Minneapolis Streetcar System
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Locale | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Transit type | Streetcar |
| Number of lines | 5 |
The Minneapolis Streetcar System is a proposed streetcar system for the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Extensive studies and plans for the new system were completed in 2007 and presented to the Minneapolis City Council in January 2008; on April 2, 2010, the Council voted to approve the plans and seek funding. On December 21, 2010 the Federal Transit Administration granted $900,000 to further study the Nicollet and Central Avenue corridors.
Based on similar federal funded streetcar programs in the USA (mainly Portland, Oregon) streetcars are rarely separated from other traffic and are not given traffic-signal priority over other vehicles (like Light rail), except in a few situations to allow the rail cars—which cannot turn as sharply as most other motor vehicles—to make some turns. In Portland, using this "mixed traffic" operation has reduced the cost of constructing each segment and—by not closing traffic lanes permanently to other traffic, as is typically done with light rail—also minimized disruption to traffic flow, and allows curbside parking to be retained, but also means slower operating speeds compared to light rail. Additional factors making the Portland Streetcar line less expensive to build per mile than light rail are that use of city streets largely eliminated the need to acquire private property for portions of the right-of-way, as has been necessary for the region's light rail lines, and that the vehicles' smaller size and therefore lighter weight has enabled the use of a "shallower track slab". The latter means that construction of the trackway necessitated excavating to a depth of only 12.2 inches (310 mm) instead of the conventional (for light rail) depth of around 18.3 inches (460 mm), significantly reducing the extent to which previously existing underground utilities had to be relocated to accommodate the trackway.
Each Portland streetcar is 66 feet (20.12 m) long, whereas light rail cars are typically 80 to 95 feet (24.38 to 28.96 m) long (Portland's Lightrail are between 80 and 95 feet (24.38 and 28.96 m). long) and streetcars are operated as single cars at all times, never coupled into trains. The shorter cars keeps station construction expense lower than would be the case for a light-rail station, but the smaller cars do not provide equal carrying capacity as that of a light-rail train. A single articulated Portland streetcar is only about one-third the length of a two-car Lightrail Trains. It can be assumed that the Minneapolis streetcars would follow similar design standards or acquire ex-Twin City Rapid Transit PCC streetcars from Newark City Subway.
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