|
Rochester has got powerful lobbyists working hard to bring high speed rail to their city, and now, it’s got a new study which conflicts with some state data, purporting that a rail line through the city would be faster than one along the river and attract millions more passengers.
But that same study confirms that a high speed passenger rail line through Rochester connecting Chicago to the Twin Cities would cost at least $139 million more than one that followed the existing Amtrak lines through Winona and along the river.
Rochester’s study claims that millions more passengers would travel a line that would cross its city because completely new lines, which would be needed to connect Rochester, could mean trains as fast as 220 miles per hour and a quicker trip time from Chicago to the Twin Cities than following the river through Winona.
And while the state is still in the process of an overall, statewide high speed rail study, transportation officials have already contradicted predictions in the Rochester study. A memo in July from the Minnesota Department of Transportation said that Rochester’s $325 million freight track bypass rerouting tracks south of town would make passenger rail there less convenient and mean longer travel times. And, concluded the memo, Rochester’s proposed passenger rail corridor would dissuade passengers in Wisconsin and Illinois from riding because it would, in fact, take longer than the river route. Additionally, the Rochester connection would bring passengers to the southern borders of town near the airport, who then would likely have to take a bus ride into downtown.
The memo also said that it is natural to start with the river route, which is a project that, save for environmental review, is shovel-ready with rights-of-way already secured for the existing tracks.
Straying from the existing river route and connecting to Rochester would add almost 50 miles to the trip from the Twin Cities to Winona -- about a 150-mile trip, compared to the 105-mile trip along the river.
Both the city of Winona and Winona County have partnered with cities and counties along the proposed river route to lobby for the project, and say that Rochester doesn’t have to be left out. After the cost-effective river route is upgraded to allow for faster and more passenger trains, Rochester could forge a connection to Winona, where passengers could then head southeast to Chicago or north to the Twin Cities. Proponents of the river route through Winona hope that the $8 billion in federal funding available this year for high speed passenger rail service will actually result in some passenger rail projects — like the river route — and not be used up in expensive planning that will take years, and millions, to get going.
|
