Northern Lights Express
Re: Northern Lights Express
In my more cynical moments I kinda view some politicians who are "transit advocates" as people who want to either be the ones who will sign a bill/law that gives a project funding or to be the ones that cut the ribbon when it opens but make sure to be missing when its neck deep in construction and some unknow issues pop up *cough SWLRT *cough. (coincidently politicians from the other side will swoop in and start to make a stink to drum up support)
Point is I kinda believe if we want more projects in the pipeline with quicker timelines they need to be seen as a more mundane thing because right now it just attracts grifters on both sides of the aisle the gums things up at best, derails it at worse.
Point is I kinda believe if we want more projects in the pipeline with quicker timelines they need to be seen as a more mundane thing because right now it just attracts grifters on both sides of the aisle the gums things up at best, derails it at worse.
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- Wells Fargo Center
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Re: Northern Lights Express
So see it as something normal like a road project, instead of on one side drumming it up to be something that will revolutionize the Twin Ports and on the other side hyping it up to be a massive money pit that the Twin Ports will never recover from?In my more cynical moments I kinda view some politicians who are "transit advocates" as people who want to either be the ones who will sign a bill/law that gives a project funding or to be the ones that cut the ribbon when it opens but make sure to be missing when its neck deep in construction and some unknow issues pop up *cough SWLRT *cough. (coincidently politicians from the other side will swoop in and start to make a stink to drum up support)
Point is I kinda believe if we want more projects in the pipeline with quicker timelines they need to be seen as a more mundane thing because right now it just attracts grifters on both sides of the aisle the gums things up at best, derails it at worse.
If I'm understanding you correctly, then I agree, it should be seen as a normal infrastructure project instead of one or the other extremes. While NLX will, whenever it gets built, be a good alternative over I-35 for certain non-tourist trips and a nice way for Twin Cities folks to visit the Twin Ports and for Twin Ports folks to visit the Twin Cities, I also don't think it's something major/revolutionary/whatever words politicians use these days to drum up support. Having been to many places where traveling by train is normal, that's what NLX is to me; it's a normal and commonsense piece of transportation.
Re: Northern Lights Express
Yep, although to be fair I haven't seen a lot of of hyperbolic statements for or against NLX (or at least compared to other projects I can think of), but its still there and still can negatively effect the project.
Re: Northern Lights Express
I've been really looking forward to this project. Was it evitable that they would miss these deadlines/expiration dates? Are there any ways to speed things up?
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- Stone Arch Bridge
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Re: Northern Lights Express
Biden in Duluth/Superior tomorrow to do his second boast in two years about supporting the Blatnik Bridge project - I can't imagine Amtrak Joe will be announcing anything about NLX during the visit?
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Re: Northern Lights Express
What’s holding this project up at this point? From what I understand, it’s fully funded, is it just station placement/amenities and rolling stock procurement now?
"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation."
Note: Many of the thoughts expressed above may be pretty stupid or ill-informed, with some rare good ideas interspersed.
Note: Many of the thoughts expressed above may be pretty stupid or ill-informed, with some rare good ideas interspersed.
Re: Northern Lights Express
Unfortunately it isn't fully funded. Last year when the legislature passed the state funding of the project, it was with the intention of receiving a federal match. In December when the FRA made grant announcements, NLX didn't receive funding this round. I think there will be another round of grants given out at the end of this year where it'll have another go at federal funding?
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Re: Northern Lights Express
I think MN was denied funding because our environmental review was out of date, yeah? Will that be updated before the fall funding round?
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Re: Northern Lights Express
Aww
I want this train so badly!! At this rate we won’t get a train for another decade or two…
I want this train so badly!! At this rate we won’t get a train for another decade or two…
"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation."
Note: Many of the thoughts expressed above may be pretty stupid or ill-informed, with some rare good ideas interspersed.
Note: Many of the thoughts expressed above may be pretty stupid or ill-informed, with some rare good ideas interspersed.
Re: Northern Lights Express
Slow progress on the TCMC second train has been an impediment for NLX. Ramsey County finalized the Union Depot lease just this week, so service on that should begin (fingers crossed) in a couple months.
Re: Northern Lights Express
My understanding is that the MnDOT Passenger Rail office is, like, three people. Not much capacity there to do multiple things at once.
Joey Senkyr
[email protected]
[email protected]
Re: Northern Lights Express
I did not realize this was delayed until I happened to watch a MN House session and everyone was trying to allocate this money to other projects. What a bummer, let's get on it.
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- Stone Arch Bridge
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Re: Northern Lights Express
Is there any concept about how this would work as an extension of Borealis? Or how other Amtrak passengers could transfer to Duluth without a Green Line hop?
Seems like trains could back up into or out of TFS with the Minneapolis Junction wye (and again, I've suggested they make the double track across the river continuous from the TFS station throat to Mpls Jct.
Seems like trains could back up into or out of TFS with the Minneapolis Junction wye (and again, I've suggested they make the double track across the river continuous from the TFS station throat to Mpls Jct.
Re: Northern Lights Express
That ... is a great idea. Any freight delays expected along NLE routing I wonder?
Re: Northern Lights Express
It seems like eventually all intercity service to the Twin Cities should stop at both TFS and SPUD. To go from SPUD to TFS (or vice versa), you have to back in/out of both stations, so it actually seems to work out operationally, since trains would always be facing the "right way" after arriving at the second station. I could be wrong about that, though, I am not a rail operations expert.
According to Wikipedia, the Hiawatha Service consist (of which Borealis is technically an extension) has a Siemens SC-44 as its primary locomotive, but does have an EMD F40PH locomotive on the rear as a "control car". I would imagine you need a locomotive of some kind on the back end to do an extended reversal like what I'm suggesting.
According to Wikipedia, the Hiawatha Service consist (of which Borealis is technically an extension) has a Siemens SC-44 as its primary locomotive, but does have an EMD F40PH locomotive on the rear as a "control car". I would imagine you need a locomotive of some kind on the back end to do an extended reversal like what I'm suggesting.
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- Nicollet Mall
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Re: Northern Lights Express
The only problem I could see with this is that the on-time performance of the Twin Cities - Duluth section would crumble since it has to deal with everything east of St. Paul. (I suppose it also isn't as flashy as a brand-new state supported service with fancy new trains...)Is there any concept about how this would work as an extension of Borealis? Or how other Amtrak passengers could transfer to Duluth without a Green Line hop?
Seems like trains could back up into or out of TFS with the Minneapolis Junction wye (and again, I've suggested they make the double track across the river continuous from the TFS station throat to Mpls Jct.
I'd imagine that the Borealis train will just sit at SPUD all day, so an extension like this would be an effective use of resources, I think.
"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation."
Note: Many of the thoughts expressed above may be pretty stupid or ill-informed, with some rare good ideas interspersed.
Note: Many of the thoughts expressed above may be pretty stupid or ill-informed, with some rare good ideas interspersed.
- VacantLuxuries
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Re: Northern Lights Express
I think the biggest problem with making NLX an extension of the Borealis is they intend to run four round trips a day on NLX, versus just the once daily Borealis.
Though personally I think trying to figure out how to get Empire/Borealis passengers over to TFS to connect to NLX isn't worth the effort and they should pivot to NLX departing from SPUD when they redo the environmental review. That's where our Amtrak trains are, that's where this one should be too.
Though personally I think trying to figure out how to get Empire/Borealis passengers over to TFS to connect to NLX isn't worth the effort and they should pivot to NLX departing from SPUD when they redo the environmental review. That's where our Amtrak trains are, that's where this one should be too.
Re: Northern Lights Express
Not necessarily an issue, it could work just like the Missouri River Runner (2x daily Kansas City-St. Louis) and Lincoln Service (4x daily Chicago-St. Louis) do. One southbound Lincoln continues west as one of the River Runners, and one eastbound River Runner continues north as a Lincoln. The NLX scope didn't include a heavy maintenance facility, assuming that would happen in Chicago anyway, so through-routing a trip per day with a Borealis to Chicago would be more efficient than occasionally deadheading a trainset four hundred miles.
Joey Senkyr
[email protected]
[email protected]
Re: Northern Lights Express
it's kinda annoying that the only rail connection between Minneapolis and St Paul (ignoring the green line) is this roundabout back in/out through the junction, but I agree maybe it would be better to route at least one NLX to SPUD since unless we pay for the twins to get a new stadium (bad idea for more than one reason) I don't see how TFS has enough space to become a major inter city train station.
Although we could always rebuild midway, there's plenty of space by midway to build an impressive station
Although we could always rebuild midway, there's plenty of space by midway to build an impressive station
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- Nicollet Mall
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Re: Northern Lights Express
It's just really difficult because we essentially have three hubs for different modes of transportation in the Twin Cities: Amtrak is primarily in St. Paul, Local travel is centered around Downtown Minneapolis, and air travel is out of Bloomington. As the plans stand today, it would be annoying to transfer between any of these three as a tourist. In a perfect would all of these would be centralized or have faster transit connections.
This is kind of off-topic, but I do think that having an electrified rail tunnel replacing I-94 would be hugely beneficial to the Target Field station as it is possible to connect it from the south instead. Having a special express between the two, as well as running Amtrak service in this tunnel would be super nice. I also believe the new Siemens locomotives will be able to switch between overhead electric and diesel. Build it to support high speeds, and viola! You've got a way to connect between DT St. Paul and DT Minneapolis! Getting political support for that, on the other hand. . .
This is kind of off-topic, but I do think that having an electrified rail tunnel replacing I-94 would be hugely beneficial to the Target Field station as it is possible to connect it from the south instead. Having a special express between the two, as well as running Amtrak service in this tunnel would be super nice. I also believe the new Siemens locomotives will be able to switch between overhead electric and diesel. Build it to support high speeds, and viola! You've got a way to connect between DT St. Paul and DT Minneapolis! Getting political support for that, on the other hand. . .
"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation."
Note: Many of the thoughts expressed above may be pretty stupid or ill-informed, with some rare good ideas interspersed.
Note: Many of the thoughts expressed above may be pretty stupid or ill-informed, with some rare good ideas interspersed.
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