Messages from the Council Chair

Chair Zelle talks about the METRO Green Line Extension

February 2022

There's no question that the Green Line Extension is one of the most complicated transit projects in the country.

We're not alone to have cost increases in two or three areas of the project that have been particularly troublesome. Having an increase in costs is not anything anybody would like to see.

But we at Met Council have negotiated a very favorable agreement with the contractor. We now have a schedule. We now have an accountability to maintain both the cost efficiency and the schedule to a reasonable date in the future.

It's an investment. And we think that investment has a high rate of return. Think of the amount of jobs, think of the amount of economic activity. This project is of tremendous value.

Already, there's been over one billion dollars of construction either underway or already built along the stations of this light rail project.

There's no question that this is the future, not just for transportation, but for economic development, for BIPOC access to jobs, for... one of the backbones of our integrated transit system.

This project is going to be transformational. It will last for generations. And it's important that we build it right. We get it right. And then it'll be one of the pillars for the transit network and the prosperity of our state going forward.