Plans have been in place for decades to increase public transit on the I-35W corridor. Beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s light rail was studied but nothing was done. A commuter rail line that was proposed between Minneapolis and Northfield was halted in 2002 by the Minnesota Legislature banning public money from going to studies of the line. The I-35W corridor has a long history of transit, being the first freeway in the Twin Cities to have express bus service, starting in 1972. In January 2005, the Minnesota Department of Transportation released their plans to improve transit service on the corridor. They chose that BRT using existing and proposed HOV lanes would be the best option. This came just a month after Metro Transit did a complete restructure of I-35W bus services, adding better service to the corridor, including new route 535, an all-day highly frequent bus route between Downtown Minneapolis and South Bloomington Transit Center. Metro Transit's future plans in the restructure report show possible expansion of Route 535's service from just weekdays to everyday service, and route extensions to the University of Minnesota, and south to Burnsville Transit Station. About 20–30 years ago a bus stop was built on the I-35W bridge over Lake Street. The Crosstown Commons section of the freeway was reconstructed from 2007 to 2010. The project extended HOV lanes north to 42nd Street and added a station located in the median of the freeway at 46th Street. Future MNDOT and Metro Transit plans to relocate the Lake St. Station to the median of the freeway. A 2007, $133.3 million, Federal-State Urban Partnership Agreement, designed to alleviate congestion in the Minneapolis area, allowed the construction of a center high-occupancy toll lane or price-dynamic shoulder lane running on I-35W from Lakeville to downtown Minneapolis—a lane that could be used for the planned BRT line. Plans released in 2012 called for the METRO Orange Line to run from downtown Minneapolis to the "offline" Burnsville Transit Station, stopping at the "online" stations at Lake Street, 46th Street, and American Boulevard, and the "inline" stations at 66th Street and 98th Street, with a potential extension to the Kenrick Ave Park and Ride in Lakeville that had been created with Urban Partnership Agreement funds.
Construction and operations
In 2016, the Counties Transit Improvement Board pledged $37.5 million toward the Orange Line. The project includes construction of new stations, including a station to replace the on-highway bus stops at Lake Street. By November 2016, preliminary designs of the stations were completed and opened to public comment. With FTA approval, the Orange Line began construction in 2017, despite a lack of committed federal funding. The construction began as a part of Minnesota Department of Transportation's larger Downtown-to-Crosstown road construction project on I-35W. In November 2018, the I-35W corridor secured $74 million in federal funding to improve roads, stations and service, including the Orange Line project. This was the last portion of the funding to be secured for the $150.7 million project. The Orange Line is planned to begin operations in 2021. At rush hour, the Lake Street Station is expected to be served by a bus every 40 seconds.
Stations
Preliminary designs of the stations were completed by November 2016. All stations will be ADA accessible and will include higher curbs to facilitate easier boarding to a bus. While the stations will not have completely level boarding, the higher platforms will reduce the gap compared to typical bus stops. Amenities at the stations would include bike parking, benches, real-time bus arrival information, heating, trash and recycling bins, a station marker, and an information kiosk. The designs call for energy-efficient LED lighting to be used at each station. New sidewalks will be added in some locations, to better connect the stations to the surrounding neighborhoods.
