BNSF Railway has ended talks with Met Council over the co-location of freight and light rail transit operations on its little-used Bottineau corridor through the northwest suburbs, claiming it could not “protect the long-term viability of service for current and future Minnesota freight customers.” And yet, the freight rail juggernaut seems willing to work with the same Met Council to add even more Northstar commuter trains to its congested and strategically critical freight main line between Minneapolis and St. Cloud. Go figure. You have one of the worst-patronized commuter rail operations in the U.S. working with a capacity-challenged freight railroad to add even more poorly performing commuter trains to its overloaded freight network. What could possibly go wrong? Is there something — anything — that can save these two organizations from themselves?
Well, there is. It is something that mercifully separates freight from transit on the Bottineau spur without actually eliminating freight service; something that returns critical Northstar train capacity to BNSF where BNSF appears to need it most; something that puts highway infrastructure money into the Northstar corridor to offset modest service cutbacks — all while extending commuter rail to St. Cloud. In essence, you trade Northstar for the Blue Line Extension in a way that leaves the glass at least half full for all sides rather than mostly empty for beleaguered Bottineau transit stakeholders.
[image_caption]Jerome Johnson[/image_caption]
For those facing service cutbacks, freed-up Northstar resources would fund express bus service to Minneapolis from outlying locales and an augmented city-fleet bus service for inner-ring Fridley and Coon Rapids riders. MnDOT and the Met Council, as part of the deal, would need to accelerate the long overdue conversion of Highways 10 in Ramsey and 252 in Brooklyn Center to limited access status and stop punishing commuters in that area for the misguided Northstar gambit. These measures will improve transit performance and flexibility on this particular corridor far more than is possible with fixed-route trains.
Meanwhile, back at Bottineau, it turns out that remaining freight shippers are all at, or west of, Osseo and, therefore, west of where the transit line would leave the BNSF right-of-way. A rail bridge over the Mississippi at Monticello that extends the freight spur five miles to the BNSF main line would allow trains out of Becker to serve these shippers without venturing onto the Bottineau transit corridor southeast of Osseo. Make that Monti bridge a dual use highway/rail affair, thereby removing the need for the planned Highway 24 Clearwater bridge bypass just upstream, and highway money can help ease the fiscal pain. That makes possible a less costly and truly unimpaired Bottineau Blue Line extension and, with it, the social and economic development goodwill taxpayers there are demanding — goodwill that cannot be matched by Northstar.
Making this happen will take more creative, big-picture negotiating chops than Met Council or BNSF operatives have shown to date. But they have bosses with chops. BNSF owner Warren Buffett would clearly grasp that running two 10-car freight trains per week through downtown Robbinsdale is not a higher and better use of pricey suburban real estate. And while Met Council seems to answer to no one hereabouts, it does answer to those who control its federal funds. Donald Trump, no stranger to money-losing ventures, does that. So, put these two to work and let’s make this deal. The northwest metro is watching — and tired of waiting.
Jerome Johnson is a retired transportation economist living in St. Paul. He is affiliated with CART, Citizen Advocates for Regional Transit.
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Works for me. I live in far northwest Minneapolis, and generally board the Northstar at the Fridley station, but truthfully, I use Northstar only to get to Target Field without having to drive. This season, that whole issue is moot, but the hope here is that the pandemic will eventually be brought under control. Old and retired, I don’t need a commuter line, but see the value in connecting St. Cloud with the Twin Cities by rail – It should have been done initially, years ago, but “woulda, coulda, shoulda” is a mantra commonly used to explain away short-sighted legislative and policy mistakes. There are currently auto commuters to the Twin Cities from both St. Cloud and Big Lake, whose I-94 traffic begins to back up at Rogers, and certainly by Maple Grove, every morning, so removing most of those vehicles from the interstate ought to be pretty much an unvarnished blessing. Speaking purely selfishly, my only concern is having a way to get to Target Field relatively quickly and economically without having to drive myself. It’s far less attractive or romantic, but a genuine “express” bus that I can access fairly easily will accomplish the same thing (for me) as the more elegant, but vastly more expensive to operate, double-deck rail car. The change is only worth it to me, however, if commuter rail is, indeed, extended to St. Cloud.
It seems that BNSF, rightly or wrongly, has no problem with the current situation with the Northstar Line. Why would they want to change?
This whole plan, such as it is, would call for building a new bridge and extending an existing rail spur. Again, why would BNSF do this if they are not unhappy with the existing situation?
This guy thinks Trump is a capable negotiator, that’s all that really needs be said about this “plan”.
I’m for the Bottineau Line as long as it has stops at actual destinations, like North Memorial Hospital and downtown Robbinsdale, i.e. places that people might want to go to whether the line was there or not.
The Blue Line is great for going to the airport or the Mall of America. Living in Southwest Minneapolis, I soon learned that if my flight left at 8:00 AM or later, the combination of the #6 bus and the Blue Line was both cheaper than a cab or shuttle and more reliable than a cab or shuttle that might be late or not show up at all.
However, its stops between Lake Street and the VA are mostly in places where there is little or nothing to attract passengers, and the housing complexes that have sprung up around the stations in recent years have few or no stores or services within walking distance. That is, they are not environments where it would be easy to do without a car.
If I were plotting a route for the Bottineau or any other rail line, I would first figure out where the principal destinations were and try to place the stops as close to them as possible.