New Bottineau Document Shows Why Light Rail Through Golden Valley is Preferred

Faster travel time. More cost effective. Fewer traffic impacts.

These are some of the D-1 alignment benefits outlined in a recently finished document that reviews Bottineau Transitway route alternatives.

See PDF to the right.

According to Golden Valley City Council documents, the Metropolitan Council received the Bottineau Transitway Alternatives Analysis on Jan. 9.  The 27 page document was compiled by the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority.

The Met Council is expected to review and adopt the analysis—which explains why the light rail path through Golden Valley is preferred—in February. Upon adoption, the Met Council can apply for federal funding through the New Starts program.  

The alternatives analysis says that the D-2 alignment, which would send the train through portions of North Minneapolis, concerns Penn and Oliver Avenue neighbors. To place tracks down Penn Avenue, the road would have to be widened and up to 150 businesses and residences would have to be acquired, according to the analysis.

But changes are coming to Penn Avenue, even if they aren’t in the form of a light rail.

The Bottineau Transitway website shows that the Penn Avenue Community Works Project, adopted last May, will improve livability and economic growth in the area. 

In a Star Tribune article published on Dec. 26, reporter Rochelle Olson said that changes to the roadway on Penn Avenue would be part of an overall “rejuvenation” to the area.  

The article notes that Minneapolis City Council President Barbara Johnson wants to see a light rail station at Golden Valley Road. And though station preferences aren’t specified in the alternative analysis, the Bottineau Transitway Policy Advisory Committee agrees that a train through Golden Valley would be best.

“D-1 would result in significantly less property and neighborhood impacts, improved travel time and greater cost effectiveness, and less disruption of roadway traffic operations,” the Policy Advisory Committee says in the analysis.

In December, the Golden Valley City Council passed a resolution of support for the D-1 alignment. Golden Valley was the last city on the Bottineau line to agree to support the locally preferred alternative and further light rail studies.

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