Obama Outlines Rail Initiative, Pawlenty Signs Funding Request

President Obama outlined his new inter-city rail plan today, citing ten planned corridors of 110 MPH plus passenger rail service to be developed. Among those was the Minneapolis to Chicago route. The Department of Transportation stated separately that they considered the Minneapolis to Chicago route to be on their "short list" of six lines likely to get a share of the $8 billion in federal stimulus dollars appropriated directly for high speed rail. Distribution of these funds would begin this coming August.

Govenor Pawlenty also signed a funding request by midwestern govenors outlining their preference for the funding priority of individual lines in the Midwest High Speed Rail Initiative. The document, signed by the govenors of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, and Michigan, proposes that the first phase of the network include three lines: one from Chicago to Detroit, another from Chicago to St. Louis, and a third from Chicago to Madison. The extension from Madison to Minneapolis would be part of a second phase of the initiative. The first phase could be operating as early as 2014.

It's kind of disconcerting to hear the Pawlenty isn't fighting for our state by allowing us to slip into the second phase. I mean, St. Louis over Minneapolis? Really? Who knows when that second phase might happen, and it certainly won't be as easy as this first one is with all of that stimulus money floating around right now. It is good to hear that the line is on the DOT's "short list" of funding priorities. I can't help but think that the line only extending to Madison puts it last in the list of the three first phase lines for the MHSRI, which could become a major problem if funding comes down to the wire. Hopefully they'll get that Madison line up and running by 2014, and we won't be too far behind.

MPR and Met Council Reach Deal, Hiawatha Platform Extentions Project Begins, and More!

Greetings!

I know I'm a little late posting this, but as you've all (hopefully) read by now, MPR and the Met Council reached an agreement on the Central Corridor. As part of the agreement a crossover (place where trains can switch tracks) will be relocated away from the MPR studios and the section of track will be set on a large slab of concrete which will float on a giant rubber pad. Hopefully the relocation of the crossover will cut down on noise and the rubber floats will cut down on vibrations.

Success! Hopefully the project can be approved by the end of this summer.

In other Central Corridor news, a new debate has arisen regarding the creation of a free fare zone at the U of M. The University wants to create a free fare zone between the west bank station, east bank station, and the stadium village station. Apparently this would effect the current ridership predictions. As originally planned, the stations would all be constructed to support three-car trains, but only enough cars would be bought to operate two-car trains. This was mandated by the FTA because predicted ridership was shown to be at the very maximum permitted for two-car trains, and apparently the free fare zone pushes this up over the limit, requring an additional 16 cars to be purchased.
Luckily for us, the free fare zone would not be considered by the FTA to be intergral to the line, but rather an enhancement, so this cost increase wouldn't effect the CEI (cost effectiveness index, the system used to rank one project against another while lining up for federal funding) of the project. Construction will be allowed to begin without this issue being resovled, and hopefully the free fare zone will be okay in the end if the county transit tax board comes up with the funds for the new cars.

Construction Updates!

Work began earlier this month on strengthening the Washington Avenue bridge s othat it can handle the weight of the trains travelling over it.

Construction began yesterday on the Hiawatha line's new three-car platform project. This project will be completed in March 2010 and will allow all 18 of the Hiawatha Line's stations to accomodate three-car trains, as well as purchase said trains. Seven of the original 17 stations were built to accomodate these long trains, while ten of them are being extended by this project. The new station at Target Field was built to fit three cars.

Pawlenty Commissions New Statewide Rail Transit Study

The Strib reported today that Gov. Pawlenty has commissioned a new statewide rail study initiative.

The objective is two-fold:
-To secure as much of the federal rail stimulus money for Minnesota as possible.
-To re-evaluate routing for a high-speed rail line between Minneapolis and Chicago.

The three lines being studied are the Northstar extension to St. Cloud, the Northern Lights Express line to Duluth, and the Midwest Regional Rail to Chicago. All three projects would go through planning to make them eligible for funds, and the MPLS-Chicago line would go through a route re-evaluation which would consider a routing through Rochester.

Apparently Gov. Pawlenty has already met with Jim Doyle, the govenor of Wisconsin, and Tim Walz (US rep for Minnesota's first district, which includes Rochester) to discuss the possible re-routing.

It's great news to hear about this stuff progressing forward, especiially the high-speed line to Chicago, which seemed like a distant dream just three months ago.

Letter to Southwest LRT Planning Office

Here is a copy of my letter to the Southwest LRT planning office:

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To whom it may concern,

I have carefully reviewed the available documents from the scoping study, including appendix M on the 11/12th street sub-alternative), and have come up with a proposed routing, which would achieve the goals of the proposed 11th/12th street routing (namely providing high-quality transit service to Uptown and Whittier and interfacing with the existing light rail system in such a way as to allow cooperative operation), while at the same time better preserving the community and traffic patterns (and thus businesses) on major streets in Whittier.

My proposed routing (which can be found in Google Maps form comparing it to the studied alternative routing HERE) would follow the regular 3C routing through the 29th Street Greenway trench and turn northbound onto Blaisdell Avenue. There would be a station in the trench immediately before the turn began, probably between Pleasant and Pillsbury avenues. The proposed LynLake station would remain the same. After turning on to Blaisdell, the routing would continue northbound in a trench up to the intersection with Franklin Avenue, where it would turn at-grade into the Plymouth Congregationalist Church's parking lot. As it currently stands, this parking lot covers close to half of the block. After turning approximately 45 degrees, there would be a station, and after the station, it would execute a corresponding turns to put it onto Nicollet Avenue, heading northbound, on which it would cross I-94 and assume the regular 3C sub-alternative routing.

By placing the two stations off of Blaisdell (in the Parking lot on Franklin/Blaisdell and the Greenway trench), the need to fully shut down traffic on either Blaisdell or 1st Avenue could be avoided. If project budgets allow it and/or ridership justifies it, a below-grade station could perhaps be added at Blaisdell/26th street.

I would appreciate it if you would please consider my proposed routing, because I believe that it may solve many of the issues regarding the relations between the LRT and the Whittier neighborhood.

A Mixed Bag: NIMBYism falls flat in St. Paul, Biden Makes a Promise, Southwest LRT Opposition, and more!

First off, the St. Pauls City Council voted on Wednesday to approve the final design for the Central Corridor, including the maintenance site in the Diamond Products building! w00t! Failure for NIMBYs! Success for urbanism!

Last week Vice-President Joe Biden spoke in St. Cloud in front of a crowd of about 400 people. He promised that he would secure federal funding for the Northstar extention to St. Cloud. Though he didn't give specifics, this is probably indicative of the new administration's dedication to seeing mass transit get properly funded.

Bidding is out for the platform extensions on the Hiawatha LRT, as well as 17 new cars and the new station in Bloomington, so look for this in the future!

Apparently, the Whitter Alliance has passed a resolution in opposition of ALL the newly-proposed 3C sub-alternatives for the Southwest LRT. No vote was passed in opposition or support of either the 3C or 3A routes, presumably because neither had a clear majority. I personally think that a blaisdell route as per the below map is by far superior to any other routes (I created the map below out of a 3C sub-alternative that I created). CARAG, on the other hand, has passed a resolution in favor of the 3C route. On the below map, the route I propose is shown in blue, while the 3C sub-alternative is shown in red. Note: The furthest station west (Lynlake), while appearing red, is in the same location for both routes.


View Larger Map


Today's image is of a car for the Northstar line that was spotted sitting outside Bombradier's Thunder Bay plant. (from Canadian Public Transportation Forums )

Thanks for reading!

St. Paul City Council Passes Resolution to Delay vote on Thune's NIMBY Proposition

The Saint Paul city council unanimously passed a resolution granting Thune two weeks to clarify his arguments and to look into other locations for the maintenance facility.

If the location of the facility is changed, the project completion date will be pushed back about one year.

Any resident of Saint Paul should contact their ward's city council member immediately to voice their opinion on the urgency of this project. Don't let a few NIMBYs make the whole city wait!

The council will vote on relocating the facility on March 18th.

Thanks for reading, and contact your council members!

St. Paul city Council Infested With NIMBYism

Yikes!

An article appeared in yesterday's Pioneer Press about Lowertown residents opposed to the location of the storage and maintenance facility for the Central Corridor's rolling stock: the old Diamond Products building two blocks east of the line's terminus at the Union Depot.

This is in addition to some concerns voiced last week regarding the cuts to the streetscaping budget for University Avenue in order to counteract inflation and the costs of rebuilding the University & Lexington intersection. There is hope that some funding may be diverted from St. Paul's municipal budget to fill the gap, though it will require the approval of the state legistlature.

The big development here is city council member Dave Thune's support of the NIMBYs, setting off alarms in the offices of Peter Bell, the met council chairman (often seen as the driving force behind mass transit in the region) and mayor Chris Coleman.

Thune remained adamant that he represented the views of all of St. Paul, not just a select group of Lowertown residents, though a Pioneer Press poll shows only 15% of readers supporting Thune's proposal to delay the line until a new location for the mainenance facility can be found.

May I remind you that the new mainenance facility will only be for regular mainenance and all major overhauls will be done at the main facility on the Hiawatha Line, that the facility will be entirely indoors, and that the site is currently occupied by a vacant warehouse.

It's really amazing to see a city council member change positions so suddenly on what is really the only hope to revitalize St. Paul's stagnant downtown.

Thanks for reading!