Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul - Metro Green Line

The Green Line of the Minneapolis/St Paul Metro is a light rail route which opened in 2014, linking the twin cities.  The majority of the route is in the median of University Avenue.  Stations are also built in the median.

As would be expected for a brand new system, signage is smart and consistent. Typical of public transport is an explicit list of rules.

Stations are all built to a consistent design.  The shelter doesn't look like it would be very effective in a cold northern winter in wind, snow ice and rain!

A good set of information is provided at every station.  It looks well maintained.

M/SP Metro has a smart card ticketing system called Go To.  This is one of the validators, where you need to select the fare as well as validate the card.  I'm not sure why/how this works as the system operates on a flat fare system.

Ticket machines. One per platform.  Simple to use.

I would assume anyone wanting some kind of travel card or Go To electronic ticket would research first.  For a one way ticket in to St Paul there is a flat fare.  It should be noted there fare is 50cents higher in the AM and PM peak.

Entry to the 'paid' side is denoted by these paving stones!  I'm sure that was a stroke of genius by the scheme promoter but they are very easy to miss, as I did at first.

A fleet of US-built Siemens light rail vehicles operates the Green Line.  These appear to be a standard LRV in the USA but have limited applications in the rest of the world. 

Tip-down seats mean you have to tip all 3, which isn't good if you were to have, say, a parent and a baby in a buggy travelling together,

Simple line diagrams above each door. As well as the route between the two cities there is also light rail service to the Minneapolis International Airport and the Mall of America (either the largest or second largest mall in the USA, I forget which!)

 

Space for bicycles is provided in each LRV.  This is typical of unexpectedly-good provision for cyclists on US public transport.

However some seats have about 3 inches of legroom.  You'd think Siemens would do better!

The Green Line service is operated by up to  three LRVs in a single consist.  After the PM peak I observed single vehicles being detached at the St Paul terminus to run back in to the depot.