Trying to stay on the radar for the proposed high-speed train between the Twin Cities and Chicago, Rochester area officials have been quietly meeting and planning a route, the Rochester Post-Bulletin reported Thursday.

Then, later in the day, the plan was revealed to elected officials in the area, the paper says. They learned the plan involves sending the  high-speed passenger trains through Dodge County on its way between Chicago and the Twin Cities.

About 50 attended a townships association meeting on Thursday near Dodge Center to hear representatives of Mayo Clinic and the Olmsted County government describe plans for the rail system and ask for support.

They're pushing that route, with a stop at Rochester International Airport, to keep Rochester in the game.

Officials representing Mayo Clinic, Rochester and Olmsted County have been holding low-profile meetings with rural officials in Olmsted and Dodge counties to build support for the plan.

The meetings, called by Mayo, were held in recent days at several township halls. At some of the meetings, officials presented a proposed route.

That route is not firmly set, nor intended for widespread public knowledge. The meetings were intended to be confidential, participants said.

Those who saw the route and would talk about it described it this way:

Starting at the Winona County line traveling west, it would follow the current Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad. At Dover, the right-of-way splits from the DM&E, with both freight and passenger lines cutting southwest to Interstate 90, which they would follow to the Rochester International Airport.

Long-term plans at the airport offer the possibility of a passenger rail terminal on the southeast side of the airfield.

From the airport, the right-of-way would continue west, perhaps along Minnesota Highway 30 to Hayfield, before turning north or northwest and cutting across Dodge County to rejoin the DM&E line no farther west than Claremont.

Passenger and freight rails would travel side-by-side until reaching Interstate 35, where only the passenger line would turn north to the Twin Cities along the freeway corridor.