MinnPost photo by Steve Berg
Rail transit planning in the Twin Cities metro area is being driven by the counties, each of which would like a rail line or two.
Ramsey County will soon have a renovated depot with virtually no trains, while Hennepin County has hundreds of trains with no depot. It makes you wonder who the heck is planning our rail transit system.
The answer is that rail transit planning in the Twin Cities metro area is being driven by the counties, each of which would like a rail line or two. Never mind whether they pass muster from a regional perspective.
The fault lies with the Minnesota Legislature, which authorized the metro counties in 1980 to each create a regional rail authority and levy property taxes to advance its goals.
This has enabled the counties to hire consultants, lobbyists and public relations firms to promote their favored projects, seek federal and state funding, and carry out the early planning. The Metropolitan Council, the body responsible for regional transit planning and operations, has largely sat on the sidelines until rail projects are ready for engineering and construction.
The problems with transit planning and governance were compounded in 2008, when the Legislature authorized the metro counties to create the Counties Transit Improvement Board (CTIB) and levy a quarter-cent sales tax for the development and operation of rail and bus transitways. Five of the seven counties took advantage of the law.
Who has the checkbook?
While on paper the Met Council remains responsible for transit planning, CTIB is the body that has the regional checkbook. And it has not been shy about producing maps showing rail lines favored by the counties that aren't even in the Met Council's 2030 transportation policy plan.
Some would argue that this dysfunctional system has worked, producing the Hiawatha light-rail transit (LRT) line that opened in 2004 and the Central Corridor LRT line that is scheduled for completion in 2014. Both of these corridors were identified as priorities in the Met Council's first LRT planning efforts back in the early 1980s.
Hiawatha is averaging about 30,000 riders per weekday, greatly exceeding pre-construction estimates, and Central is projected to carry 40,000 riders per weekday by 2030.
However, this same planning system also gave us the Northstar commuter rail line, which thus far been a major disappointment. Opened in late 2009, the 40-mile, $317 million line from Big Lake to downtown Minneapolis averaged fewer than 2,000 riders during its first year of operation. That's 40 percent below the pre-construction estimate for its first year of service.
In 2010, the public subsidy per Northstar passenger was a whopping $18.49 (one way), enough to rent a car for every rider. In 2011, weekday ridership climbed to 2,300, but it still has a long way to go.
Issue of depots
But let's get back to the issue of depots. You'd think this is a subject that would call for some careful regional planning. Think again.
regionalrail.org
The newly renovated Union Depot.
For years, the Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority (whose members are the same as the County Board) have dreamed about renovating St. Paul's Union Depot and recapturing the grandeur of a bygone era.
With the help of U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum and others, the county is sinking $243 million into the acquisition and renovation of the 85-year-old depot, with more than $124 million coming from federal sources. The depot, which once served 280 trains and 20,000 passengers a day, has been closed to rail passenger traffic since 1971.
The building includes 62,400 square feet of leasable space and another 45,000 square feet of public space that can be used for large events, retail kiosks and other activities. The county is now seeking private partners to develop and manage this facility in a downtown awash in vacant retail and office space.
The drawback is that the depot will serve just two Amtrak trains a day, plus buses of Greyhound and Jefferson Lines.
The county also talks about it serving as a hub for Red Rock commuter rail line from Hastings and the Rush line from Hinckley, as well as high-speed rail from Chicago. However, those lines (shown on the CTIB map) remain remote possibilities at best and aren't even included in the Met Council's 2030 plan.
Indeed, the council says, its studies indicate that "no commuter rail corridor other than Northstar would have enough ridership to justify intensive investments." In other words, the Red Rock and Rush lines would have lower ridership and require higher per-passenger subsidies than Northstar.
Meanwhile, Hennepin County is scrambling for funds to expand the rail transit station adjacent to Target Field. It is $30 million short of the $67.7 million needed for the so-called "Interchange" transit hub, which would serve the Hiawatha and Central Corridor LRT lines, the Northstar commuter rail line and (if approved and funded) the Southwest Corridor LRT line from Eden Prairie.
With the completion of Central in 2014, this station will be the site of 500 train arrivals and departures per day.
So, Hennepin County has plenty of trains, but so far no depot. Earlier this month, the county asked private partners to submit proposals for commercial and retail development, parking management and naming rights for the upper plaza area. The county somehow hopes to complete the project before the Central Corridor LRT line begins operation.
Both of these "multi-modal transit hubs" are included in the Met Council's latest transportation policy plan. But the council was hardly enthusiastic until the appointment of Susan Haigh, a former Ramsey County commissioner, as council chair.
When it comes to transit planning, the counties are in the driver's seat.
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Comments (7)
Having two downtowns creates huge logistical problems for public transportation. Not that it should stop us from trying, but it's important to remember that somebody who takes the Northstar and works in St. Paul would have to transfer to the light rail and ride another 35-40 minutes. Or vice-versa for the train from Hastings if they work in Minneapolis. Nobody is going to do that. We should design the commuter trains so they have one more stop - the downtown of the farther city.
The only station that is a "destination" is the one in DC--and it helps to be at the hub of some of the biggest tourist/business/government attractions in the world.
A station is generally not a "destination", it's a place to arrive at and depart from. Unless of course it is a Greyhound bus depot, where as I recall, sometimes the hardest thing is to stop people from staying there.
A good example of our government at work. It's this kind of mindless planning (or lack of any planning, or wishful thinking, or money is no object thinking) that has convinced many of us that the time has come to drastically shrink the size of government.
Which is too bad, as LRT, in my opinion, can actually be a good long term investment, if it were done without the wasteful Taj Mahal accoutrements.
This article counts the LRT trains that would serve the Minneapolis Interchange hub, but seems to disregard that the Central Corridor line also goes to... Union Depot in Saint Paul.
That said, Mr. Klein's suggestion to run commuter trains to both downtowns seems resaonable.
Among the perils of “local control” is the possibility, as in this case, of control becoming a bit *too* local, with subsequent turf battles, often wasteful duplication, and as evidenced here, what was so elegantly phrased in “Cool Hand Luke,” as a “failure to communicate.”
Jeff Klein in #1 has a useful idea, albeit an expensive one, and that is to serve both downtowns when it’s at all feasible – and in most cases, if there’s real planning going on, it should be feasible.
Seems like Saint Paul and Ramsey County are planning ahead and building a transit hub that will be ready for the crowds that Central Corridor LRT, a new ballpark, farmers market and arts district all bring while Minneapolis is playing catch up with their interchange...
1. It's a shame this line *doesn't* have some "Taj Mahal accoutrements" like tunnel sections under the University of Minnesota, the Snelling intersection, etc. to speed up trip times.
2. Yes, we need to through-route commuter and regional rail between both downtowns. This would serve as a natural express service between both downtowns.
3. It's a shame Minneapolis got rid of the Great Northern Depot. We no longer have trackage for through-routing trains from the north (think Amtrak, Northstar, or NLX) to the Interchange and then onward to SPUD.
4. Let's learn from our mistake and start setting aside ROW right now to make it feasible for better downtown to downtown connections in the future. There's some current infrastructure that exists but which is threatened by low usage. For example the NP rail bridge just north of Broadway, as well as the grade-separated industrial lead south to the Strib printing facility, could be converted into grade separated station entrance. Then when we someday have enough LRT that we decide to tunnel under 6th Street in Mpls, we should make it a double decker tunnel. The lower level would be conventional rail and connect a lower Interchange concourse then run under 6th street before connecting to the NP #9 bridge back across the river and towards St. Paul.
5. All trains could thru-route SPUD too. If a train was headed across the river to the UP, it could take the Midway Sub and curve around and through the station. Other destinations south/east on UP, CP, or BNSF could take the Merriam Park sub and go through the station.
This would all allow for the most operational flexibility for a century or more to come.