Metro Transit light-rail vehicle No. 114 is first to 1 million miles

Metro Transit's light-rail vehicle No. 114 made its first run between downtown Minneapolis and the Mall of America on the Blue Line's opening day in June 2004.

Over the past 14 years the rail car has made about 83,300 trips along the 11-mile line and whisked riders to some of Minneapolis' biggest events: The 2018 Super Bowl, the 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Lynx championship games and scores of other sporting events. It's also delivered countless riders to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

On Thursday, the odometer rolled over the 1 million mile mark and in the process became the first in Metro Transit's fleet of 91 light-rail vehicles to reach that historic milestone.

The car has predominantly run on the Blue Line, but occasionally has been deployed on the newer Green Line, said transit agency spokesman John Komarek.

Metro Transit said it credits its maintenance team with keeping the car in shipshape.

Vehicle No. 114 will continue to roll as light-rail ridership continue to soar. Through the first six months of 2018, Blue Line provided 5.26 million rides and averaged 31,571 rides each day. The Green Line provided 6.57 million rides and averaged 40,820 rides each day.

Both figures put rail ridership on course to break last year's record marks in which passengers took 10.668 million rides on the Blue Line and 13.142 million on the Green Line.

Metro Transit is preparing to receive 50 new light-rail vehicles as plans to expand the system with the Southwest Light Rail line from downtown Minneapolis to Eden Prairie and the Blue Line Extension from downtown Minneapolis to Brooklyn Park.