Compilation of Minneapolis/St. Paul's Blue Line Light Rail

20 years ago the Hiawatha Line (renamed the Blue Line in 2013) began service and marked a 50-year end to buses being the only mode of transit in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region. To celebrate its 20th birthday here are videos of Blue Line trains along its route all the way from Mall of America in Bloomington to Target Field in Minneapolis.

From the start the Hiawatha Line/Blue Line was a huge success and proved that light rail can work in the Twin Cities. The service was so successful that years later all station platforms were extended to accommodate 3-car trains. In 2009 the Blue Line was extended a short distance from it's original northern terminus at Warehouse District/Hennepin Avenue Station to the new (at the time) Target Field baseball stadium.

Unique to the Blue Line is Metro Transit's fleet of Type 1 LRVs (Light Rail Vehicles). Built by Bombardier, they're based off of the Flexity Swift, and Minneapolis is the only city in North America that has them. In addition, the front look of these LRVs can only be found on the Twin Cities light rail system.

Just as with the Green Line, the Blue Line is slowly recovering ridership since the pandemic, and has issues with crime and troublemakers. However, as more regular people return to using the train in addition to more police presence and fare checking hopefully it can return to its glory days of being a comfortable service for all and moving lots of people to the many destinations along its route.

00:00 Bloomington
14:50 MSP Airport
18:45 Fort Snelling to VA Medical Center
21:54 VA Medical Center to 46th Street
27:09 46th Street to 38th Street
29:50 38th Street to Lake Street
35:15 Lake Street to Franklin Avenue
39:46 Cedar Riverside
40:33 35W Junction
42:34 Downtown Minneapolis
50:08 Target Field