Safety investments
The METRO Green line prioritizes safety for customers and the cities along the line.
Design and accessibility
We’ve designed the station areas with elements like lighting, communication, and walkability features to provide safe and secure spaces. Customers can expect well-lit, open areas, cameras that monitor station activity in real time, and ways to connect with and alert Metro Transit staff.
Working closely with transit users and advocates for people with disabilities and older adults, we are making sure that we meet and even exceed the Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines for trains, station platforms and crossings.
Station area features
- Gently sloping access ramps from sidewalk to platform.
- Tactile warning strips to mark the edge of the platform.
- Audible and visual warnings at street and track crossings.
- Wider platforms to allow two wheelchairs to pass side by side.
- Shelter areas with seating and open spaces for wheelchairs.
Light rail transit vehicles
The new vehicles have spray-on flooring and plastic seats, rather than fabric, which are easier to maintain and clean. The cars are also easier to work on, requiring less staff time to perform routine maintenance.
Inside the new light rail vehicles is a modified design for the middle car. The seats run parallel and face each other across the expanded aisle. This updated middle car design opens the center aisle for people who use mobility devices, increasing the width from 24 inches to 40 inches, and it eliminates knee-to-knee seating, which resulted in people putting their feet on the seats.
Crossing areas
A variety of solutions are employed in the METRO Greenline Extension corridor to increase safety at crossing areas.
- In Minnetonka at Smetana and Feltl Roads, the city requested that the light rail travel under the road to enable safe travel on the roadway and limit areas of conflict for people walking or biking the area.
- A trail bridge over Beltline Boulevard, and the light rail and freight rail tracks in St. Louis Park provides a safe connection to the Cedar Lake regional trail.
- Safety on the regional trail is also improved with tunnels under Wooddale Avenue in St. Louis Park and Blake Road in Hopkins.
Construction
Kenilworth corridor
Tunnel construction in the Kenilworth corridor has used specialized construction equipment and techniques in to reduce vibration and safely build out the passageway. While these methods mostly functioned successfully, construction ran into dense soils and large underground obstructions that slowed progress, and efforts to work around these challenges caused soils to settle in some locations.
To further protect the foundations of nearby buildings, tunnel construction implemented a new method, called a secant wall, to provide additional support while completing the tunnel. A secant wall is a dependable and tested construction method for supported excavation. Using a secant wall does not notably change the tunnel design, it is there to reinforce soils with a series of interlocking concrete cylinders. Unfortunately, this method requires additional time to design and construct, which means an overall delay on construction of the METRO Green Line.
Freight rail
A barrier protection wall between the freight rail and light rail tracks. The corridor protection wall, a safety requirement from BNSF, was added as an additional layer of protection between the freight and light rail trains.