In the waning days of the 2002 Legislature, with neighbor pitted against neighbor over potential street impacts, exasperated state lawmakers took back $40 million from a $46 million effort to build a major bus corridor along West Seventh Street. The proposed Riverview Transit Corridor, under study since at least 1998, died one of what would be several deaths, only to be revived the next year by city planners weighing a different route configuration.

The prospect of a signature transit connection between downtown St. Paul, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America in Bloomington has enticed and bedeviled a generation or more of planners and elected officials, from the administration of St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly 20 years ago to that of St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter today.

Rafael Ortega (Courtesy of the candidate)

Ramsey County Commissioner Rafael Ortega had served for years as one of the corridor’s most vocal cheerleaders until confirming this fall that the county would no longer steer the effort.

‘This isn’t the end of the story’

That’s not to mean the Riverview Corridor is dead.

With the city of St. Paul and the Minnesota Department of Transportation taking stronger roles, officials from both camps have been in talks with Ramsey County and the Metropolitan Council — the regional planning agency that oversees Metro Transit — to once again revive Riverview Corridor planning. A streamlined process could be unveiled in early 2025.

This time around, think some form of enhanced bus alignment, not streetcars.

“Where we are now is let’s figure out the best possible bus rapid transit corridor,” said Russ Stark, Carter’s chief resilience officer, in an interview Friday. “There’s lots and lots of stakeholders up and down West Seventh Street. We’ll be going out to the public with a concept or maybe two versions of a concept early next year.”

Russ Stark. (Courtesy of the Office of Mayor Melvin Carter)

“For now,” added Stark, “the story that we’re interested in telling is that this isn’t the end of the story.”

Officials have long debated whether a bus rapid transit corridor would have its own dedicated lane, which likely would result in the elimination of parking, trees or sidewalk depth in certain areas, or whether it would operate in normal traffic, losing key time savings that would otherwise make a rapid bus an attractive alternative to cars and the existing Route 54 bus. Stark said a hybrid approach could offer the best of both worlds, allowing the bus to use its own lane where most feasible.

Multiple partners needed for hybrid BRT

With Metro Transit eager to map the next phase of its arterial bus rapid transit network, there’s some timing pressure around Riverview planning, Stark said.

Another consideration: MnDOT owns West Seventh Street, which is a state trunk highway, and it’s planning a mill-and-overlay project along long swathes of the street in 2028 and 2029. If street reconstruction moves forward as part of a new transit corridor, that work could be redundant.

Meanwhile, Ramsey County maintains a half-cent sales tax to back transit and transportation initiatives, which would be a key source of necessary future funding.

Rebecca Noecker

“Whatever happens is going to need financial contributions from every level,” said St. Paul City Council Member Rebecca Noecker, who represents downtown and part of West Seventh Street on the city council.

Among prior frustrations, competing transit proposals have been put on hold repeatedly, as have proposed street improvements, while longer-term plans simmer without resolution, Noecker noted. For instance, back in 2014, Metro Transit said it planned to debut a rapid-transit bus line on West Seventh Street by 2016, even as St. Paul was intent on studying a potential $250 million streetcar project from Randolph Avenue to Arcade Street.

Both plans were quashed as Ramsey County convened multiple committees to study the technical feasibility of and community interest in bus rapid transit, streetcar, light rail or a combination of transit modes from the downtown Union Depot to the airport and Mall of America. That plan officially died in September when the county announced that widespread opposition had killed what could have been a $2 billion, 12-mile streetcar project.

Along West Seventh, “everyone kept being told just wait for the next stage before we pursue improvements to the sidewalks and trees to be planted,” Noecker recalled. “It’s been in this sort of purgatory of public works. If you have an improvement that’s ‘just around the bend’ … you don’t want to waste good money on street improvements when the street is about to be torn up.”

Among key considerations that dogged previous Riverview Corridor transit planning, the Metropolitan Airports Commission objected this summer to a potential streetcar sharing the tracks that Metro Transit’s Blue Line light rail trains use to get passengers to the airport. The steel girder Highway 5/West Seventh Street bridge over the Mississippi River dates to 1961 and is due for major improvements, if not a complete rebuild. Whether a transit service would detour into landmark destinations like Highland Bridge or historic Fort Snelling remains to be seen.

New efforts require more outreach

Discussions this time around, said Noecker, are more focused on what’s technically feasible. Stark said that includes considering “limitations on the space in the Highway 5 bridge and the tunnel that goes under Fort Snelling,” and the “balancing act between dedicating space for transit and some other demands and needs,” like ample sidewalks and parking outside small businesses.

Stark noted that street reconstruction of West Seventh Street would cost $200 million to $300 million alone, even before the cost of buses and transit stations or a bridge replacement. Still, that’s a far cry financially from a multi-billion dollar streetcar project, he said.

In the case of a streetcar, mom-and-pop shop owners that barely survived the economic downturn during the pandemic said heavy construction that could span two years or more would have wiped them out completely, and it would take years to draw businesses back.

Getting local businesses and others on board with a new plan may take some doing. A spokesperson for the Met Council on Friday said the agency looked forward to “continuing to partner with the county and community leaders to meet their transit needs,” but had no further immediate comment.

Ortega, who chairs the Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority, said Ramsey County could be a partner in whatever new concept unfolds, but the county is no longer in the lead.

“I think they need to come together, put up a plan, get community input and make it work,” said Ortega. “At that point, we’d be willing to work with them. I haven’t seen any plans. Have you?”

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