Postby mulad » January 30th, 2014, 7:09 pm
I believe MnDOT has a downtown-to-downtown "high-speed" rail connection under study now (one of these days I'll contact someone at their Passenger Rail Office about it...). I've heard that Milwaukee Road engineers would run passenger trains through significant chunks of the "Short Line" corridor at a full 79 mph, though I couldn't pinpoint any specific spots for anyone. Local railroad photographer Steve Glischinski put together a compilation of railroad timetables which indicates that the highest speed on the Merriam Park Subdivision today is 70 mph. However, when I've taken the Empire Builder, it hasn't seemed very fast through town, more on the order of 40-45 mph -- I imagine the 70 mph section he mentioned is probably east of the Union Depot (the Merriam Park subdivision apparently extends from just south of the Midway station to CP's St. Paul yard (across the river from St. Paul's downtown airport).
But maintaining a high average speed would be the critical thing, not necessarily top speed -- the BNSF yard by TCF Bank Stadium requires trains to slow down, as does the Minnesota Commercial yard just north of the Midway Amtrak station. Personally, I think it may be best to develop somewhat of a teardrop-shaped route, including the BNSF Midway Subdivision, which extends straight east from the Minnesota Commercial yard area, but it has additional yards farther east. Historically, there were four main tracks through the area -- two for freight and two for passenger. I'm not sure how easy/hard it would be to restore those tracks and maintain freight activities. It loops around the east side of downtown Saint Paul, which wouldn't be helpful for any trains continuing to run east/southeast toward places like Red Wing or Eau Claire, but it would essentially allow straight-through running for a Minneapolis -> St. Paul -> Rochester train, which would most likely take the lift bridge at Robert Street to head south.