By far the biggest headache of the morning was on the Northstar Commuter line. Two broken down locomotives blocked the eastbound tracks, and that forced Metro Transit to cancel the first four inbound trips.
The fifth trip did depart Big Lake at 7:42 a.m., about 21 minutes behind schedule. By then, passengers in Elk River, Ramsey, Coon Rapids, Anoka and Fridley had been put on buses to downtown Minneapolis. Early riders had to wait, however, as the first two Northstar runs to downtown Minneapolis were cancelled.
Those commuting by car had few problems today, although a couple of crashes on westbound 94 during the 8 a.m. hour caused delays of about 20 minutes for those heading from St. Paul into Minneapolis.
At this hour, the biggest problems are on the ramp from northbound Cedar Avenue to westbound Crosstown. It's shut down as crews tend to a semi leaking fuel.
Look out for a fender bender on northbound 35W at Hwy. 13. It's on the right and leading to a minor delay.
Northbound Hwy. 169 is starting to loosen from Canterbury Road up to 494. Still plan on 13 minutes for that trip.
