There’s a renewed push to connect downtown St. Paul to Mall of America in Bloomington with public transportation.

Last year, Ramsey County scrapped the Riverview Corridor project, a plan that would have run a streetcar or buses along West 7th Street.

Now, the newest concept is focusing on Bus Rapid Transit.

Just outside downtown St. Paul, you’ll find the West 7th Corridor, where there are plenty of businesses.

“We were looking for a space where we could organically grow,” said Ashley Rugel, owner of Style Society.

Style Society owner Ashley Rugel has been at her location on West 7th for 4 years.

“We get tons of foot traffic which is great,” Rugel said.

But keeping these crowds is key. That’s a reason why she and many businesses in the area closely followed developments of a possible streetcar along this route.

“Doing the railroad through here would have really disrupted our business,” Rugel said.

“We think this is more doable,” said Russ Stark, Chief Resilience Officer with the City of St. Paul.

This week the city, Ramsey County, Metro Transit, and MnDOT unveiled the newest concept for the West 7th Corridor, bringing new life to the project since Ramsey County scrapped the 2 billion dollar streetcar plans.

“We know the community is really anxious to see some investment in West 7th Street; they’ve been waiting a long time for something to happen,” Stark said. “Definitely, one of our motivations is to think about what we can get done relatively near to medium term.”

The proposed 12-and-a-half-mile route along West 7th would bring bus rapid transit lines between Union Depot and Mall of America.

“Giving it some dedicated space in some areas and not in others,” Stark said.

Plus, it includes a new pedestrian trail on an abandoned railroad, connecting the Highland Bridge development. 

“No other streets really parallel it, so if you’re thinking about a bike trail, it’s really hard to come up with streets to put them on, so this rail corridor seems like a really good option to make some of those same connections for people who are biking and walking,” Stark said.

“This corridor has needed improvements for going on 30 years now,” said Elissa Schufman, Interim Executive Director of Move Minnesota.

Elissa Schufman is the Interim Executive Director of Move Minnesota, an organization that works to connect more people to transit. She applauds the team for not giving up on this.

“The overall corridor concept for West 7th does a lot of really good things in terms of transit service but also walking and biking, the things that will make the corridor really welcoming,” Schufman said.

“There’s been a lot of conversations over the years about different transit options and so we really want to get some feedback on this one,” Stark said.
 
The estimated price tag is $500 million, with the earliest construction starting in 2029.

“We’re much happier with that decision for sure,” Rugel said.

There are three open houses coming up next month where you can hear more about these plans. To see the dates and more information about the project, CLICK HERE.