the existing MTC route much faster through residential Saint Paul should attend.

"We're also having an open house to discuss Gateway Corridor Alternative #3. People interested in having three added buses to the existing MTC route running down I-94 and maybe stretching the route eastward should attend. Let us know if the Gateway Corridor study money is being spent wisely.

"We're also having an open house to discuss Gateway Corridor Alternative #1. People interested in knowing more about the Do Nothing plan should attend."

And the Gateway Corridor Alternative #9 is a light rail route running from Fargo to Moorhead.

The Aging of Light Rail

Newness fades. The future of light rail is easy to predict.

It's a list of "nobody told me it would be like this."

The accidents: "How could I know deaf people can't here the bell?!?"
The lack of maintenance: "Sweeeeeak," says the train as it rounds the bend.
The crime rate near certain stations effecting the real estate appeal of all stations: "'Close to train,' that's real estate code for troubled neighborhood."

Look at Chicago or New York L trains. Look at the apartment buildings near the trains. A great many still date to the time when the trains were first built, when they were new. When the tracks were new and the trains were new, over one hundred years ago, the L trains were relatively quiet. The tracks got rusty. The trains got rusty. The axles and wheels got rusty. Parts became obsolete. This year, Chicago will be starting a seven month rehab of half of the loop. Now... 115 years later.

Over time, apartment buildings parked right next to L stations lost their charm, their newness. People found better places to live.

The first Minnesota light rail transit (LRT) line was put in between the Mall of America, the airport, and downtown Minneapolis. That's the Hiawatha Line, soon to be known as the Blue line, and the foundation of the Twin Cities Metro system of buses (and light rail). The Hiawatha Line travels from prime destinations to prime destinations, and has exceeded ridership expectations.

Light rail planners use that route as the standard for other light rail lines in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, instead of the exception.

Construction of a light rail route between downtown Minneapolis and downtown Saint Paul is currently in full swing. That route, the Central Corridor is compared to the Hiawatha Line, even though it goes to Saint Paul.

No offense to Saint Paul, but nobody goes to Saint Paul. There is hardly any crime, because the sidewalks are rolled up at dusk. The last one out shuts off the lights. It is not a destination like the airport or the Mall of America. The Central Corridor route is not like the Hiawatha Line, except by trying to repeat what was done before.

The Central Corridor is a repeat. It wants to repeat the Hiawatha Line. And it wants to repeat the slicing of the Rondo Neighborhood by Interstate 94 in the mid-1960s. Rondo had just been reemerging, forty years later.

And it will come back, in another forty years.

Community Ride - Training the Community

Property owners along routes of proposed light rail lines have reason for concern.

Light rail is good for the community, its advocates will tell you. It will lead to community redevelopment and rebuilding.

How do they know?

Because these people are developers. They lust after property deals.

When they talk to you, they don't exactly look at you. They are more looking through you to the final property owner when all the dust has settled. They see dollar signs... and are willing to pay pennies to get to the dollars.

Here's the deal. Light rail is an immediate action. Real estate developers love immediate actions. Immediate actions related to property make buyers buy because something is just about to happen. There will be short term gains. It's just a question of timing.

And you won't see those gains, because you aren't doing the right thing with your property. You are transacting business or living in it or maybe sitting on it. That's not right.

Developers will spot the best properties, rank them for potential, keep track of route changes, and go after the properties to tear down the old and put up the light rail accessories.

What are light rail accessories?

Light rail accessories are the four or five story condominiums with no load shops on the first floor, shops like cell phone stores. No one is going to be hauling a big bag of cell phones out of a cell phone store. The condominiums will be built with limited garage space because -- hey -- right out front is the light rail train.

The businesses along the light rail line will not continue. They don't belong there. A grocery store? People are going to carry three bags of groceries on the train?!? A hardware store? Are you kidding me? A furniture store? Are you crazy? Stores with inventory? How are they supposed to get trucks in and out with all the traffic and traffic size limitations... helicopter? Not with the power lines for the light rail, you're not.

Businesses needing trucks and loading docks and parking spaces are not light rail accessories.

And light rail accessories are found near light rail stations.

Having property along light rail lines but not near light rail stations is... well... nothing.

It wouldn't even be good land for a park. You know that space between light rail cars? It turns out it is just big enough to get a basketball wedged in, if someone missed the free-throw.

Being on the track but not at a station is like missing the train entirely, except that the train is still hitting your front door on its way by.

That's the way it looks: along the Hiawatha Line, along the Central Corridor LRT, and any proposed light rail line.

The new re-trained community will look nothing like the old community. What you know isn't even part of the picture.

Nature on Track

A small herd of deer crossed East Seventh Street last night just east of Johnson Parkway. Impressive deer -- the type that could do real damage to a configurable Flexify light rail train by Bombardier.

Most of the nature of the area is harmless and fragile.

This part of town has bald eagles, white pelicans, hummingbirds, several types of warblers and flycatchers and grebes. It has wood turtles and snapping turtles. It has prairie milkweed and asiatic lilies. It has butterflies, dragonflies, leafhoppers, skippers, jumping spiders, and orb weaver spiders.

Nature is right on track on the East Side of Saint Paul.

The Gateway Corridor DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement) for the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is being developed in summer 2012. The $3 million DEIS will explain how the Gateway Corridor will bypass nature or ignore it entirely. The Federal Alternatives Analysis program may cough up as much as $2.8 million for the DEIS process.

           Gateway Corridor DEIS plan

           Minnesota Environmental Review process

           Federal Environmental Review process

           Federal Alternatives Analysis program

Minneapolis - Saint Paul Light Rail links & news

Metro Transit http://metrotransit.org/light-rail.aspx
Metro Transit cost, fares and ridership data http://metrotransit.org/Data/Sites/1/media/lightrail/hlrtstats10.pdf
Metropolitan Council - Hiawatha Line, Central Corridor and plans
          http://www.metrocouncil.org/transportation/lrt/lrt.htm
          http://www.metrocouncil.org/transportation/ccorridor/centralcorridor.asp
          http://www.metrocouncil.org/planning/transportation/TPP/2008/index.htm
MN DOT  http://www.dot.state.mn.us/passengerrail/lightrail.html
MSP Airport http://mspairport.com/GroundTransportation/light-rail-transit-service.aspx
Minneapolis and Saint Paul
          http://www.minneapolis.org/visitor/map-transportation/lightrail-bus-schedules
          http://www.stpaul.gov/index.aspx?nid=85
MN Legislature http://www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/issues/issues.aspx?issue=rail
University of Minnesota http://lightrail.umn.edu/


Contractors
Bombardier http://www.bombardier.com/en/transportation/products-services/rail-vehicles
Simens - S70 http://www.mobility.siemens.com/usa/en/pub/products/vehicles/low_floor.htm
Walsh http://www.walshgroup.com/news/met-council-awards-205.1-million-contract.html
Granite & the settlement
          http://www.graniteconstruction.com/Projects#pid%2831%29
          http://investor.graniteconstruction.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=601261
McCrossan & their contract
          http://www.mccrossan.com/project_portfolio.aspx
          http://csmccrossan.pegasus.webaloo.com/portfolio_cclrt.aspx
Parsons http://www.parsons.com/projects/Pages/default.aspx#pageState=-1


News
MN Public Radio http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/01/23/central-corridor/

MPR filed this story in January 2012:

The first year of major construction on a future light-rail line in St. Paul suffered from communication lapses, haphazard planning, and inattention to community concerns — and that's according to the government agency that manages the project.

Hundreds of documents examined by MPR News show the magnitude of performance problems associated with building the St. Paul portion of the massive Central Corridor transit system connecting to Minneapolis.

Community members have complained about treacherous sidewalks and blocked access to businesses. The records reveal just how systemic some of the glitches were.

In some cases, project staff with the Met Council urged the general contractor to fix a problem — only to have Chicago-based Walsh Construction repeat the mistake again and again. At one point, an exasperated project official questioned whether Walsh had control of its own crews.

The Met Council is ultimately responsible for the $957 million Central Corridor endeavor, billed as the largest and arguably one of the most complex public-works projects in state history. It's scheduled to start service in 2014...

From July to mid-December [2011], the [Met] Council issued more than 100 "nonconformance" reports, which project officials say pertained to more serious issues in which Walsh did not comply with the contract...

The most striking example was a spot near the facility for the State Services for the Blind, where the sidewalk narrowed by more than two feet and then abruptly dropped off by a foot. There were also uncovered holes up to six feet deep near the pedestrian detours, records say. Employee John Hess, who is blind, relies on his fast-trotting service dog, Barclay, to use judgment when approaching dangerous situations that Hess cannot see. But the experience of walking from the bus stop to his office left a lot to chance, he said.

"Terrified," Hess said. "Sometimes it was just hit or miss — 'Let's go for it and see what happens.' And there were times where cars would turn, and I didn't know about it, and Barclay would have to execute some nice little maneuvers to get out of their way."

When [Mark] Fuhrmann, of the project office, showed pictures of the walkways to the Walsh executives in Chicago, "their eyes bulged out," he said.

Problems with inaccessible sidewalks and pedestrian detours led to the only fines against Walsh, totaling $50,000 over the summer.
Although Fuhrmann and other top officials have helped steer other large rail projects to completion, this is the Met Council's first stab as an agency at building light-rail. The Minnesota Department of Transportation led construction of the Hiawatha line in Minneapolis, although Met Council planners were heavily involved.


The Met Council issued multiple reports against Walsh for mishandling asbestos. Excavation crews uncovered transite pipes, which are often used to protect electrical wiring. Instead of stopping work immediately and reporting the presence of asbestos-containing materials, construction crews went ahead with removing them with no special oversight staff present, the documents say.

"Walsh has proven time and again that they are incapable of following environmental laws when they are in close proximity to existing asbestos," a project staff member wrote in July...

{Much more to the story and documents at MPR}

News Coverage of Gateway Corridor

Kaitlyn Eagan of the East Side Review News covered the March 27th Gateway Corridor meeting in St. Paul:

Heated words were exchanged between residents and community representatives at the Gateway Corridor Commission's first public open house Tuesday night.

The only East Side open house, held at the East Side Community Center March 27, attracted about 150 concerned and curious residents, as well as many community representatives, including community council and board members.

Chuck Repke, executive director of the District 2 Community Council and the North East Neighborhoods Development Corporation, was less than thrilled with Tuesday's open house.

Repke charged that Ramsey County Board commissioner Jim McDonough "hijacked" the open house and used it as a town hall meeting to "tout" his preferred option for the proposed transit corridor. He also accused McDonough of skirting the possible condemnation of substantial amounts of private properties to make way for the construction of the transit line. {more}

Technically, Chuck Repke and many others were "less than thrilled" with the proposals.

Micheal Foley and Patty Busse of the Hudson Patch covered the April 4th Gateway Corridor meeting in Hudson:

Members of the Gateway Corridor Commission held an open house and presented information, including concept images of Hudson transit stations, to the Hudson community Wednesday afternoon at the St. Croix County Government Center.

Lyssa Leitner, planner with Washington County Public Works, and Stephanie Eiler of CH2M Hill presented the information, which includes eight transit alternatives that are currently being studied and considered by the commission.

Among those options, bus rapid transit (BRT) is emerging as a top option for mass transportation in the Interstate 94 corridor from St. Paul into Wisconsin. The process has been underway for some time and this was the commission's third open house in Hudson since the process began.

One option, Alternative 7 (Commuter Rail), was eliminated last month. Two options, Alternative 3 (BRT) and Alternative 8 (BRT Managed Lane), were ranked "high," and two options, Alternative 2 (Transportation System Management) and Alternative 5 (Light Rail Transit), were ranked "medium."

All four of the high-to-medium options call for a park-and-ride bus station in Hudson near I-94 and Carmichael Road. Late last year, the commission eliminated the possibility of commuter rail or light rail crossing the St. Croix River on I-94. {more}


It doesn't sound like the Gateway Corridor Commission mentioned Alternatives 4 and 6, which would meander passengers through residential St. Paul and are still on the drawing board.

Hiawatha Line costs

Minnesota's Hiawatha Line has a few costs involved, which will be multiplied as more light rail lines are added.

The construction cost has been estimated at $715 million.
► The final cost has not been published; the original cost was $480 million.
The annual operating cost is $25,727,471  (for 2010).
The annual fares received is $10,361,080  (for 2010).
So, the annual loss is           $15,366,391

However, the Hiawatha Line is not operating in the red.
They receive $2,121,351 from the motor vehicle sales tax and $5,174,001.00 from Minnesota appropriations.
So the Hiawatha Line has a net income of  $218,249 (according to Metro Transit).

What a money maker!

►  Hiawatha construction costs were $715 million (estimate). Northstar cost $317 million. Central Corridor started at $957 million and back in February was $11 million over budget. Southwest Corridor is starting at $1.25 billion, the Gateway Corridor zigzag will be $1.3 billion, and Bottineau will be $1 billion. The Rush Line Commuter Rail would top out at $959 million. Red Rock is $366 million. The eight trains total $6.875 billion to start.

► Operational costs in other cites.

It's morning again on East Seventh Street

It's morning again on East Seventh Street. The birds nudge twilight's quiet with hushed chirps. The neighborhood is just waking up.

Today men and women will travel this road in cars and on buses. School kids will walk across the road, along the road, and ride school buses up and down the road. But for now, the road is quiet.

It's morning again on East Seventh Street. The first rays of dawn are spotlighting the hillside.

Today new families are buying houses. Selling signs are being replaced with sold signs. But most residents came to stay long ago.

It's morning again on East Seventh Street. Why would we ever want a twenty-five ton train lumbering down this street, ripping a gateway through this neighborhood?