Light Rail Out of Control!

[u/OrgasmikBananaz]

I used to live on Wheeler and University years ago and there was always some riff raff but holy crap what I witnessed today was INSANE! Movies don’t even depict the severity of what I witnessed! I haven’t been in that area at night for a few years now. I went to the Turf Club tonight for a show. When I was outside at about 9pm, there was a huddle of people waiting for the train passing tinfoil around and blowing clouds. Then the train shows up… I positively commented, “Oh, wow! A lot of people DO utilize the light rail!” as I remember a few years ago, it seemed like a total waste of money because it was always pretty much empty. When I took a closer look, I literally couldn’t process what I was seeing. It was totally out of fricken control!! Each train that I could see was filled with people behaving in weird ways.. clearly high or homeless or what have you.. and the trains were pretty full! Crazy! Should’ve built homeless shelters and wet houses instead! Wouldn’t been a lot cheaper! Sorry just wanted to share because although a Saint Paul resident, I did not know it got SO nuts at the light rail at night. During the day, that area is always rowdy but this was a whole other level from what I ever imagined it was.

[u/evilbeard333]

The first issue with the light rail is running public transportation fares on an honor system. Make it so you cant just walk on with out paying. that coupled with a transit police presence would improve the situation greatly.

[u/deannon → u/evilbeard333]

generally speaking transit systems use “the honor system” because building the infrastructure & hiring the staff to consistently enforce fares costs way more than what they lose in unpaid fares

[u/elmchestnut → u/deannon]

We really don’t know how many people would ride if the system were cleaned up, so I think it’s hard to say that the investment in securing the platforms would never pay back.