St. Paul streetcar could worsen traffic at MSP airport, officials say

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport officials have significant concerns about the proposed $2.1 billion Riverview streetcar project that would link downtown St. Paul to the Mall of America, saying the proposed route could snarl airport traffic.

“This could be a real problem for us,” said Bridget Rief, vice president of planning and development for the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), which owns and operates the airport.

Instead, MAC staff say enhanced bus service would be less disruptive to airport passengers and employees — even though it would serve only the airport’s main terminal.

The MAC, whose members are appointed by the governor, has not taken a stand on the proposed Riverview transit project. A recommendation is expected in coming weeks.

Ramsey County transit planners are now seeking public input on the Riverview project, including whether it should be the long-planned streetcar or an addition to the Metro Transit’s growing and popular arterial bus rapid transit network. Enhanced bus service would cost $121 million to build.

Some MAC members expressed dismay with the streetcar proposal at recent meetings, even though the commission has no formal vote on the project in a state-mandated process called municipal consent.

“As a commission, what leverage do we have to make sure it doesn’t get done?” Commissioner James Lawrence, said at a MAC meeting last week. “I may be alone, but I just think it’s crazy.”

A streetcar would operate in traffic on rails mostly along W. 7th Street in St. Paul, and is seen as a way to bolster economic development along the busy corridor. Smaller than light-rail vehicles, streetcars would cross over the Mississippi River on a new $415 million bridge, a figure baked into the overall cost.

The Hwy. 5 bridge would have five lanes, two for streetcars traveling in both directions, and three for traffic. A top tier on the bridge would be used for bicyclists and pedestrians. (The bridge now has two lanes in both directions.)

Ramsey County transit planners prefer two lanes of traffic heading into St. Paul, and one lane south on Hwy. 5 toward the airport, saying it’s safer. But MAC staff says it’s unacceptable.

“We want people to get to their flight on time,” Rief said. “If they’re going to build a new bridge, it’s going to be in place for decades and decades and decades, and that’s a long time to be stuck with one lane of traffic towards the airport.”

The streetcar would then travel to a new stop at Bdote/Historic Fort Snelling before hooking up with the existing Blue Line light-rail route to the airport and the Mall of America.

“The streetcar doesn’t impact the actual entrance to the airport, but it does impact how passengers and employees actually get to the airport,” Rief told a MAC committee last week.

About 35 million passengers travel through the airport each year, with some 68% starting or ending their journeys there. The MAC estimates 60,000 vehicles ferry passengers, visitors and employees to and from the airport every day, but said an updated traffic study hasn’t been done since the pandemic.

Rief also said the addition of a streetcar along 34th Avenue S. en route to Terminal 2 would lead to “intolerable delays,” with a Blue Line train or streetcar traveling along the avenue every five minutes at peak hours. This comes as the MAC plans to expand the smaller terminal.

In contrast, bus rapid transit service would drop off passengers only at Terminal 1 in the Silver Ramp. Passengers heading to Terminal 2, a hub for Sun Country Airlines, would have to take existing light-rail service to get to the smaller terminal, which is the case with current local bus service. In the future, the MAC may build a people-mover between the two terminals.

Some MAC commissioners seemed fixated on the streetcar proposal’s cost last week, even though the MAC is not funding the project. Most of the funding would come from the federal government, and Ramsey and Hennepin counties.