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HIAWATHA LIGHT RAIL LINE
The Hiawatha
LRT line is Minnesota's first venture back into rail transit after 50 years
without the streetcars. The line opens June 26th 2004 - just 10 days after the
50 year anniversary of the last streetcar trip in the Twin Cities. Ironically
as this line opens streetcar tracks are still being found under the pavement on
road projects at the U of M and around the city...
Andy
Inserra serves on the line's Community Advisory Committee as the U of M student
representative and was able to bring us these photos from the preview night on
May 23rd, just over a month before the official opening of the line. Here are a
few photos from that evening...
A pair of trains meet at the
Government Center station - here is the Minneapolis City Hall while on the
other platform is the Hennipen County Courthouse and behind city hall is the
Federal Building & Courthouse - the name is quite accurate! This is also
the starting point for our rides this eveing...
A two car
train pulls into the Government Center station passing the huge art displays
from Jerusalem's Museum of the Seam "Coexistance" tour helping to promote peace
and unity.
A southbound train pulls into the Gov't Center station as
this train departs to head north....
The view from the rear cab as we
depart the Lake Street station - it is the only elevated station on the line
and for a short stretch of your trip you feel a bit like you are in Chicago or
New York as you cruise over the buildings around Lake St.
Inside the new
cars - they are very smooth riding and quite a change from those of you used to
riding the hot and cramped 16 bus from the U to downtown in the rush
hour!
And inside the cars again - Josh Collins from the Hiawatha
Project Office [HPO] is on the left with the yellow safety jacket. Josh has
been the construction liason as well as one of the folks talking to businesses
and communities along the line to keep them up to date with all the work.
And until December this is the end of the line for
passengers. Fort Snelling is as far south as we go until the south 1/3 of the
line is completed - including the airport tunnels. Some rare milage for us that
night - a trip on the thrid track at Fort Snelling. This track will be used for
staging trains for rush hour.
Car Delivery
Ever
wonder how they deliver 94 foot LRT cars? This is how - on large CP Rail flats
with spacers. This is the 26th St. offload ramps - the cars are on Minnesota
Commercial tracks.
You can see Downtown from here and the
northern part of the Lake St. eL style trackage rising up on the left - a train
can just barely be seen going up the grade...
To unload - a Rocket
crane helps move the car onto the spur and from there the car-mover tows it to
the shops where the tarps are removed in about an hour.
HOP ON!
Click here for the sounds of the
Hiawatha Line
Andy Inserra once again got a chance to go behind
the scenes as a part of the MN Public Works employee tours. This time it was
this past August down into the tunnels under the airport. Here he brings us
photos of the Lindbergh station - the lighting was tough since it was purely
work lighting the entire way and not the best for photography...
The approach -
you can see the terminals in the background
Entering the tunnels
In the
tunnels - these bores were the subject to much public interest from the time
the equipment arrived by ship in Duluth till the day they were
completed
The station itself - those are hi-rail cherry-pickers on the
right side of the platform stringing the overhead wire...
The huge
vents located at the end of the station, soon to be hidden from view. Seen here
from the walkway to the terminal that goes over the tracks [you can see them on
the bottom with one of the track signals]
The big
picture. The "Grand Entrance" stairs and elevators are to the left leading down
to the platform, lights are in front arching over the tracks to illuminate the
platform area...
The map to the system - click on it for more
details at the Metro Transit website.
Map -
HPO/Metro Transit
Come on out and ride the train!
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