What Should Southwest LRT Planners Do With Freight Rail?

Southwest Light Rail Transit engineers are investigating several new options to mitigate the project’s impact on St. Louis Park residents.  

Neighbors have long opposed a proposal to relocate freight trains that currently run on the planned LRT route to tracks that run closer to neighborhoods. Nearby residents say the additional, heavier freight traffic would lower property values, disrupt nearby St. Louis Park High School and be more dangerous. They prefer keeping the freight line in the same corridor as the light rail—an option known as “co-location.”  

On Tuesday, Southwest LRT officials detailed several alternatives before the St. Louis Park City Council. The photos above illustrate six of the co-location options for the same section of the route (shown as segment B in the map above). That section is currently 49 feet wide. The new widths would range from 65 feet to 94 feet.  

Take a look at the options and then share your thoughts in the comments section below.  

Project engineers will also discuss the options and seek feedback at open houses from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. June 13 in the Commons Cafeteria at Benilde-St. Margaret’s School. That feedback will be shared with members of the project’s business and community advisory committees, the Corridor Management Committee and the Met Council.

The cost of the relocation and co-location options will be presented in midsummer. The Met Council is expected to make a decision about the freight rail issue by late summer.