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Latest light raiill plan puts Bllue Liine iin heart of north <br />iinneapolliis <br />Transit officials have released their preferred route for the <br />Blue Line extension from downtown Minneapolis to Brooklyn <br />Park, even as they scramble to come up with another $500 <br />million to complete the beleaguered Southwest Corridor light <br />rail project. <br />The proposed 13-mile route of the Blue Line Extension <br />follows Lyndale and West Broadway Avenues into north <br />Minneapolis. It stops at North Memorial Health Hospital in <br />Robbinsdale, and continues along Bottineau Boulevard into <br />Crystal before rejoining West Broadway. Planners put the <br />last of the 11 stations on Oak Grove Parkway near <br />Highways 610 and 169, steps from Target's suburban office <br />campus. <br />The Metropolitan Council hasn't worked out a new budget <br />yet. A 2018 estimate put the cost at $1.5 billion. The agency <br />has already spent at least $129 million on planning. But that <br />was for a route shared with a BNSF Railway freight corridor. <br />The Met Council had to go back to the drawing board in <br />2020 after it couldn't reach an agreement with BNSF on <br />sharing eight miles of its right-of-way. <br />Federal matching funds are essential for major transit <br />projects, but the Blue Line extension does not yet have that <br />money. If finance and engineering plans fall into place, the <br />Met Council's Nick Landwer said the earliest that <br />construction could begin is 2025, and passenger service in <br />2028. <br />OAK <br />GROVE <br />AVENUE <br />RETH <br />AVENUE <br />AVENUE <br />BASS LAKE <br />DAD <br />DO <br />ROB <br />E #�d RT Stations <br />Station Study Areas <br />`METRO Blue dine Est <br />LYNG <br />A <br />5 <br />