Southwest Light Rail via Kenilworth moves ahead; next stop: County Board

A Kenilworth route for a proposed Southwest Light Rail line from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie got a second endorsement Wednesday from city, county and community representatives, who recommended that the Hennepin County Board approve the route on Nov. 3.

"We tried over the last eight years to come up with something that was a good transit solution for the cities and the region, and I think we achieved that today," said Hennepin County Commissioner Gail Dorfman, who chairs the Southwest Policy Advisory Committee.

But representatives of Minneapolis' Uptown area, bypassed by the recommended rail route, made another bid for service to their area -- most likely in the form of streetcars.

The route approved by the committee, known as "Route 3A," would run from the new Twins ballpark in downtown Minneapolis to the Kenilworth neighborhood between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles, and from there on through St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Minnetonka. It would end in Eden Prairie, where it would pass through the city's Golden Triangle business district and the Eden Prairie Town Center on its way to a final stop at SouthWest Station.

Minneapolis City Council Member Ralph Remington cast the only vote against the route. As a representative of south Minneapolis, he said he would prefer a route through Uptown.

As a fallback, he tried but failed to get the committee to approve a strongly worded commitment to a streetcar link between Uptown and the proposed Southwest Light Rail line.

Instead, the committee endorsed a general statement: "That the region continue to explore the development of and commitment to the Midtown Corridor as a rail transit connection between the Southwest and Hiawatha LRT lines."

"I think the formula is flawed," Remington said. " I still believe the greater number of citizens in Minneapolis are not being served" by the chosen route.

Without a rail link, the citizens of Uptown and southwest Minneapolis will be disconnected from the rest of the rail system, Remington said.

Peter Wagenius, an aide representing Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, said the mayor also wanted strong support from the group for a streetcar link to Uptown.

"We are being asked to let go of the best chance at the moment of bringing light rail to south Minneapolis," Wagenius said. "A lot of people in south Minneapolis have been told we can support Kenilworth [Route 3A] because streetcars are coming."

Thatcher Imoden of the Uptown Association said Uptown urgently needs better transit.

"We are a regional destination. ... Something needs to be done."

Serious consideration of the Uptown route ended in August, when cost and ridership estimates were released. They showed that Route 3A through Kenilworth would meet the federal cost-benefit criteria necessary to compete for federal funding for the rail line while the Uptown route would not. Because the proposed rail line would cost more than $1 billion, committee members have said federal assistance will be essential.

For the Uptown route to qualify for federal funding, it would need double the projected ridership of about 30,000 a day, or an impossible cost reduction from $1.8 billion to $310 million, according to a fact sheet prepared by the PAC staff. The Uptown route would cost $600 million more than the Kenilworth route because it would include an expensive tunnel close to downtown to avoid disrupting traffic.

Trip time, another factor considered by the federal agency, would be faster on the Kenilworth route. On Route 3A, it would take an estimated 32 minutes from Eden Prairie to a stop at the new Twins stadium in downtown Minneapolis, compared with 40 minutes on the route through Uptown.

Finally, Uptown has such good bus service now that eliminating bus routes to add light rail would lengthen travel time for many riders who can catch a bus closer to home or their place of work, the fact sheet said.

If the County Board approves it, Route 3A would require final approval by the Metropolitan Council.

Then the project would next seek federal approval to enter into preliminary engineering.