I had the opportunity to try out the Metro Transit light rail last week. Not just for fun and adventure, but rather I had the need for transportation between the St Paul Union Depot (SPUD) and the University of Minnesota campus.

First impression was good overall. The trains are fairly new and well maintained. The ticketing process is quick and convenient using a smartphone app. Five dollars a day for all access to both buses and light rail in the area system. I don’t know for certain but I suspect alot of metro transit users are not actually paying for their rides. I don’t know that there is a robust check on ticketing. At least from my observations.

There did not seem to be any safety issues with regard to crime. There have been incidents over the past few years, however recently there has been much more attention to safety and crime prevention. In every train I was on, uniformed police were present at some part of the trip.

Schedule-wise I would say that the train generally kept to a schedule, but there was a 10 minute or so variation on the particular route that I took over 4 days.

So far I have only ridden the “Green” line. I hope to ride both the full routes for the “Green” and the “Blue” line in the future to create a full YouTube review video.