Hiawatha Line

The Hiawatha Line is a light rail line in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. The 19.8 km long line leading from Minneapolis to the suburb of Bloomington and connects the city to the Mall of America and Minneapolis -Saint Paul.

It is the first city railway Minneapolis ' since the 1950s and carries around 10.2 million passengers (2008). The movement is carried out by the Metro Transit.

History

After the tram network in the Twin Cities decommissioned in 1954 and the tracks were removed, grew up in the 1990s, the desire for a new light rail. Main reason for this was that traffic- reached its capacity limit due to the growth of the metropolitan area. The only alternative to popular private automobile traffic was the bus network of Metro Transit. So drove especially Governor Jesse Ventura forward with the construction of light rail and put federal support in view. However, the selection of the route was not without controversy. Routes from the city to the western suburbs and between Minneapolis and St. Paul were discussed. Nevertheless, the route continued to the airport and the Mall of America by.

On 17 January 2001, the construction began. In addition to delays in construction, the costs rose explosive. The planned expenditure of 400 million U.S. dollars were soon exceeded and were at the end at around 715 million U.S. dollars, of which 424 million were borne by the state of Minnesota.

The regular commercial service started in a first phase on 26 June 2004, the second phase of operation began on 4 December of the same year. Is named the line after the Hiawatha Avenue (Minnesota State Route 55), which runs a large part parallel to the route.

Problems in coordinating the signaling systems between the road and the rail make 2005 a retrofit required, the cost was about $ 400,000. Here, the coordination problems of the individual signals were eliminated in order to achieve a smoother traffic flow with shorter waiting times.

2009, the Hiawatha Line was to Target Field, the new baseball stadium, expanded to the north. There she meets the North Star Line, a railway line that ' combines some northern suburbs with downtown Minneapolis. In Bloomington came with the American Boulevard station also added a new stop. Furthermore, it was started in summer 2009 with the expansion of individual stops. This will be extended to allow vehicles with three instead of the current with a maximum of two cars can drive on the track as a unit.

Rolling stock

The Hiawatha Line used Flexity Swift cars from Bombardier. The power supplied via an overhead line city trains run at an operating speed of up to 65 km / h - within the city, however, usually much slower. The 27 low-floor vehicles have a share of 70 percent; make - as well as all stations - a barrier- free use of Hiwatha Line. Each car has 66 seats and 120 standing room, with one or two cars operate as a unit.

Stations

The Hiawatha Line runs from the station Target Field past the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome ( Metrodome Station) and continue through the downtown Minneapolis to the south. About the Minneapolis -St. Paul International Airport ends the car in Bloomington at the Mall of America station. The 19 stations are day buses every 7.5 minutes in 10 -minute intervals, at rush hour. In the evening the Hiawatha Line runs every 30 -minute intervals, night driving mode is interrupted by a four-hour break in operation.