Lake Street/Midtown | |||||||||||
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![]() Lake Street/Midtown station platform | |||||||||||
General information | |||||||||||
Location | 2310 Lake Street East Minneapolis, Minnesota | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 44°56′54″N93°14′20″W / 44.9483°N 93.2389°W | ||||||||||
Owned by | Metro Transit | ||||||||||
Platforms | 1 island platform | ||||||||||
Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||
Connections | ![]() | ||||||||||
Construction | |||||||||||
Structure type | Elevated | ||||||||||
Accessible | Yes | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
Opened | June 26, 2004 | ||||||||||
Passengers | |||||||||||
2023 | 1,750 daily [1] ![]() | ||||||||||
Rank | 8 out of 37 | ||||||||||
Services | |||||||||||
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Lake Street/Midtown station, also referred locally as either the Lake Street station or Midtown station, is a Blue Line light rail stop in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The station is located on a bridge over East Lake Street adjacent to Highway 55.
The station offers connections to buses on Lake Street which include Route 21. The future Metro B Line will have stations below the Blue Line station on Lake Street. An eastbound BRT station was built in 2015 and while the west station will be built in 2024 for an expected opening of the B Line in June 2025.
This elevated station spans over East Lake Street along the west side of Minnesota State Highway 55, which is known as Hiawatha Avenue along this stretch of road. This is a center-platform station. Along with the Franklin Avenue station, the Lake Street/Midtown station is one of the two above-grade stations on the Blue Line. Service began at this station when the Blue Line opened on June 26, 2004.
The Midtown Station is one of four stations immediately adjacent to Hiawatha Avenue. Others include 38th Street Station, 46th Street Station, and 50th Street Station. The Hiawatha Corridor features a wide variety of architecture including grain elevators, subsidized housing, and well-established neighborhoods, such as Longfellow and Corcoran.
Just north of the station, the Blue Line crosses over Hiawatha Avenue on a concrete box girder flyover before returning to grade level.
The seasonal Midtown Farmers' Market operates weekly on a space immediately adjacent to the station. The market features produce, meat, cheese, bread, eggs, flowers, crafts, hot food, music and family-oriented entertainment.
In July 2008, local residents teamed up with Metro Transit and Xcel Energy to decorate several electric boxes situated between the station and the park and ride lot. The murals painted on the structures depict grain stalks on a blue sky, and are intended to represent the Midtown Farmers' Market held adjacent to the station. Local residents also encouraged Metro Transit to install sidewalks and stairs along lines of bare dirt where riders frequently cut through a sloping grassy area. This improved station access and reduced erosion problems. [2]
This station was planned to serve as the terminus of the Minneapolis Streetcar System's Midtown Greenway Line.
Upon opening, the station hosted a 170-space park and ride lot immediately southwest of the station, leased from Anishinabe Academy elementary school. [3] The lot was only planned to exist temporarily and close when park and ride lots outside Minneapolis opened. [4]
It was regularly filled beyond capacity, with parking overflowing into aisles and onto nearby streets. [4] Residents have complained about the lack of parking (and specifically the overflow onto streets) at neighborhood meetings. Crime has also been an intermittent problem in the parking lot, with victims attributing the lot's poor overhead lighting as a major contributing factor. Local residents and the neighborhood organization called upon Metro Transit to improve the lighting situation, but the process has been complicated by the fact that Metro Transit did not own the lot, but merely leased it from the public school district.
This lot was the only park and ride lot on the Blue Line within the city of Minneapolis. The lot closed March 7, 2015 for redevelopment. [5] There are over 2,500 park and ride spaces at Fort Snelling station and 28th Avenue station at the southern end of the Blue Line.
From the station, passengers go down one level to make direct connections to bus routes 21, 27, and 53. [4]
The station will be a stop on the Metro B Line, an under construction bus rapid transit line that will substantially replace Route 21 along Lake Street and Selby Avenue. Route 21 currently carries 10,000 passengers every weekday, while only making up 2% of traffic on Lake Street. Improvements would include specialized stations and buses and frequent all-day service. To speed up travel times, which usually slows to 8 mph (13 km/h) during rush hours, off-board fare collection, near-level boarding, and transit signal priority will be implemented.
When the line opens, it will provide a crosstown connection to Southwest LRT, Metro E Line, Orange Line, D Line, and A Line with the final terminus at Union Depot in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota. The eastbound BRT station was constructed in 2015 and includes a distinct shelter and station marker, near-level boarding, heating and lighting, and infrastructure for off-board fare collection once the B Line begins operating. The B Line went through engineering in 2020, with construction starting in 2023, and passenger operations beginning in 2024. [6]
Since opening 20 years ago, the condition of the station has declined with frequent vandalism, shattered glass, broken elevators and escalators, and higher levels of crime. Since 2023 there have been security guards positioned at the station which transit officials say have been effective at reducing crime. [7] [8] [9] There have been several high profile shootings and assaults at the station. [10] [11]
In 2024, the Metropolitan Council awarded a contract to redesign the station with construction potentially beginning in 2025. [7] The light rail system in Minnesota is based on proof-of-payment but the Metropolitan Council is considering enclosing the station with faregates. [12]
The Metro Blue Line is a 12-mile (19.3 km) light rail line in Hennepin County, Minnesota, that is part of the Metro network. It travels from downtown Minneapolis to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport and the southern suburb of Bloomington. Formerly the Hiawatha Line prior to May 2013, the line was originally named after the Milwaukee Road's Hiawatha passenger train and Hiawatha Avenue, reusing infrastructure from the former and running parallel to the latter for a portion of the route. The line opened June 26, 2004, and was the first light rail service in Minnesota. An extension, Bottineau LRT, is planned to open in 2028.
Metro Transit is the primary public transportation operator in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the largest operator in the state. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 44,977,200, or about 142,700 per weekday as of the first quarter of 2024.
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Franklin Avenue station is a light rail station on the Blue Line in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
38th Street station is a light rail station on the Blue Line in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
46th Street station is a light rail station on the Metro Blue Line in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This station is located on the northwest corner of the intersection of 46th Street and Minnesota State Highway 55, in the Ericsson neighborhood. This is a side-platform station. Service began at this station when the Blue Line opened on June 26, 2004.
30th Avenue station is a light rail and bus station on the Blue Line in the Twin Cities region of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The station opened with the second phase of the Hiawatha Line on December 4, 2004. It has a 1,585-space park and ride facility. The south parking lot was closed for construction of a 1,443 space parking ramp, which opened in Fall 2008.
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Lake Street is a major east-west thoroughfare between 29th and 31st streets in Minneapolis, Minnesota United States. From its western most end at the city's limits, Lake Street reaches the Chain of Lakes, passing over a small channel linking Bde Maka Ska and Lake of the Isles, and at its eastern most end it reaches the Mississippi River. In May 2020, the Lake Street corridor suffered extensive damage during local unrest following the murder of George Floyd. In August of the same year, city officials designated East Lake Street as one of seven cultural districts to promote racial equity, preserve cultural identity, and promote economic growth.
The Midtown Farmers Market is a seasonal open-air farmers market in the Midtown area of south Minneapolis. Established in 2003, the market is held Saturdays from May through October, and Tuesdays from June through October in a parking lot in the Corcoran neighborhood. The market is a project of the Corcoran Neighborhood Organization, and is known for a selection of locally produced and organic fare. All of the products sold at the market are grown or produced in Minnesota or Wisconsin by the individual vendors. At the peak of the season, the Saturday market hosts over 70 vendors and draws over 60,000 shoppers each season.
Metro is a transit network in Minnesota serving the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. It also provides service to some suburban areas. As of 2022, the system consists of two light rail lines and five bus rapid transit (BRT) lines all of which are operated by the local public transit company: Metro Transit. The five lines connect Downtown Minneapolis and St Paul with the Bloomington, Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport, Roseville, Richfield, Burnsville and Brooklyn Center.
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