Hiawatha Light Rail Transit (METRO Blue Line)

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The METRO Hiawatha Line (now known as the Blue Line) began partial service in June 2004 and opened fully in December 2004. It links downtown Minneapolis and the Target Field Station, which opened in 2009, with Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America. (The American Boulevard Station in Bloomington also opened in 2009.) The corridor is 12 miles in length, with 19 stations and 27 light rail vehicles manufactured by Bombardier. Twelve additional vehicles manufactured by Siemens were acquired in conjunction with the Green Line expansion from downtown Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul that opened in 2014. The Hiawatha Line project utilized two separate design-build contracts: one for light rail vehicles, and one to place rail, signal, and communication equipment along the alignment. Although design-build contracts were used for most of the LRT route, Metropolitan Airport Commission officials opted for a design-bid-build procurement for the two 7,400-foot airport tunnels underneath MSP International. This decision was based on the risk of tunneling below two runways and building two underground stations. In 2013, METRO Red Line bus rapid transit service began from the southern terminus of the Blue Line at the Mall of America south to Apple Valley. A 13-mile Blue Line extension northwest to Brooklyn Park is planned to begin construction in 2018 and open in 2021.

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