Your Station, Renewed
Discover how stations and platforms along the METRO Blue Line are being renewed and upgraded.
Your station, renewed projects are part of the Renew the Blue system restoration initiative.
Platform refurbishment
- Scope: Platform refurbishments include but not limited to doing rust mitigation, masonry wall repair, glass replacement details, signage updates, trip hazard repair, and tactile paver replacement.
- Timing: Summer 2026
- Benefit: Cleaner, smoother, and more accessible stations.
Platform lighting upgrades
- Scope: The shelter- and pole-mounted lighting at several Blue Line stations will be replaced on the platforms and some adjacent walkways. Lighting is changing to LED.
- Timing: Work begins soon with expected completion by end of 2025.
- Benefit: This project will increase the lighting quality on platforms while reducing ongoing maintenance and energy consumption. Updated lighting has a 15-year expected lifespan.
Bench refurbishment
- Scope: Many of the benches along the Blue Line have been damaged, rusted, and in disrepair. We are removing Blue Line benches, sending them out for burn off, sand blasting, and powder coating, then reinstalling them.
- Timing: Winter 2024 - End of Summer 2025. All benches south of the airport have been refurbished. The middle and downtown portions should be completed by end of summer 2025.
- Benefit: Refurbished benches improves the overall Blue Line aesthetic and rider experience. Powder coating the benches ensures they maintain their best appearance and durability, with a lifespan of 5 to 10 years.
Cedar-Riverside shelter pilot
- Scope: The Cedar-Riverside shelter pilot on the station’s south end addresses challenges related to the uniquely shaped glass panels, which are difficult to replace if broken. The original shelters secured the glass with a basic clamping method rather than a more robust system. To enhance durability, water jet-cut aluminum panels are being installed on the south end shelters. Benches are also being updated, with concrete options under consideration. If the pilot is successful, similar improvements will be made on the north end of the station.
- Timing: Fall 2025
- Benefit: Standardizing the glass to make it easier to replace, and more cost efficient.
Beautification of rail/signal houses & updating existing art
- Scope: This includes a variety of art projects, ranging from installations on rail and signal houses to the restoration and repair of existing damaged artwork.
- Signal Communication House mural painting, south of Airport-Terminal 2.
- Late August - September 2025
- 50th St. Station: Updating stainless steel railing panels – removing rust on existing panels and the surface restored to help prevent rust in the future.
- Franklin Station: New murals on the retaining wall.
- 30th Ave. Station: The art glass panels that have been broken are being recreated and reinstalled.
- Warehouse/Hennepin Station: Tile replacement.
- Cedar-Riverside Station: Art in the canopy being replaced. The broken glass panels that have the artistic frit depicting constellations of the night sky are being replaced.
- Operations and Maintenance Building mural – can be seen from the Blue Line track.
Real Time Signage upgrades
- Scope: The current platform reader boards will be replaced with higher-resolution, full color digital variable message signs (VMS).
- Timing: 2025-2026
- Benefit: The new VMS will provide more flexibility in how information can be displayed and will be easier to maintain and program.
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