Midtown corridor to be analyzed for rail vs. bus

Metro Transit will get $600,000 to study whether rail or improved bus service would best move people along Lake Street and the parallel Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis. The Federal Transit Administration announced the grant Wednesday. Streetcars and light-rail transit have been advocated as ways to use transit in the greenway to connect the Hiawatha light-rail line and the proposed Southwest light-rail line. Improved bus service also has been advocated for Lake Street. "It's a great alignment. It's poised for enormous economic development," said Council Member Gary Schiff, who represents the area. He said that streetcars and light-rail transit offer alternative ways of serving the greenway, stopping at different intervals and traveling at different speeds. But the location of portions of the greenway in an excavated rail trench also increases the cost of transit service because elevators or escalators are needed, Schiff said. The Midtown Greenway coalition and its member neighborhoods long have advocated for streetcars along the greenway, which now offers foot and bike paths. Minneapolis plans to hire a consultant in January to do a similar analysis of streetcars and other alternatives along Nicollet and Central avenues. That $900,000 study is slated for completion in mid-2013.