Our next few months will be filled with news about the November election, but clearly the hottest topic in Minneapolis and Hennepin County is whether to build the last major section of the light rail system up to Brooklyn Park.

I say that based on the strong reactions to my column on June 19 advocating for the Blue Line light rail extension through north Minneapolis. I wrote that just after a front-page story about the cost of the extension rising to $3.6 billion, and the column prompted the most reader feedback of anything I’ve written this summer.

I argued the line represents the strongest bet on economic development that could be made in some of the poorest areas of the Twin Cities. I stand by that opinion, but I recognize there are strong counterpoints, including that there’s a far cheaper alternative in speedy bus lines.

“Please think more about how light rail isn’t the correct fit for this route. Bus Rapid Transit is a better fit for numerous reasons,” wrote Nancy Johnson of Robbinsdale, the first community on the route outside of Minneapolis.

She said her thinking was informed by the disruption to University Avenue in St. Paul because of the Green Line, which started construction in 2010 and opened in 2014.

“Just ride that light rail and you see plenty of boarded up, empty spaces with no real enjoyment of the area,” she added. “Yes, at some point we may see that area thriving again. But what about the people? All the hard-earned money they put into their businesses only to have the Green Line destroy what they had built.”

The original section of the Green Line runs between the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul and includes several stops at the University of Minnesota’s main campus. An extension of that line to the suburbs of Hopkins, Minnetonka and Eden Prairie has taken several years longer than expected and cost at least $1 billion more than budgeted due to delays and design changes, leading to several damning reports by the state’s legislative auditor.

“Light rail is a great amenity, I use the Hiawatha [Blue] Line often ... but isn’t there some way to avoid using the Met Council people who screwed up the Eden Prairie line so thoroughly?” reader Stephen Mayer of Minneapolis wrote.

David Markle of Minneapolis, who has written about light rail issues for Streets.mn and elsewhere, told me in an email the Blue Line extension northward is “another example of bungled rail design.”

“Bad design has been the common, damning element in all of our metropolitan area’s LRT planning, with the exception of the basic design of the existing Blue Line,” Markle added.

“The two faults that prevail in transit planning here are, 1) failure to realize that transit is for public transportation, not to promote development, and 2) failure to recognize the fundamental difference between trains and street cars,” he wrote in a later exchange.

Light rail trains and the infrastructure they require are too big to offer the frequent stops that street cars once did, Markle and other critics say. But they are also forced to stop so often at street-level intersections that they don’t offer speed as a convenience. However, some regular light-rail riders forced onto buses in Minneapolis this summer because of line service work saw their commute times rise.

Markle also participates in a group called Citizens Advocates for Regional Transit that meets regularly to discuss transit planning issues. One of its cofounders, Jerome Johnson of St. Paul, co-wrote an op-ed for the Minnesota Star Tribune last weekend that challenged my argument that developers tend to like light rail projects because they’re more permanent than bus routes.

“The reality is another matter,” Johnson and co-author Kristel Porter of the West Broadway Business and Area Coalition wrote. They cited examples of restaurants and other businesses that have opened at the former Brookdale Center, now called Shingle Creek Crossing, in Brooklyn Center due in part to better bus routes.

There’s also been some academic research, by Macalester economist Sarah West and others, showing light rail doesn’t make a big difference in the economic development of nearby surroundings.

The most persuasive counterpoint to my column, though, was far simpler and came from numerous people: Ridership on the existing light rail system has fallen. There are big reasons for that, including the slowing of population growth and the change in commuting and working patterns that emerged in the pandemic.

That’s why I would not be surprised if people in Minneapolis and Hennepin County in coming months reach a different conclusion than me — that the metro region has enough light rail already — and halt the Blue Line extension.

©2026 The Minnesota Star Tribune.
Visit startribune.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC