http://wcco.com/local/rochester.rail.line.2.1008516.html
I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this same announcement.
In the immortal words of Grandma Walton, “Good Lord”.
Seriously, WHEN will this town stop trying to make life miserable for everybody else?
[:-,] Of course, “rough justice” for this bunch would be for some other town along the route of their proposed high-speed rail line to protest it on the basis of traffic congestion, noise, loss in property values, crime, pollution, etc. & so forth. . . . . [:-^]
[swg] - PDN.
The line would have to cross the DM&E line at some point![:-,]
Let’s see: $325,000,000 for 48 miles = $6,770,833 per mile, for construction, plus operating costs.
Hmmmm…$325,000,000 invested at, say 5%= $16,250,000 per year interest earned. If a limo costs, what?- $100 per hour, a round trip would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $200? Let’s see: $16,250,000 divided by $200= 81,250 trips per year, or 223 per day, or 9 per hour. I could run a limo service with a car leaving every 7 minutes! If my limo holds 4 passengers comfortably, it’s 81,250 trips x 4 passengers x2 directions, my potential ridership is in the neighborhood of 650,000 riders per year! Imagine what the numbers would look like, if I just got a big, long bus, with a driver named Gus!
Heck, I could even run a limo over to Winona or LaCrosse, to catch the Amtrak train to Chicago.
Where do I sign up for this?[:P]
Did I mention, we could probably pick up and deliver passengers anywhere in the Twin Cities metro area, and could change, ad, delete, or end our service at any time, to adjust to the marketplace? [^]
Surely the newspaper’s categorization of the proposed line as “high-speed” is being used in a pre-bullet train, 20th Century context, like 50 mph for freight and maybe 80 mph for passenger? No major curves, some CTC?
Murph, your limo plan makes economic sense. Unfortunately, there are lots and lots of rules
Would it have to cross the DME? What if they rebuilt the CGW to Pine Island, then jog west to rejoin the CGW main at West Concord, and rebuild that ROW all the way north, through Kenyon, Randolph(where they’d pass-through the remains of the CGW yard now operated by Progressive Rail), and on up to Rosemount where they’d connect with the CP/UP Spine Line for the run into St. Paul.
I know that not all of the CGW ROW has been totally plowed-under. There’s still sections of it in Kenyon, Hampton and Randolph that remain.
Like it? I’ll go get my shovel and my weed-wacker and start tonight.
According to the article, the line would head south out of Rochester, then west, then north. Apparantly, that means someone has at least scoped out a path. Since the DM&E runs east-west through Rochester, this proposed line would have to cross DM&E. I guess Rochester could ask pretty, pretty please?
Dang. Missed that part. Maybe they’ll build west and connect with the MILW Austin-St. Paul line the ICE/CP is using for covered hopper storage?
Wouldn’t they still have to get on their knees and beg?[}:)]
Didn’t see any links, here is one to the group pushing for it:
http://www.semnrail.org/index.html
And this one took a bit of searching as I knew I saw it somewhere but didn’t remember where, but here is their proposed lines at one time.
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/passengerrail/onepagers/rochesterstudy.pdf
The plan is from 2002, but I would guess that most elements haven’t changed that much.
SOMEBODY at either F.R.A. the S.T.B., or even my employer (CPRS) needs to sit down with these people and have a SERIOUS, serious talk about what is possible and what isn’t. These a-clowns are seriously something else.
The DOT study’s illustration shows two concepts, both of them being largely reincarnations of the CGW with usage of ex-MILW trackage and the existing Spine Line from what I can see. You see - they are considering the West Concord - Kenyon ROW as I imagined. And that’s all this is going to be - imagination!
Does Rochester Minnesota evoke sympathy; NO.They are like a lot of small cities in America that are screaming for high speed rail now that we have sampled $4.00 per gallon gas. One Mayo clinic employee was quoted as saying we must have 150 MPH trains in the Star Trib.Sorry pal but economic reality caught up with you.There is already a limo service to the Twin Cities airport from Rochester which does quite nicely because Rochester’s airport has very limited service now. Regional aircraft only with service only to Chicago,Detriot,and the Twin Cities. You can fly non stop to Las Vegas once a day and Fed-ex has a new terminal for air freight and improvements to the runways so they can handle the 747’s that fly in the Saudi princes for their check-ups.
Why can’t Rochester settle for something that would give them reliable train service to the Twin Cities including the South Metro suburbs.DMU’s that go 75 MPH not high speed rail are the answer and they are cheaper too.
Rats! Someone beat me to the limo idea.
IF the city of Rochester, the Mayo Clinic, and the S.E. Minnesota Rail Coalition were smart, they would push for some sort of connecting commuter service between Rochester and La Crosse to connect with Amtrak’s Empire Builder. If the push for high(er) speed service comes into reality for the CPRS Chicago - Twin Cities mainline (I hope it does) then something like this may be feasible; certainly doable. Of course, the DME mainline from Minnesota City westward would require an extensive upgrade.
Go and dig out a map of southern Minnesota. Look at I-90 and see where it turns northeast when it gets east of Austin.Then south of Rochester it connects with 52 and heads easterly direction again (just south of the old CGW roadbed). When I was about 5, I-90 was supposed to go next to the town of Grand Meadow which I lived in. We moved to a farm 5 miles directly north of town and then I-90 was possibly going past our farm. I-90 ended up going through just north of the town of Stewartville. So at that time in the 70s the politicians had enough power to move a major highway about 10 miles north of its original path. Rochester is a unique town with lots of nice people and yet cursed with lots of big egos amongst all those highly tallented doctors and nurses.
Imagine the DM&E line upgraded and coal trains going through town, and then a special connecting passenger train from Winona after a high speed passenger system is in place. Would Rochesters angry tune against those evil coal trains change much?
I DON’T THINK SO.