Twin Cities Rail Transport

Rail transport in the Twin Cities currently consists of Amtrak service between Chicago and Seattle, the METRO Blue Line light rail service running between downtown Minneapolis and the Mall of America, passing by the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, and the Northstar Commuter Rail line between downtown Minneapolis and a number of northwest suburbs. The Northstar Line currently terminates at Big Lake, but plans call for the line to extend through Saint Cloud to Rice. Future additions to the light rail line are currently in the construction or planning phases, and the METRO Green Line will be the next line to open. The Green Line will connect downtown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul. Another line under serious consideration is the Southwest Corridor (an extension of the Green Line), which would provide service from downtown Minneapolis southwest to the suburb of Eden Prairie.
Diagram showing the current and near-term rail mass transportation network centered on downtown Minneapolis.
Twin City Rapid Transit Company
The first large-scale public transit rail system in the Twin Cities was begun with the creation of a street car line along University Avenue in 1890. This connection between Minneapolis and St. Paul would be the first of four public transit rail systems linking the two cities. The University Avenue line also led to the merger of the St. Paul City Railway Co. and Minneapolis Street Railway, which formed the Twin City Rapid Transit Company.
The Twin City Rapid Transit Company rapidly expanded street car lines throughout the Twin Cities area, expanding as far east as Stillwater and as far west as Lake Minnetonka. The system reached its peak around 1931 with around 530 miles of track and 1021 streetcars in operation. The system began to decline in the years leading up to World War II as automobile use began to rise. The system recovered slightly during World War II, as personal automobile use was seen as an unnecessary use of resources, and was therefore deemed unpatriotic.
In 1948, a Wall Street speculator named Charles Green bought 6000 shares of TCRT stock, expecting to make a quick profit. When he learned that the leadership of the TCRT was planning a major reinvestment and upgrade campaign, he contacted many other stakeholders and convinced them to make him the company president, replacing D.J. Strouse. Green soon began a plan to dismantle the street car network, and announced that he planned a complete switch to buses by 1958. The last street cars would, in fact, be taken out of service on June 19, 1954.

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