"You can't have contractors working on top of contractors," he said.

Plans for commuter rail and an extension of the light rail line down 5th Street were well advanced before the Legislature voted this spring in favor of a new Twins stadium next to the new rail connection.

Since then, rail officials have backtracked to work with stadium planners to make sure that Minnesota's two largest publicly funded projects work well together, said Mark Fuhrmann, director of the Northstar commuter rail project.

Northstar project officials moved the commuter rail station a few hundred feet to the north to create more space for the ballpark. Transit officials also shifted the location of the Hiawatha station from one side of N. 5th Street to the other.

Designers have been careful to match the elevation of the rail track with the ballpark so that passengers can walk off the train into the stadium's concourse level.

"There is a spirit to ensure that we get these connections right,'' St. Peter said. The stadium will have views of the light rail trains as they come down 5th Street, and the ballpark stop will be a major stadium entrance, he said.

"It's really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a transit-oriented ballpark. We are spending a great deal of our time to make sure that what we think is an accessible ballpark is truly accessible.''

Commuter rail passengers will arrive at the stadium on ground level directly below the light rail station and take an elevator, escalators or stairs up to connect with the light rail line. These will be tucked into the ballpark structure to take advantage of the stadium utility connections.