Anyone hear anything on the status of the sale of DM&E to CP? Sure would be good to finally get it over with and see the connector line starting to get built.
From the link:
ROCHESTER, Minn., Feb. 1 /CNW/ – Mayo Clinic today asked the U.S.
Surface Transportation Board (STB) to require mitigation for the city of
Rochester as a condition of the Canadian Pacific’s pending acquisition of the
Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad (DM&E).
What specifically is the mitigation that would satisfy Rochester Coalition and Mayo?
[quote]
The Rochester Coalition is committed to protecting the people of
Rochester and the patients and staff at Mayo Clinic as well as other affected
communities.
The Rochester Coalition represents the city of Rochester, Olmsted County,
the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce and Mayo Clinic.
[/quote]
This explains the somewhat hostile take on CP and DM&E...[soapbox]
Well I was just wondering if there is some definition of “mitigation” when used in such an appeal to the STB. If not, it only means to reduce the pain that an upgraded railroad would have on Mayo and Rochester. The Rochester Coalition has detailed that pain as being noise, dust, delays, crossing crashes, vibrations, the danger of derailments, and spilling hazardous cargo.
Other than a bypass, the only thing that I can visualize that would mitigate that pain is a tunnel.
Rochester, Mayo, Olmsted County and the Coalition talk as if all the rail line rebuilding goes foreward without improving the tracks through town to CWR. What a bunch of babies. That line once brought in a majority of patients to the Mayo Clinic. And if that line is so dangerous, why oh why do they keep building more buildings closer and closer to the tracks and put sensitive as they say, test equipment in those buildings? I think that track was laid through Rochester in the 1860s. I lived there up to 1995 and worked at several businesses withing a block of the tracks near 11th street northwest. I only ever saw one car on the ground and that was at the end of short spur with I think 2 wheels on the ground. They had it up and moved within about 4 hours. How much of the bypass would the lawyering and delays have paid for by now?
How’s all this affect the ICE…??
I don’t think anyone seriously is considering a bypass. At least, no one involved is considering paying for one. Out of curiosity I examined the Rochester area on Google Earth. It appeared to me that the best route would be to bypass the city on its southern side, but something on the order of 20 to 30 miles would be required.
That isn’t going to happen. The purpose of the fuss is to cause the DM&E/CP to mitigate the effects of increased traffic with as little help from the good citizens of Rochester as possible.