MULTI-MODAL Mondays: Hub Dreams and Doubts Abound

One of the Minnesota Twin Cities--state capital St. Paul--is building a giant multi-modal transit center downtown by renovating its historic Union Depot railroad station, but there are doubts about its efficacy as a hub of productivity, growth and activity. The transit center will be connected to the light-rail line, now under construction and scheduled to open in 2014, which will link the state's capital burg with its larger twin, Minneapolis. Of course, it will only have a fighting chance if it's a true hub...for local buses, light-rail, Amtrak, bicyclists, and intercity buses (those are part of the plans).

Will it connect to bicycle paths? Will there be bike lockers? Will there be adequate signage designed to international standards that clearly display where all the various transit modes are located, and show clearly departure and arrival times? 

Stay tuned.

(Perhaps the good news in all this is that the opening of the light-rail line will connect St. Paul, by rail, and via the existing light-rail line from downtown Minneapolis, with MSP, reducing the carbon footprint of one of the largest airports in the Midwest)

Meanwhile, in the lower Midwest, Indianapolis is doing some soul-searching about how to how to improve public transit, after the bus system cut routes and trips. A Hoosier Transit Hub is still some years away.