When the Blue Line light-rail trains begin running between Target Field and Brooklyn Park in 2030, they will stop at Lowry Avenue and West Broadway on the border of Minneapolis and Robbinsdale.

What the station there will look like is far from settled.

Metropolitan Council and Metro Transit officials last week revealed nine station designs under consideration during an open house at Elim Lutheran Church.

Not every planned light-rail station gets that many iterations, but "this is an unusually complex location," said spokesman Kyle Mianulli. "It's at the intersection of several major roads, park property and is adjacent to a hospital."

The original station design that was approved when both cities gave consent for the nearly $3 billion project called for platforms on street level near the present-day bridges where Theodore Wirth Parkway passes under West Broadway/County Road 81. To make way for the tracks and station, the parkway and trails would be realigned to intersect with Lowry slightly to the east of the current intersection.

In this scenario, sets of crossing arms would be installed on both Theodore Wirth Parkway and Lowry. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board expressed concerns about the impact an at-grade crossing would have on parkway and trail users, and to park property. North Memorial Health Hospital officials raised concerns about vehicles and ambulances being able to access the hospital since gates would be down about 10% of the time, Metro Transit's Ryan Kronzer said during the meeting.

In response, designers came up with eight other possibilities. Among the options are underground or elevated stations; running trains through a trench or tunnel; and keeping at-grade crossings that may lead to realigning roadways and trails. One plan calls for rerouting Wirth Parkway to pass under the Blue Line while another calls for adding a flyover bridge for trains.

Met Council officials have created a matrix to evaluate each of the eight additional options, looking at criteria such as how accessible stations would be depending on their placement and the effects on the hospital, parks and trails, and overall traffic. Other criteria include connectivity to the neighborhood and how elements of each design would preserve or force modifications to three West Broadway bridges over Lowry that were just rebuilt in 2022 and 2023. And then there is cost, too.

The matrix shows how each option could be "better," "worse" or "about the same" compared to the original design.

"All nine of these designs are not necessarily equal," Mianulli said. "Community and partner feedback and continued involvement in the design process will inform the final design."

MVTA debuts electric mini buses

The Minnesota Valley Transit Authority has five new electric buses and they are hitting the streets this month. The agency on Wednesday held a kickoff to show off its Turkish-built e-Jest buses to be used on Connect, its on-demand micro-transit service.

The 19-foot battery-powered vehicles are the first in the agency's fleet. Each bus can seat up to 10 passengers and accommodate one wheelchair. Each bus has a bike rack and can travel up to a 130 miles before needing to be charged. Buses can be fully charged in four hours, the agency said.

MVTA tested out one of the e-Jest vehicles last winter and decided to bring them to the south metro this year as part of efforts to go greener.

"Introducing the e-Jests as the first zero-emission vehicles in our fleet is a huge step in realizing our sustainability goals and positively impacting the communities we serve," said MVTA Chief Executive Officer Luther Wynder.