MSP to Rochester High Speed Rail

[Nick]

Good to see that Brown College journalism grads are finding work.

[acs]

So in the budget compromise reached today, the state will fix the error and allow the city of Rochester to use sales taxes as part of their contribution to the DMC project. This fix was being used as leverage by the GOP to potentially Kill Zip Rail and now it's gone. I'd say this makes it much more likely this proceeds without legislative interference.

[bubzki2]

Great news! Still an uphill climb, though.

[Mikey]

Never underestimate the power of the Mayo Clinic

(especially behind closed doors)

[acs]

http://www.postbulletin.com/news/politi ... a6974.html

Even the Democrats are in doubt this will get built in face of the opposition. The counties are pushing MNDOT to select a no-build option and fund upgrades to make US-52 a full freeway. Shocker.

[mulad]

I've gotten a position on the Citizens Advisory Committee for this project, and we finally held our first meeting on June 25th. I hadn't wanted to say much until that actually happened. I'm planning to write up a streets.mn post about it, though this weekend I decided to put something together about that second daily train to Chicago instead.

It's a bit hard to say what the project leaders are currently thinking, since I just started to be involved, but my opinion is that they're focused too much on the idea of an express end-to-end service. A presentation at the CAC said that they're aiming for a real HSR corridor, with double-tracking and 186+ mph top speeds. Whether that's attainable or not remains to be seen, but if they did build that, it would have way more capacity than Rochester currently needs.

A double-track HSR corridor can carry a huge number of trains -- lines in France and Japan can have peak traffic volumes exceeding 20 trains per hour per direction, while I think the most optimistic study I've seen for Rochester only had 20 trains per day per direction. That leaves plenty of room for a secondary "commuter" service that could stop at suburbs and an intermediate town or two along the way and still have very good travel time. A 186-mph express train could probably make an end-to-end run in 35 or 40 minutes. With that infrastructure, a secondary "slow" train making multiple stops would probably clock in around an hour or so but still beat bus or automobile travel time along the corridor by a large margin.

There was pushback at the meeting from MnDOT folks for the idea of running a commuter-like operation. Dan Krom went and said that a commuter service would be vastly more expensive than HSR, which really made me cringe, since I really don't understand why he would think such a thing. Maybe he was just referring to operating costs, and that's a potential issue, but there would be plenty of capacity on the line for extra layered services. I think it would be a waste not to run slower all-stop operations in addition to end-to-end express.

I'd be happy to have a stop included by Cannon Falls for a "slow" train, which would allow the area to directly benefit from the line and take away the most legitimate complaint I've seen in opposition so far.

[mattaudio]

Does that imply they're leaning towards a US 52 routing and against a CGW routing? I always figured it would be cheaper to repurpose abandoned rail grade than to redo the existing US 52 grade / bridges / etc for HSR. And intermediate stops (slow line) could happen in Inver Grove, Rosemount, Hampton, Kenyon, Dodge Center, and Kasson. Heck, if they had a stop at Nerstrand, I'd take the train there to camp at the state park.

I wonder if another reason is because Mayo and other stakeholders want a northern terminus at MSP, which would greatly reduce the effectiveness of commuter services on the same line.

[froggie]

The problem with the old CGW line is that the right-of-way has been broken up and repurposed in some locations between Coates and Kenyon, and in other locations (especially where it parallels Hwy 56) you'd have township roads and farmers driveways cut-off by an HSR line.

[mulad]

I didn't see anything in the presentation saying they were favoring one corridor over the other yet. The CAC membership is distributed along both corridors.

[Mikey]

What was the reason behind quickly abandoning the route through Hastings to SPUD?

[grant1simons2]

Red Rock Corridor?

[grant1simons2]

ZipRailCCARL by grant.simons, on Flickr

[Nick]

1.) Caliente Carl

2.) Why are you in Pine Island?

[grant1simons2]

I took a road trip down to Rochester and stopped in Northfield, Zumbrota and Pine Island. I... actually really liked Pine Island. I'll make a larger photo tour later once all the pictures upload.

The facebook page for CCARL is pretty entertaining. They hate everything to do with HSR and I think all of them are over 50.

[mattaudio]

I also took a road trip on this corridor on Saturday... TONS of NO ZIPRAIL yard signs in Hampton, Randolph, Kenyon, and Zumbrota.

[Mikey]

It's probably because they don't see what's in it for "them"

If it's just a fast train between two endpoints, then it doesn't do any good to the small towns it blows past. All the more reason for planning a local sub-service

[mattaudio]

http://www.postbulletin.com/news/politi ... 0b97a.html
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is considering granting a private company exclusive rights to lease air space on highways for an elevated high-speed rail line from Rochester to the Twin Cities.

"The company is seeking to build an 84-mile elevated high-speed rail line that would run from Bloomington to Rochester. Top speeds for the trains could reach 260 to 280 mph, allowing passengers to get between the two cities in as little as 29 minutes.The company is considering running up to three trains per day and a possible stop in Dakota County. The plan also calls for developing real estate in connection with the rail line."

[Tcmetro]

Up to 3 trains/day. Seems like it's set up to fail.

[acs]

Just 3 trains per day? Elevated the whole way? Relying on developing real estate to cover costs when there's no intermediate stops and the terminus is MOA property? Either this group knows something every other rail company doesn't or they are a fraud, because there is no way this pencils out as a viable project.

[mplsjaromir]

True Detective Season 2.5?