The practice runs of the new Green Line light rail cars — scheduled to start running June 14 between St. Paul and Minneapolis downtowns — are being criticized as too slow, taking more than an hour to cover the 11-mile route.
Met Council officials say that will improve, as tweaks are made in stop lights along the route. The goal has been to get the trip down to 40 minutes.
Now Brendan Slotterback, of nonprofit streets.mn, has tried to put bring some perspective to the issue by comparing the speeds of other light rail lines around the country.
The Green Line, with its current 67-minute trip, is the slowest, at 9.85 mph. It moves up to 16.5 mph, if they can hit the 40-minute goal.
He notes that the Green Line is unusual in that it has downtowns, and the incumbent slower traffic, at both ends of the line.
The Hiawatha Blue Line in Hennepin County is pretty slow, too, at 12.32 mph.
But the projections for the planned Bottineau extension of the Blue Line, from Minneapolis to Brooklyn Park, would make it the fastest of those listed, at almost 30 mph.