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Gov. Tim Pawlenty was one of eight Midwestern governors to urge Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to make the Midwestern Regional Rail Initiative (MWRRI) a top priority in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The act, which includes a last-minute $8 billion for high-speed rails, would create a high-speed passenger rail that links Minneapolis and Chicago; a trip by rail between the cities would take about five and half hours.
“As you complete your strategic plan to improve and deploy high-speed passenger rail systems in the United States, as mandated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA),” the letter from the governors reads, “we are pleased to share with you the unique qualities of our regional initiative and the reasons we believe projects in these corridors should be given top priority for high-speed passenger rail funding.”
As Pawlenty pointed out in the letter (pdf), Minnesota is already ahead of the game in implementing its parts of the plan.
Some Phase II projects are ready to go – for example, the St. Paul Union Depot project, which is being renovated to serve as a hub for Amtrak, inter- and intracity bus and passenger rail. In late 2009, the Northstar Commuter Rail Line, Hiawatha LRT and intra-city bus will all converge adjacent to the new Minnesota Twins stadium in Minneapolis. Minnesota has also established a Passenger Rail Forum of key stakeholders to develop data-driven, collaborative decisions on further rail development. The forum will play a key role in completion and implementation of a Minnesota Passenger and Freight Rail Plan. These efforts offer a strong local foundation for Minnesota’s connection to the MWRRI.
And with the extra federal funds, a high-speed rail from Minneapolis to Duluth is in the cards as well, according to the letter.
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3 Comments »
Comment posted April 13, 2009 @ 9:38 pm
Washington and Oregon, through our own DOT’s have been deploying HSR along the Cascade Corridor between Eugene, OR and Canada since 1999. Tilt trains, capable of 125 mph, have been gradually defining a market share and offering an alternative to driving or flying. Results so far are impressive. Trains carry many more travelers between Seattle and Portland than do airlines, using half the fuel and producing half the pollution per passenger mile at a lower cost. This is an amazing statistic, considering our fast trains are still limited to just 79 mph for lack of federally mandated safety, signal and track improvements. Reducing bottlenecks with freight trains, gets us there.
We look forward to working with Sec. LaHood to offer America an additional option for travel, while reducing our needs for imported oil and polluting our atmosphere less.
Mike Skehan, Member, All Aboard Washington
Comment posted April 13, 2009 @ 10:07 pm
Same governor who was encouraging Obama to cut taxes and spending? I’m glad his pragmatism prevails.
Comment posted April 28, 2009 @ 9:48 pm
Unfortunately, there are some who are pushing for a flawed route in Minnesota that excludes Rochester, the state’s largest city outside of the Twin Cities area, in favor of small river towns like Winona. Legislators from these small towns control a committee in the state legislature that has repeatedly thwarted requests for funding to study the impact of a Rochester route, which most people, including Pawlenty, believe makes the most economic and common sense. These same lawmakers have allocated millions of dollars to study routes which pass through their home towns, and they are now using the short deadline for federal funding applications as a trojan horse for their pork-barrel plan.
Please do NOT support the OnBoardMidwest advocacy group which represents this flawed plan – it would be utterly wasteful of taxpayer money to exclude Rochester from Minnesota’s High Speed Rail plans.
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