Community Corner

LRT, Freight Rail 'Co-Location' Emphasized at Council Work Session

The St. Louis Park city council discussed options for running freight trains and light rail in the Cedar Lake Trail corridor during a Monday evening work session.

The St. Louis Park city council considered ways to run its freight rail line parallel to the Southwest Light Rail Transitway on Monday evening, several weeks after the Met Council released proposals that would reroute freight tracks past the high school.

During a council work session, discussion centered around options that would keep freight rail in the same corridor as light-rail and the Cedar Lake Trail—options known as “co-location.”

The alternative option of rerouting freight tracks through or near the existing St. Louis Park High School football field has consistently drawn backlash from residents, most recently during last week’s Met Council open houses.

But it appears that the St. Louis Park city council will favor one of the six co-location options that would keep Twin Cities & Western (TC&W) freight trains in Minneapolis’ Kenilworth corridor:

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  • “Building LRT tracks along the freight tracks and trail, with all modes at ground level.”

  • “Relocating the trail out of the corridor between the Midtown Greenway and Cedar Lake Parkway.”

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  • “Elevating the trail.”

  • “Building a shallow tunnel for LRT tracks.”

  • “Building deep twin tunnels, with one tunnel for each LRT track.”

  • “Elevating LRT tracks.”

  • Looking ahead at co-location options, the city council discussed whether bridges and tunnels on Beltline Boulevard and Woodale Avenue would be necessary to address traffic concerns.

    “When the light rail passes at grade, it’s less than 30 seconds, it’s quicker than a red light,” city council member Anne Mavity said. “I’ve been saying over and over that we need to keep the trains moving, that moving trains have a lighter impact than stopped trains.”

    Kevin Locke, the city’s director of community development who led the council discussion, said that light-rail would likely harm the “green, very park-like experience” of Cedar Lake Trail.

    “The more things you put in that corridor, it’s going to reduce that and light-rail trains, frankly, are probably the biggest factor,” he said.

    Locke questioned whether freight rail in the corridor could affect pedestrians, bicyclists and development opportunities, though he noted that the proximity to Highway 7 has made the area south of the line something of a “dead area.”

    “If a long train comes at peak hour”—the evening—“you conceivably have significant backup start to have some significant backup, you could have traffic backup onto Highway 7,” he said.

    Council members talked loosely about the possibility of multiple grade-separation configurations to ease traffic: raising or lowering the light-rail line, the freight tracks, the Cedar Lake Trail, or the north-south roadways.

    “There will probably be more traffic in the future and part of it has to do with the nature of St. Louis Park,” Locke said. “We don’t have very many north-south crossings.”

    Jami LaPray, a Sorenson resident who co-chairs Safety in the Park, said rerouting the freight line past the high school would disrupt the community and pose a safety hazard.

    "It's going to put our children at risk—not just of derailments but in hearing what's going on in their classrooms," she said.


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