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I am in no way an expert on the Minneapolis St. Paul Metro Transit light-rail. I’ve rode it twice, but learned a lot on those trips. I wanted to put together a quick list of tips so that you can enjoy the light-rail without making the same mistakes I did:

Mistake Number One:
Don’t park at the MOA unless you are planning to shop or maybe sleep.
The light-rail line ends in the bus station on the bottom level of the east side parking ramp at Mall of America(MOA). It’s been set up to intensionally make it a little hard to reach from any place you are used to parking at the mall. Basically, that mall would rather not have a lot full of cars that parked and jumped on the light rail to get to a big sporting event downtown. They’d prefer it if those people parked at the 28th street station, two blocks east of the mall. There’s plenty of parking over there and it’s easy to get from a car to the train without finding the right stairwell or escalator to the transit station like you’ve got to do if you park at the mall.

At the same time, it isn’t that hard to find the bus station at the mall and it makes a little sense to park at the last light rail stop if you are headed downtown for drinks or a show or whatever and plan to rest your eyes during the quiet ride back to the suburbs.

Mistake Number Two:
Don’t expect to get anywhere fast on the light-rail.
If you ride all the way from the MOA to the Minneapolis Warehouse district stop on the light rail it will take around 45 minutes or more if you are riding during a busy time. If you drove your own car, it would take around 25 minutes, depending on traffic.

One night I was meeting some friends for a movie at Block E. I decided to go straight from dinner in Eagan out to park at the MOA. I knew I needed to get on a rain right away when I got there, so I parked in the first spot I could find and ran down to the bus station and got a ticket. The ticket machine was being a little fussy, although they are great because the take credit cards and cash with change for large bills. So I get my ticket and see the train had just stopped in the station. As I run up to it, all the doors close all at once… I freak out a little and run down towards the end of the train to see if I can get the conductor’s attention. As I’m running I hear a door on the other end of the train open, but
as I turn back, it shuts again. Eventually I realized that I’m an idiot.

There are buttons on the Doors that you can press to open them. Obviously they want to keep the train warm inside so the door will stay closed when the train is at a stand still.

Mistake Number Three:
Don’t stay out too late.
The light rail schedule was not designed with a late night drinker in mind. The last train leaves the Warehouse District Station is at 1:13 am every night of the week. If you plan to have a few drinks downtown you better pay attention to the time. At last call you’ve missed your ride home if you’re taking the lightrail. Better hope you’ve got some money for a cab. On the other hand, if you live downtown and decide for some crazy reason you’d want to go drinking with the tourists out at the MOA, it looks like you wouldn’t have to leave to catch the light rail until almost 2am.

Other Things to consider when riding the light-rail:

The light-rail trains are completely electric, quiet and clean.
For most riders it is much less expensive then driving. It can be a great alternative to driving is adverse weather conditions.
There’s no free overnight parking anywhere along the line because it runs to the airport and people would love to leave there cars and go to europe for 2 weeks.
Fare inspectors check tickets on a random schedule so you may or may not see them at all during your first trip on the train. The Fine is $180 for riding without paying, but I’ve heard they may just kick people off the train if they’ve got expired tickets.

For more info on the light rail,
visit Metro Transit’s site

This guide was originally written for vita.mn and appears here. If you’d like to contribute to it, please feel free to sign up at vita.mn and edit the guide.