Last evening, the new Green Line recorded its first car-train accident since service officially opened over the weekend. That didn’t take long.

Both train and car were traveling toward Minneapolis on University at Hampden when the car — of course — made an illegal left turn into the path of the train. It was the fifth accident since Green Line testing started in February and in every case the car’s driver did something wrong.

Usually it involves ignoring traffic signs or traffic signals.
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MPR reporter Laura Yuen’s fine story on the the new Green Line light rail service is quite a bucket of cold water for those of us who’ve been fairly anxiously awaiting the inauguration of service one month from today.

The initial estimate of a 40-minute trip on the rail line between downtown Saint Paul and downtown Minneapolis was already far too long — it’s a 26-minute bus trip now — and now, Yuen reports, test trains have taken an hour or more. Read more