Tuesday's morning commute started with delays on the Northstar line as the first trip was delayed 25 minutes due to track maintenance and heavy freight traffic. Metro Transit used the outbound tracks to get around the problems. That didn't prevent the fifth and final trip into downtown from departing Big Lake 15 minutes tardy.

On the roads, it was miserable on I-94. Commuters in the east metro were slowed by an early crash on westbound 94 at Mounds Blvd. and travel times the rest of the morning hovered around 20 minutes from Manning Avenue to downtown St. Paul.

Over in Minneapolis, crashes at Huron Blvd. and Riverside Avenue in the 7 a.m. hour and later wrecks at Plymouth Avenue and 394 kept things bound for a majority of the morning. Traffic is still sluggish at this hour from Broadway to Hwy. 280.

Northbound 35W held up pretty well until around 8:30 a.m. when debris in the lanes at Lake Street and a subsequent crash at Franklin Avenue plugged up traffic from 46th Street into downtown.

Southwest metro drivers had issues too, as congestion on Hwy. 212 and 169 added time to the drive. A stalled box truck on northbound 494 at Hwy. 7 made the drive difficult for commuters in Minnetonka. That truck was just pushed out of the way.

Traffic also was heavier than usual on 494 in both directions between Hwy. 100 and Cedar Avenue.

North metro drivers had setbacks on southbound 35E through the work zone from Little Canada Road and downtown St. Paul. At the worst during the 7 a.m. hour, the travel time from County Road J to downtown St. Paul was more than 25 minutes.