The safety changes coming to light rail in the Twin Cities
MINNEAPOLIS – Safety concerns on light rail trains have spurred Metro Transit into making changes.
On game days, light rail trains fill up with Minnesota Twins fans starting as far as Fort Snelling Station.
"Figure get to the tram early, you know, to beat the rush," said a rider named Russ.
Plenty of riders like Russ feel perfectly safe on board.
"Never had any problems before," Russ said.
Others, like Leah Toillion of Plymouth, are more uneasy.
"If it's, like, going to the Twins game or Vikings, I will take [my son]. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't," Toillion said. "Downtown [Minneapolis] is a little bit sketchier."
Metro Transit just wrapped up a six-week experiment to address safety, using two-car trains instead of the usual three.
"See if we could improve security by having officers having more of a presence, fewer cars to patrol," said Metro Transit's Laura Baenen.
They're now evaluating the results. Going forward, Metro Transit says it'll determine whether to use two or three cars based on demand. Vikings and Twins both playing? They're going to need the three cars.
Workers at MSP Airport have spoken publicly about their experience riding the train between terminals.
"I've been offered to smoke crack on the light rail. There's open prostitution, there's pimps," said one airport worker.
"We all have horror stories on that train, day and night," said another airport worker.
Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesperson Jeff Lea said in a statement, "We continue to share employee concerns about safety on light-rail trains with Metro Transit Police and are maintaining an increased Airport Police presence on the LRT platforms during late and early morning hours."
Light rail service is closed for repairs right now from the Mall of America to MSP Terminal 2. Replacement buses are running instead.
