Light rail's route through U on hold, again

The University of Minnesota continues to lobby for a northern route, but Met Council still likely to endorse Washington Av. plan.

By JIM FOTI, Star Tribune

Last update: May 21, 2008 - 11:01 PM

The debate over the route of the Central Corridor light-rail line is a bit like the Democratic presidential race: there's a likely winner, the second-place contender isn't giving up, and just when you think it might be over, it goes on for another week.

On Wednesday, public officials planning the 11-mile line almost voted to approve a Washington Avenue route through the University of Minnesota -- something they had done once before -- but they decided to give the university one more week to make its case for a route through the northern part of campus.

The decision came after Metropolitan Council Chairman Peter Bell said that he had received a call on the matter from Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who in turn had received a call from University President Robert Bruininks. University officials are concerned that closing Washington to cars would spread traffic congestion on campus and in surrounding neighborhoods, so they've been paying for studies of a Dinkytown route.

Armed with new numbers, the university said Wednesday that a northern alignment would attract fewer riders -- about 36,000 each weekday instead of 42,000 -- but could still meet federal cost requirements. They also said that engineering on the route was 15 percent complete.

Met Council officials said that federal officials were unlikely to accept the university's cost-effectiveness methodology and disputed the progress on the engineering, saying it was more like 3 to 5 percent done.

Bell agreed last fall to give the university some time to study the option, and he said Wednesday that he feels that he has honored that commitment. "The question I think the U needs to address is letting go of the northern alignment," he said, reiterating his concern that further study will delay the project and drive up costs.

"My big fear is that we would lose two years, and then go on Washington Avenue anyhow," he said.

The Met Council hopes to apply for federal money in September. The planning committee will meet again next week to take up a resolution that would end consideration of the northern alignment and endorse the Washington Avenue route.

Central Corridor engineers, meanwhile, have been redoing some math of their own: Estimates of the time it would take to get from downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis somehow omitted 1,300 feet of track through the university area. To meet the federal cost-effectiveness index with the new ride time, planners had to knock $17 million off the line's cost, mostly by reducing the amount of right of way they plan to purchase. The new cost estimate is $892 million.

Jim Foti • 612-673-4491

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