Central Corridor
Photo by Andrew Tucker
The Central Corridor is a light rail transit (LRT) line that will connect Downtown St. Paul and Downtown Minneapolis along University Avenue. In total, it will link five major activity centers: the two Downtowns, the University of Minnesota, the Midway area, and the State Capital complex.
The area suffers from traffic congestion, and projections estimate that the adjacent Interstate 94 will exceed capacity by 2020. This line, which will feature 18 new stations plus five stations shared with the Hiawatha Line in Downtown Minneapolis, is essential to creating comprehensive regional connectivity within a multimodal network. The established communities, development patterns, demographics, and land uses along the corridor are very diverse. Special attention to 'ground-up' consensus gathering must be paid as planners apply the overall development plan to specific station area plans.
By early 2011, the corridor was under construction and passenger service was expected to begin by 2014.
Visit the Metropolitan Council's page on the Central Corridor here.
Other Central Corridor Resources
- Read Saint Paul’s Central Corridor Development Strategy here. This work addresses the related land use, economic and social development impacts that may result from the investment in LRT.
- The City of Saint Paul has also developed station area plans looking at the quarter mile radius around the future LRT stations in the city. Read more about that process and see the final version of the plans here.
- Download a study on the Long Term TOD Investment Framework for the Central Corridor here.
- Visit the Central Corridor Funder's Collaborative page here.
- As part of the TOD Toolkit, CTOD created a powerpoint and related pdf handout that give an overview of the Central Corridor and a basic "making the case" for TOD. Download PPT or View Slideshow here. Download related PDF here.