Lets see coal country is booming and there needs to be a way for workers to get out there and the drives are really long and boring and the winter is dangerous…so could DM&E sweeten the pot by offering tri-weekly passenger service? Been done in Canada in Labardor and Ontario…Hell the next big city could spring up up out there in the next 50 years
DME has made some great strides in improving their ROW and increasing train speeds, but 30-40 MPH speed limits probably wouldn’t cut it for Amtrak service. Plus, there wouldn’t be the ridership needed to sustain service on that route (nobody wants to go to Sturgis by train).
Another issue worth mentioning -
When I go to a job I need to transport my tools (several hundred pounds). This is not economical with Amtrak. Any worker who needs to transport tools of the trade to the worksite, whether mine or building, is at a disadvantage with public transportation.
…And to add to the already posted comments, that practice worked in Canada because there either WEREN’T any roads in to the area (Labrador), or very poor roads that were pretty much undriveable during wet season (Ontario).
The drive may be long, boring and perhaps dangerous in Winter, but you have Interstate highways to get you to Gillette, and pretty close to the south side of PRB too (Orin).
And bring customers to the Mayo Clinic? No an evil train couldn’t do “that”. Back in the 80s or maybe early 90s the governor (I forget which one) proposed an Amtrak train from the Twin Cities when the CGW line still existed. The issue lasted about as long as a fly on your windshield at 55mph. Local commentators thought it was another moment of political pandering during an election year.
Well, at least there’s Wall Drug, probably the pleasantest Tourist Trap I’ve encountered. And if you have a couple of hours, pull off the Interstate at Mitchell, S.D. If the Corn Palace is still there, I’d love to see if the guides still fall all over themselves explaining and (un-necesssarily IMO) apologizing for the Native American swastikas in the floor – which, BTW, point the other way as what’s on the [censored] flag of the party of Hit1er. - a. s.
PS: Yes, HAL’s little bro., the in-house censorship machine, asterisk’ed out the word pronounced Not-See. I do not see why it can’t be tuned to apply a little more discretion.
Before the controversy heated up, before the turn-down of the giant Federal loan, Mike Schaiffer did propose dedicated passenger service to the people at the Mayo, but they were not interested. But who knows in the future, CP and Mayo may get together on the idea, because it does make sense. The handicapped and elderly are the two populations that most benefit from intercity long distance passenger service.
When the DM&E was first trying to sell the idea of upgrading the tracks, etc., one of their talking points was the concept of passenger service between Brookings (which is near Sioux Falls, S.D.'s population center) and the Black Hills area. As tourism is an important industry for us, they apparently thought that argument was a winner. It was never very clear what they were going to connect to on the eastern side to supply all those tourists.
Can you imagine several passenger cars with WALL DRUG bumper stickers on them?
I’m sure some bikers would love to load up and go to Sturgis. Not everybody want’s to spend half of their vacation going to and coming back home from Sturgis. As far as the track speeds, the speed limit on the sections that already have welded rail is 50 MPH. The whole Black Hills region is still a major tourist destination, all summer long, not just for Sturgis. Speaking of Sturgis, I don’t know if they’re still doing it, but at one point bikers from the East could load their bikes and get off at Minot, ND, the closest Amtrak stop from Sturgis.
Amtrak has existed for nearly 40 years and South Dakota is the ONLY state in the lower 48 that has never had and still doesn’t have Amtrak. We pay taxes too. I’d love to be able to get on a train and go to Chicago to visit relatives. My car is old, and if I could afford to fly, I could afford a better car.
Let’s just put the AMTRAK stop in Rochester close to the Mayo clinic’s main entrance . Anyone know the layout there? Or maybe run the Mineapolis commuter rail to Rochester.
And scenery too.
While the prospects of Amtrak service on what is now the DME are not bright, I could almost see some sort of connecting commuter operation between Winona and Rochester.
Actually, what I’d really like to see (even though I know it has as much chance as a snowball in hell) is connecting service between Cedar Rapids/Iowa City and La Crosse over a mixture of current ICE, CN, and Crandic trackage. Hey, it’s okay to dream a little, isn’t it? [:D]
Amtrak could get really clever and call it the “Dakota 400.” Wait, I think C&NW did that already.
Rochester Minnesota, home of the Mayo Clinic; Nimby Capital of America. Amtrak, you got to be kidding. This is a town that has no freeway connection to the Twin Cities; BOO HOO! Maybe Minnesota’s penny pinching Governor might upgrade US 52 from divided highway status to full freeway status in the next 50 years. Your airline service has dropped to regional jet sevice, American and soon to be Delta Northwest do not operate their own planes into your airport. You lost the Minnesota 400 back in the summer of 1963. The Mayo Clinic was one of the most strongly opposed to the train off petition. How ironic. Rochester has been content to be addicted to the automobile like most of the rest of us and what do we do now. High speed rail, who and where would it be built. Nimbys will be happy to drive because trains are too noisy, they disturb and freighten their poor children. Rochester, you are the most anti-rail town in America, bar none !!!
Well, I’ll post and make sure this topic ends here… I’m guessing the general opinion is “No.”
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Those Indian symbols you see that look like Swasticas turn in the opposite direction as real Swasticas. They have a symobolism that is not anything like Natzi thinking. Those Indian symbols are in the floor of the Mayo House which is up on the hill north of the Apache Mall.
Well swastikas can go in either direction depending on whose culture you’re talking about, so there isn’t one “real” swastika. Some swastika symbols go back thousands of years in areas like India and the middle east as I recall, back to like the Babylonians or something. Hit-liar adopted it for the Nutsys after looking at several other options, apparently he was aware of it being an ancient symbol often used to symbolize good luck.
As noted the Mayo Clinic was served by trains from Chicago on the CNW, first by the Minnesota 400, later the Dakota 400. I think it’s probably not needed now, Mayo has a lot of high-end clients who come in from other countries, often by private jet. Plus it’s too far for light rail from the Twin Cities to reach Rochester, though I suppose if the ‘heavy rail’ commuter lines coming in the next decades work out, Rochester could be reached someday.
I wouldn’t hold out much hope for passenger service on Amtrak to SD and Wyoming coal country. Too far to go for too few people. Also, it’s unlikely that South Dakota - a state with no income tax - would be able to raise the money to fund all or part of the project themselves, and I suspect Amtrak would only consider it if it was at least partially subsidized by MN, SD and Wyoming.
[sigh]
WJSTIX has it right. SD is a low tax, low services state. There is no interest in financially participating in such a venture, in particular when the DM&E route misses the city/county with 1/5 of the total state population.
Even in Minnesota, the DM&E doesn’t serve many population centers.