Ramsey County officials have canceled planning for the Riverview Corridor, a potential streetcar that would connect downtown St. Paul to the Mall of America in Bloomington.

The 12-mile corridor had drawn increasingly vocal opposition from property owners along West Seventh Street, including many who raised concerns about crime and public safety or said businesses that had barely re-emerged from the pandemic would not survive two years or more of heavy construction.

“Ramsey County has made the difficult decision to end our work and cancel any future meetings on the Riverview Corridor project,” reads a written announcement posted Friday to the county’s website.

“This decision was based on feedback gained during a comprehensive public engagement process with community, businesses and partners. Some were very supportive of streetcar, and some were very supportive of a bus alternative. During engagement sessions, issues were raised about potential construction impacts, safety and security concerns facing transit and communities overall, among other issues.”

County Commissioner Rafael Ortega, a leading proponent of the proposed streetcar, said the tipping point for him came when the Metropolitan Airports Commission raised red flags over a streetcar accessing the same track as the Blue Line light rail, as well as necessary road improvements approaching Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Ortega, the longtime chair of the county’s Regional Rail Authority, said he held a workshop about two weeks ago and it was clear that while members of the Riverview planning task force were on board with a streetcar, county staff felt they would be unable to sway MAC officials.

“The board was super supportive of Riverview to a person,” Ortega said. “But MAC sent that letter because of the road leading into the airport. … Staff tells me they’re not going to bridge with MAC a solution. (We would) spend more money and staff time to end up in the same place as we are today.”

Building a streetcar corridor could be a $2 billion project, but if the federal government stepped up, that would cut the local funding requirement in half, Ortega noted.

“It has nothing to do with financials, at all,” he said.

Asked if the county would pursue installing an arterial bus rapid transit route down West Seventh Street, Ortega said BRT — a project more typically led by Metro Transit and the Metropolitan Council — had been included in planning largely for comparison purposes to two leading streetcar options, and was otherwise not the county’s priority. “That’s not our business,” he said.

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