List of US+Canada rail transit currently under construction

[Tcmetro]

Milwaukee's lakefront streetcar line (L Line) is opening on October 29th. It won't stop at the transit center located under the Couture tower until construction is complete there.

https://biztimes.com/milwaukee-stree...vice-on-oct-29

[PanhandleBledsoe]

Originally Posted by Tcmetro

Milwaukee's lakefront streetcar line (L Line) is opening on October 29th. It won't stop at the transit center located under the Couture tower until construction is complete there.

https://biztimes.com/milwaukee-stree...vice-on-oct-29

I can't figure out how to link or embed a video properly so I removed that broken window, but here's the Youtube URL. Video of the L-line in operation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPy3...NYTrainzchaser

[hipster duck]

In Canada, phase 1 of Edmonton's Valley LRT line (the SE segment) opened the other day.

This first phase is 13 km (8 miles) long, not 40 km (25 miles) as written in the OP.

• Video Link

[lrt's friend]

Edmonton's Valley Line opened on November 4th, to be exact.

[Cirrus]

Updated the master list to reflect

• Tacoma Link streetcar moved to complete
• Orlando Brightline intercity extension moved to complete
• Milwaukee streetcar Lakefront branch moved to complete
• Edmonton Valley light rail phase 1 moved to complete. Phase 2 remains on the construction list.

Thanks for the updates. Keep them coming as they happen!

[Easy]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Moved 6 miles of the LA Crenshaw line to complete. 2 miles remain u/c.

Great list! Thanks for keeping it up for so many years!

Technically the Crenshaw/K line was fully completed in its entirety and accepted by metro back in 2022. The southern part has never opened due to the construction of an infill station to connect to the LAX people mover that began immediately (maybe the next day) after the line was completed. I guess they can be considered one project but there's nothing under construction except the infill station. The completed tracks and station south of that have been untouched and unused since 2022.

[Cirrus]

Thanks for the update! So let me make sure I understand. Please confirm this is correct, or clarify what I got wrong: The "Crenshaw line" opened in 2022, but there is still a 2-mile section yet to open that will connect to the airport people mover. On this section, the tracks are done, but the connecting station is not yet done. Yes?

Assuming that's correct, I've changed the project title on the front page from "Los Angeles Crenshaw extension section two" to "Los Angeles Crenshaw line airport extension." However, the "airport extension" will remain listed as a 2-mile under construction project, because those 2 miles do not yet carry passengers. Every project has some components that finish sooner than others, but what qualifies as "no longer under construction" for the purposes of this list is when it's open to passengers.

[scalziand]

Originally Posted by 1Boston

Not sure why this isn't included but MBTA's South Coast Rail Project (extending to south coast cities of New Bedford and Fall River) is under construction. https://www.mbta.com/projects/south-coast-rail

Just noticed that Phase I of Boston South Coast Rail -37 miles is still missing from the list.

[Cirrus]

Thanks. I've edited the list to include it.

[Nite]

Update video on all Canadian transit projects:

• Video Link

[Tcmetro]

A couple changes for the front page list:
- KC Streetcar Main St extension is well underway and opening in 2025. 3.5 miles in length.
https://kcstreetcar.org/about-street...eet-extension/

- Dallas Silver Line commuter rail is under construction. 26 miles and opening in 2025 or 2026.
https://www.dart.org/about/plans-pro...r-line-project

- LIRR East Side Access in New York opened 1/25/2023.

[muertecaza]

Phoenix NW extension opened today and can be moved to complete.

https://www.valleymetro.org/project/...ase-ii/opening

[llamaorama]

The DART Silver Line feels like it's been under construction forever. Some parts of it look like they are nearly done and the actual trains are already delivered, but then there are other parts that look like they only recently got started building.

Wish they'd maybe get a move on and hurry it up.

At least its not as bad as the DC Purple Line Project.

[Cirrus]

Updated the front page to reflect

• KC Streetcar Main St extension
• Dallas Silver Line
• LIRR ESA (duh Cirrus, I've ridden that)
• Phoenix NW ext

Congrats Phoenix on the first opening of 2024

[202_Cyclist]

Milwaukee's streetcar extension opened yesterday.

https://thehopmke.com/l-line/

[mhays]

Seattle's Sound Transit has two Link openings planned this year:

East Link (Two Line) will open a starter line April 27. This is only from South Bellevue to Redmond Tech Station. The Seattle connection needs some rework and will open next year. An extension to Downtown Redmond was always going to be next year. The Seattle extension will also use the existing One Line rails northward through town, improving frequency.

Lynnwood (the latest One Line extension to the north, with another planned) will open August 30.

Federal Way (the latest One Line south extension, with another planned) will open in 2026.

We're still trying to figure out the alignment and stations for the Ballard and West Seattle lines, with further study before the final EIS because leadership keeps thinking of new ideas and cost estimates have risen.

https://www.soundtransit.org/system-expansion

[DetroitMan]

After long funding struggle, MetroLink extension to MidAmerica airport moves forward

While a potential MetroLink expansion in St. Louis stirs controversy, work has been quietly underway for more than a year on building a long-sought Metro East extension of the light rail line.

Illinois state funds are paying the entire cost of the $98 million, 5.2-mile connection from MetroLink’s current easternmost outpost — the Shiloh-Scott station near Scott Air Force Base — to MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Mascoutah.

Excavation, embankment and bridge work along the route will be substantially completed by August, said Ken Sharkey, managing director of the St. Clair County Transit District, which is in charge of the project.

Other construction will follow, and the extension and the new MetroLink station at the airport are expected to open in 2026.

St. Clair County officials had pushed on and off since the 1990s to get funding for the extension to MidAmerica, which for many years was attacked as a boondoggle because of its lack of flights. Finally, in 2019, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker included the light rail connection in the mammoth $45 billion Rebuild Illinois capital improvements plan passed by the state Legislature.

County Board Chairman Mark Kern said in addition to getting people to and from the county-owned airport and nearby businesses — and acting as a spur to additional development — the extension will help the overall MetroLink system.

“It’s an important thing for the region,” Kern said. “The more riders we get on MetroLink, the more successful it is.”
Expanding routes
Kern said that’s why he supported St. Louis’ push to get the East-West Gateway Council of Governments to endorse a revised plan to build a new MetroLink line connecting the city’s north and south sides. The council includes the metro area’s top elected officials. In February, that far more expensive project, currently estimated at $1.1 billion, was endorsed by the council in February after a move to table the discussion fell just short.

Critics, with St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann at the forefront, questioned planners’ projections of more than 5,000 daily boardings.

The libertarian Show-Me Institute also has attacked the St. Louis route, which would run along Jefferson Avenue from Chippewa Street to the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency facility, then go west along Natural Bridge Avenue to North Grand Boulevard.

Current projections call for the St. Louis project to require $659 million in federal aid. The city and the Bi-State Development Agency, which oversees Metro Transit and MetroLink, expect to submit an application later this year.Taulby Roach, Bi-State’s CEO, said no ridership projections for the Illinois extension were required to qualify for the Illinois grant. He said the strategy also was made possible by the fact that St. Clair County already owned all the land being used. Bi-State did issue ridership estimates for the Illinois extension in the late 1990s when local officials made an unsuccessful try for federal funding. A U.S. Department of Transportation report in 1999 questioned whether they were too low to justify the expense.

Now, 25 years later, county officials say MidAmerica Airport has been on an upswing.

Airport Director Darren James says Allegiant Air, the facility’s lone passenger carrier, will have around 70 inbound and outbound flights a week involving 12 destinations during peak traffic times this summer. The newest destination — Knoxville, Tennessee — will be added in June.

A year ago the airport almost doubled the size of its terminal, part of a $34 million project that also includes soon-to-be-completed renovations.

Kern also cited Boeing’s construction of a new drone plant at MidAmerica, adding to its parts facility already there. “Then we expect suppliers to Boeing are going to co-locate there,” he said. “We have reserved acreage for adjoining businesses, pretty much at the terminus for MetroLink.”

Kern said the new connection will allow people to take MetroLink all the way from MidAmerica to St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

An additional $70 million or so in ancillary work also is involved, including a 5-mile bike and pedestrian trail alongside the MetroLink extension, a new 2.4-mile frontage road near the extension and Interstate 64 and a new stretch of Rieder Road.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...b4a265e86.html

[Cirrus]

Saint Louis is dying for a north-south line. That's a serious no-brainer.

But Mid-America Aiport is... extremely questionable to say the least. Who's going to pay for Metrolink to operate that?

[DetroitMan]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Saint Louis is dying for a north-south line. That's a serious no-brainer.

But MidAmerica Airport is... extremely questionable to say the least. Who's going to pay for Metrolink to operate that?

The State of Illinois is funding the entire project. While I agree a north-south line is very much needed in STL, time will tell if this extension to MidAmerica pays off.

[Doady]

Milwaukee has been cutting bus service for over a decade to build a streetcar. So sad.

‘There is nowhere else to cut’: 16 Milwaukee bus routes could be eliminated by 2025

Milwaukee Transit in Crisis, Faces Massive Cuts

Ridership in 2011: 45,656,600
Ridership in 2019: 26,960,800

19 million riders lost, a 41% decline in only a 8-year span. But congratulations on your new streetcar, Milwaukee!