by njtmnrrbuff
The old Midway Amtrak depot would probably be a good place to store and service the train. I'm sure that MN will want Amtrak to have the 2nd train terminate at SPUD.
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Arborwayfan wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2020 1:15 pm The only drawback might be one that's relevant here: the light rail is out in the street, not, as in Dallas, more or less across the platform from the trains.The light rail situation in MSP is a bit frustrating overall. It's almost an hour ride to Minneapolis side versus a 15-20 minute cab ride (not at rush hour). I like to ride the train but I'm not too interested in another hour on hard LRV seats after 8ish hours up from Chicago. This assumes I'm going to downtown Minneapolis, which is far more vibrant than downtown Saint Paul. ALthough of late I've found I like to stay in that Hyatt Place downtown Saint Paul right by the station.
mtuandrew wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2020 4:10 pm If Minneapolis and Hennepin County want to be the regional rail hub instead, they will need to outdo St. Paul at this point. Funny, since St. Paul was always the preeminent regional transportation hub (from flatboats to railroads) while Minneapolis was the preeminent industrial center (from grain milling to corporate headquarters.)I don't know that they need to do anything. Minneapolis, like it or not, is the destination. They can put the "transportation hub" wherever they want it, but it's not very useful when a 1 hour streetcar ride is necessary. This isn't a problem so far with the Builder because riders are already in for a long ride and possibly very late. But when the focus is on Duluth or Chicago trains?
njt/mnrrbuff wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2020 5:19 pm People coming off Amtrak trains in St. Paul will probably not want to switch to a light rail for a 50 minute ride to a downtown area that is, in reality, is 12 miles, especially with a lot of suitcases. For those people who want to take public transportation to Minneapolis after getting off the train in St. Paul-it looks like MetroTransit runs the 65 bus which does the trip between SPUD and Downtown Minneapolis in less than half the time that it takes to take light rail.Completely agree with this and it's absolutely crazy that a bus beats the light rail. I mean why even spend the money on the light rail? "Hi we just spent a zillion billion dollars on a street car, you can ride the bus in half the time".
Arborwayfan wrote: ↑Thu May 14, 2020 2:21 pm Probably the light rail is designed to carry large numbers of people over fairly short trips, not mostly to take people from end to end. It's residential in the middle with business districts at both ends. I would bet a lot that most of its passengers ride from somewhere in the middle to one of the downtowns and that the trip takes about the same time that a bus would take on the same route. It needs frequent stops to get stations within walking distance of a lot of passengers. It's also a big curve, whereas the bus probably goes in a much straighter line.Exactly. From when I’ve ridden the Green Line, a large proportion of ridership is just downtown Minneapolis-U of M. There are a good number of end-to-end riders though; despite the speed difference I think people prefer trains to buses.
Light rail is a way for one operator to move a couple hundred people at once without having to build a tunnel or an el or elaborate platforms. It's not necessarily supposed to be faster than other modes.
Commissioners in Ramsey County, Minn., say the effort to launch a second daily train between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago will be the recipient of a $31.8 million federal grant. The Twin Cities Pioneer Press reports an official announcement of the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation is expected later this week. The money will complete final design work to infrastructure needed to accommodate the second train, as well as construction of track, signal, and bridge improvements. Matching funds from Minnesota ($10 million), Wisconsin ($6.2 million) and Amtrak ($5 million) will also go toward the project, which would extend one existing Hiawatha round trip to serve the Twin Cities.
In other CRISI grants announced by politicians in the areas receiving funding:
— The Michigan Department of Transportation will receive $15.6 million to improve pedestrian crossings between Dearborn and Kalamazoo along Amtrak’s Michigan Line, which aims to eventually host 110-mph operation. The route has seen 12 pedestrians struck by trains in the last four years, in addition to a number of near-misses.
— The Washington State Department of Transportation has received a $3.7 million grant for landslide mitigation north of Seattle. MyEdmondsNews.com reports the grant, to be matched by state and private funding, will address a slide-prone area south of Mukilteo, Wash., that often leads to service interruptions on a line served by 14 passenger trains and an average of 21 freight trains per day. The money will go toward the third phase of a program that began in 2016.