Statement on New Route Recommendation for Blue Line Extension Light Rail Project
What’s New?
On April 18, 2022, Hennepin County and the Metropolitan Council announced a new route recommendation for the Blue Line Extension Light Rail project. This decision comes after the need to modify the alignment, an 18 month process of community engagement, and extensive engineering studies. The new route, beginning in downtown Minneapolis at Target Field station, will proceed north towards Lyndale Ave, turn west onto West Broadway Ave, and continue northwest along County Road 81 until shifting due north onto Broadway Ave in Brooklyn Park, and terminating at the Target North campus located just north of Highway 610.
The new proposed route for the Blue Line Extension Light Rail project will bring transformational benefits to residents from Minneapolis to Brooklyn Park. The communities served by the proposed route are transit-reliant, racially diverse, and have experienced historical disinvestment. The route will connect students to education, workers to jobs, patients to healthcare, and families to resources, while connecting the corridor to the broader transit network. This project will ignite economic development for small businesses, result in more affordable housing options, increase access to educational opportunities, and build wealth for working families.
Provide your input on the recommended route by May 18
Thank you to the thousands of people who have contributed to get us to this point. Now that we have the modified route, please consider providing input through the options below!
Your input will be integrated into the final route recommended to the Federal Transit Administration; and should that be accepted, the project will proceed to environmental review. Both federal and state governments have environmental review processes to ensure that environmental impacts, climate patterns, water storage, and green spaces are incorporated into the project’s design.
Background
For decades, Hennepin County and the Metropolitan Council had planned work with BNSF Railway to co-locate light rail transit and freight rail in the Bottineau Corridor. However it became clear in the last few years that BNSF had no interest in working with the public on this project. So on August 3, 2020, Hennepin and the Met Council announced that the project would move forward without using right-of-way controlled by BNSF Railway and began to look at new potential route options.
On March 11, 2021, Hennepin and the Met Council published new potential route options for community members to discuss and provide feedback on. This work resulted in the route released on April 18, 2022.
My Commitment
As a Hennepin County Commissioner, Chair of the Hennepin County Railroad Authority, and a North Minneapolis resident, I’m excited for the transformational benefits light rail will bring to our communities. The new proposed route of the Blue Line Extension is positioned to serve among the most racially and economically diverse communities in Hennepin, while also connecting transit-reliant residents to the broader regional transit system. This will change the trajectory of what’s possible for so many of our neighbors.
To pursue this work equitably, we must also recognize that large-scale public investments can accelerate patterns of residential and economic displacement. The Blue Line Extension presents an extraordinary opportunity to prioritize racial equity and economic justice in our work. These investments must be designed to prevent displacement, repair historical harms, and build civic capacity within the marginalized communities we serve.
I am deeply committed to working with partners at every level of government and in our communities to ensure this investment benefits corridor residents, builds community wealth, and meaningfully addresses decades-long patterns of disinvestment.
Lastly, I acknowledge that this project has had several routes over the years, and I extend a heartfelt thank you to residents, communities, and partners who worked to assess these options. I will continue to work hard to advance Bus Rapid Transit routes along Highway 55 and Lowry Ave North in order to fulfill the robust, multimodal transit system that our metro needs.
If you have further questions, comments, or concerns, please reach out to Constituent Services & Policy Aide Bill Emory at bill.emory@hennepin.us