Twin Cities, be ready for an especially bad commute tonight
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Updated: 2:30 p.m. | Posted: 4:00 a.m.
The Twins, Vikings, Gophers football and the St. Paul Saints all have home games tonight.
It's the first time that sporting events will take place in the four major stadiums on the Green Line — between CHS Field in St. Paul and Target Field in Minneapolis — at roughly the same time. The others are TCF Bank Stadium and the newly opened U.S. Bank Stadium.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
With the Minnesota State Fair, and streets under construction, travel could get tricky.
Metro Transit will have all its trains running and extra buses, said spokesman Howie Padilla.
"We're absolutely going to have supplemental buses at the Vikings game, and we're also going to have more staff" to point fans attending the team's final preseason game against the Los Angeles Rams in the right direction, Padilla said.
Eighty-one light rail cars will be available Thursday night, he said.
Metro Transit learned tough lessons when lines were backed up after U.S. Bank Stadium opened with an international soccer game a few weeks ago. After that game, many fans said they had to wait much longer than expected, especially for light rail trains.
The Green and Blue lines share a track between Target Field and U.S. Bank Stadium.
Padilla expects light rail ridership levels could surpass 109,000 for the day. That happened last September when the Saints, Twins and Gophers all played on the same night.
"We'll have ambassadors including some of our staff that typically aren't in our rail system or on our bus system," Padilla said. "They're going to be out helping to direct foot traffic and getting people where they need to go in order to seamlessly get people on those trains and on those buses."
The city of Minneapolis says these streets are affected by the Vikings game:
• Fourth Street will close at Park Avenue at 4 p.m.
• Chicago Avenue, from Fourth Street to Sixth Street will close at noon.
• Norm McGrew Place will close at noon.
The city also said that although parking ramps should have capacity, due to the State Fair "there will be no game day parking on the Saint Paul campus and no Saint Paul shuttle for the U of M football game. Also, there will be no park and ride options for the State Fair on the East Bank campus due to the football game."
