Photos The transit center Busiest spot in the region Your Voice News Forum: What is the best solution? Should owners or MTC support the cost to add the rail platform?

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Light rail pulls into the Mall of America station
by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio
April 9, 2003

Owners spent $2 million on the transit center when the Mall of America was built. (MPR Photo/Dan Olson)

Long before the first Twin Cities light rail car rolls a year from now builders hope to improve the location of one of line's most important stops - the Mall of America station in Bloomington. Planners orginally proposed a station a block and a half away from the shopping center. The search is underway to find the additional money it will cost to deliver light rail passengers closer to the Mall.

Bloomington, Minn. — The Mall of America transit center is Minnesota's busiest bus stop. Seventeen routes from around the Twin Cities converge on the ground floor of the Mall of America's huge east side parking ramp.

The buses pull up to a long, broad, litter-free sidewalk heated with overhead warming lamps in cold weather. Riders enter a clean, well-lit lobby the size of two tennis courts. There are metal benches, lockers, vending machines and a big map showing where all the buses go. Escalators take riders up to the skyway for the short walk across the street to the mall entrance. It is an ideal location for a transit stop and Metro Transit General Manager Mike Setzer wants to find a way for light rail passengers to use it.

	Busiest spot in the region

"We'd like to add a rail platform just a few steps away from the bus stop which would also mean people would be a few steps away from the mall itself where they'd go to either shop or work," Setzer says.

Mall of America spokeswoman Monica Davis said the owners are willing to allow a light rail stop at the transit center but won't be contributing any money to help build it. Davis said the owners spent $2 million on the bus facility when the shopping center was built.

She said most of the mall's customers arrive by car, and while the owners agree light rail will be a benefit to the community they don't believe it will benefit the mall.

"So, with about 80 percent of our traffic coming by car and by truck, the other ten percent coming in public transportation and then filling in from hotel shuttles, and taxis and airport shuttles our guests are already finding a way to come into the building and so we're not seeing light rail as solving any problems from a traffic standpoint or getting any people into our building," Davis said.

Planners compromised on the original Mall of America light rail station proposal. The shopping center owners worried that suburban commuters driving in to catch the train downtown would poach mall parking spaces. Planners chose a location a block and half away from the mall's entrance. Metro Transit's Mike Setzer said it's cheaper to find a better light rail location at the Mall now.

"If we can't solve it now, we'll end up solving it later probably at a much higher cost," Setzer said.

Even now, the additional cost of a light rail stop closer to the Mall of America will be expensive. Setzer said they'll have an estimate in a few weeks. The extra money will be needed to buy additional right of way for nearly a half mile of track and land for 400 park-and-ride spots. Setzer said they will not be asking the Minnesota Legislature for funds.

The state has already contributed $100 million to the Hiawatha line. He's hoping cities, counties and some private interests will foot the cost. Setzer said the rest of the $675 million light rail project is within budget.

The Mall of America light rail stop will be one of the busiest of the 17 on the line. Others on the 11.6-mile route from the warehouse district in downtown Minneapolis to the Mall in Bloomington include the Metrodome, the University of Minnesota's west bank campus, the Veterans Hospital and two at the airport.

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