Metro Blue Line (Minnesota)
light rail line in the Twin Cities region, Minnesota, US
The Metro Blue Line is a 12-mile (19.3 km) 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. Formerly the Hiawatha Line (Route 55) prior to May 2013, the line was originally named after the Milwaukee Road's Hiawatha passenger train and Hiawatha Avenue, reusing infrastructure from the former and running parallel to the latter for a portion of the route. The line opened June 26, 2004, and was the first light rail service in Minnesota. An extension is planned to open in 2030.
The Blue Line is operated by Metro Transit, the primary bus and train operator in the Twin Cities. As of December 2022, the service operates from approximately 3:19 am to 12:50 am with 15‑minute headways most of the day. The route averaged 32,928 daily riders in 2019, representing 13 percent of Metro Transit's ridership. The line carried 10.6 million riders in 2015.
In South Minneapolis, several bus routes converge at transit centers along the line, offering connections to other Metro lines and frequent bus routes.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Metro Blue Line (Minnesota)” is light rail line in the Twin Cities region, Minnesota, US. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Metro, Blue and Line, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “light rail line in the Twin Cities region, Minnesota, US” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1617191. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2013, 2004, 2030 and 2022.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Metro Blue Line (Minnesota)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Metro Blue Line (Minnesota) primary sources, Metro Blue Line (Minnesota) archive and Metro research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Metro Blue Line (Minnesota)”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Metro Blue Line (Minnesota)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.