Terminal 1–Lindbergh station is a light rail station on the

Metro Blue Line The Metro Blue Line is a light rail line in Hennepin County, Minnesota, that is part of the Metro network. It travels from downtown Minneapolis to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport and the southern suburb of Bloomington. Fo ...

. It is the only underground station on the Blue Line and is located below ground level at

Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport , also less commonly known as Wold-Chamberlain Field, is a joint civil-military public-use international airport located in Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory, Minnesota, United States. Although s ...

. It is a center-platform station that is accessed by

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horiz ...

elevator An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They ar ...

. Service began at the site when the second phase of the Blue Line opened on December 4, 2004.

Design

The location of this station directly below a major airport caused challenges for its designers. The tunnel and the station both had to be carefully designed to meet

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

safety requirements. Passengers can access this station from the

transit center A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. ...

in the "Hub Building", which is reached by taking the

Minneapolis–St. Paul Airport Trams The Minneapolis–St. Paul Airport Trams consist of a pair of cable-drawn automated people movers that serve travelers of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. Both were constructed by the Poma-Otis Transit Company of Farmington ...

, a

people mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...

from the main

terminal Terminal may refer to: Computing Hardware * Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together * Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line * Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output devic ...

. Due to concerns about terrorism, the tunnels were designed to be highly blast-resistant. The underground portion was the costliest section of the entire rail project. This station was excavated after the two main

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

tubes were constructed with a

tunnel boring machine A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole", is a machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross section through a variety of soil and rock strata. They may also be used for microtunneling. They can be designed to bore throu ...

(though

cut and cover A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube const ...

was used near the ends of the tunnels). The

station box A station box is a term in the construction industry: It describes a box-like underground structure for a transportation system, for example a metro or tube station. Station boxes are built in two methods – "top-down" or "bottom-up". In the "bot ...

is high, wide, and approximately long. The station is the largest subterranean public space in Minnesota. During the excavation of the tunnels, a buried river valley was encountered a few hundred feet south of the station. Lindbergh Station is unheated, but maintains a temperature of roughly 50–60 °F (10–15 °C) year-round because of its underground location.

Service

Airport shuttle operation

Service between this station and Terminal 2–Humphrey station is free to passengers and operates 24-hours a day. The Blue Line is the main way for travelers to transfer between terminals. Along with Terminal 2-Humphrey station, the station is owned and maintained by the

Metropolitan Airports Commission The Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) is the owner and operator of Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport in Minnesota as well as six other reliever airports in the Twin Cities region, which primarily provide se ...

rather than Metro Transit.

Connections

From the station, there is a direct bus connection to Route 54 to

Downtown Saint Paul Downtown Saint Paul is the central business district of Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Its boundaries are the Mississippi River to the south, University Avenue to the north, US 52 to the east, and Kellogg Avenue to the west. It is bounded ...

and the

Mall of America Mall of America (MOA) is a large shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota, United States. Located within the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the mall lies southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway ...

Public art

The station contains the artwork ''Dragonfly'' by Andrea Myklebust and Stanton Sears. The artwork consists of a by terrazzo floor pattern of a dragonfly wing on platform complemented by an

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is the cross-sectional shape of an object whose motion through a gas is capable of generating significant lift, such as a wing, a sail, or the blades of propeller, rotor, or tur ...

wing suspended from the ceiling. The artwork is owned and maintained by the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. Myklebust and Sears have several other terrazzo floor artworks at the airport. The walls of the station are fabricated to look like an outcrop of Saint Peter

Sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

through which the tunnels have been bored.

References

External links

Metro Transit: Terminal 1-Lindbergh Station
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terminal 1-Lindbergh station Metro Blue Line (Minnesota) stations in Hennepin County, Minnesota Tunnels in Minnesota Airport railway stations in the United States Railway stations in the United States opened in 2004 2004 establishments in Minnesota Tunnels completed in 2004 Railway stations located underground in the United States Railway tunnels in the United States Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport