Rochester - Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN - Zip Rail

[jstolberg]

The Minnesota Department of Transportation and Olmsted County leaders have gone public with their proposal to build a high speed rail line between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Rochester.

"There will be a new line constructed," Mn/DOT Project Manager Praveena Pidaparthi said, explaining that there is no existing line to run on.

http://www.kare11.com/news/article/1028 ... -Rochester" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rochester, MN has a population of only 108,000. Most high speed rail proposals connect cities with at least 1 million people each.

[sipes23]

Isn't the State of Minnesota also working on a St. Paul-Duluth high-speed connection?

If so, this could just be part of a bigger strategy there, in spite of the population. In any case, I'll believe it when I see it.

[goodnightjohnwayne]

I think the entire point of this exercise is just to spend a lot of taxpayer money on a feasibility study.

[CHTT1]

Rochester is the home of the Mayo Clinic, with thousands of visitors each year. This stretch could also be the start of a Chicago-Twin Cities HSR.

[mtuandrew]

If they do install rail, I hope they take a page from history and name the first two train sets Bluebird and Redbird.

For some time, it has been clear that (K)MSP has been bumping up against its capacity limits as an international airport, even with the addition of a new north-south runway and expansion of its terminals. One of the congestion mitigation proposals involved a mega-airport in Dakota County southeast of the Cities, and another involves a considerably beefed-up airline presence at (K)RST. The proposed high-speed line would link the metro area with both of these proposed solutions. Also, the Mayo Clinic and IBM are both major employers in Olmsted County - their presence and interest in high-speed travel to the Twin Cities might have a lot to do with the durability of this proposal.

Personally, I'll believe it when they start building the right-of-way in earnest.

Sipes123: yes, the Twin Cities to Duluth proposal is called the Northern Lights Express. It is proposed with a 110 mph speed limit.
CHTT1: As for HSR to Chicago, it has been agreed that it will broadly follow the Milwaukee Road trough Red Wing, Winona, La Crosse, Tomah, Wisconsin Dells, and probably Madison to Milwaukee and Chicago.

[mtuandrew]

Moderator's Note: Also see my recent post in the All Things Empire Builder thread in the Amtrak forum. Praveena Pitaparthi is sure busy.

[ExCon90]

Rochester is the home of the Mayo Clinic, with thousands of visitors each year. This stretch could also be the start of a Chicago-Twin Cities HSR.

To justify a high-speed line, wouldn't they need thousands of visitors a day?

[NH2060]

This will be interesting to watch.
http://www.goziprail.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

First EIS meetings:
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/blog/anony ... s-meetings" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mtuandrew]

Moderator's Note: Zip Rail topic merged into existing Rochester-St. Paul topic. I'll rename the overall topic as well, now that there is an official name for the project.

[chrsjrcj]

The train in the video on their homepage looks like the ICE TD.