An extension is under construction that will extend the line to the southwest connecting St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka and Eden Prairie.

Streetcar service along the Interurban line ended in Saint Paul on October 31, 1953, and the route was the last to carry passengers in the city.

Another system using smaller people movers was proposed in the 1975 Small Vehicle Fixed Guideway Study and gained the most traction with the Saint Paul city council, but was eventually dropped in 1980.

[16] On June 28, 2006, the Metropolitan Council concurred with the CCCC's decision and officially selected LRT as the locally preferred alternative.

The Metropolitan Council, which operates Metro Transit, submitted numbers showing that a light rail line would carry 43,000 passengers daily by the year 2030.

[23] In April 2008, Governor Tim Pawlenty initially vetoed $70 million in funding for the Central Corridor project, along with other items, from the state budget.

[clarification needed] Control factors used in the biology labs would be impacted by the electromagnetic radiation emitted from the nearby light rail.

"[30] The Metropolitan Council has included this infrastructure work in their Draft Environmental Impact Statement and has also committed to building one station if any funds become available.

This last option was preferred by the University of Minnesota, which feared traffic disruption and vibration at some of their research facilities from use of the Washington Avenue route.

[37] In late summer 2008, preliminary engineering reports showed that mitigation work could negate the effects of vibrations on university laboratory equipment.

In January 2009, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) raised concerns over the effects of the light-rail trains on their recording studios on Cedar Street in downtown St. Paul.

The extension will add 16 additional stations and 14.5 miles (23.3 km) of trackage to the line, extending through St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Minnetonka.

The eastern terminus of the Green Line is a street level station in front of the Saint Paul Union Depot, considered one of the great architectural achievements in the city and formerly one of the main points of departure for area train riders up until passenger rail service in the United States was restructured in the 1960s and 1970s.

[41] Metro Transit also provides weekday express bus service along Interstate 94 between the St. Paul and Minneapolis downtown areas.

[42] Siemens Industry Incorporated built 47 S70 Light Rail Vehicles for the Green Line,[43] at a per-LRV cost of $3,297,714 and a total contract value of $154,992,558.

The first death occurred in August 2014,[48] when Shana Buchanan, former attorney, was struck by a train as she attempted to cross the tracks at Westgate Station.

[49] On April 30, 2015, Lynne Thomas, the Minnesota Senate's office of counsel and research receptionist, was the second pedestrian killed by a Green Line train.

[50] On December 10, 2015, pedestrian Nurto Abdi Aden was struck and killed as she crossed the Green Line tracks near Hamline Avenue Station.

Westlake's girlfriend and ballroom dance partner Neli Petkova was in the passenger seat at the time of the collision and was subsequently treated for injuries and released from the hospital.

[55] A seventh person, a male pedestrian at the Stadium Village station near the University of Minnesota, was run over and killed by a departing train early on April 20, 2019, after he fell between two of its cars.

[57] An eastbound train struck a car near the Rice Street station in the afternoon of July 4, 2021, marking the line's ninth fatality.

[58] Around 10:30 a.m. on June 8, 2022, a bicyclist was stuck and killed by a light rail train at the Raymond Avenue Station, the tenth fatality since the line opened.

[59] The 11th fatality occurred on May 29, 2024, when a bicyclist was struck and killed by a Green Line train near the Minnesota State Capitol and the Rice Street station during the afternoon rush hour around 4:15PM.

[61] The Minnesota Metro Green Line had a causal impact of improving people's access to health care by providing reliable public transportation.