Posted on 10/25/2010 7:27:55 AM PDT by WOBBLY BOB
Is a proposed passenger train line from Minneapolis to Duluth on course for a $700 million derailment? Or is it merely headed toward a $300,000 detour that could delay plans a year?
Faced with competition from nine other routes seeking federal funding as well as a possible rerouting of the line's Twin Cities starting point -- to St. Paul, instead of Minneapolis -- proponents of the Northern Lights Express (NLX) have shifted gears.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Gambling is fun...when it's other people's money.
You aren’t nearly as much fun as Boxcar Willy was. LOL
Now tell us that we’re all socialists for not wanting to fund this crap.
Who would ride a train from Minneapolis to Duluth? How would they get around once they got there?
Someone needs to tell politicians that trains do come in HO scale. I’m sure we could raise some money to build them a train layout in the capitol basement. It would cost a lot less than $700 million.
Waiting for a reply from Boxcar Willie in ...3...2...1...
Oberstar is one of the biggest HO’s for this idea.
Hey, why not just build a high-speed rail line from Minneapolis to St. Paul?
I’d be willing to lead the project for a mere $700 million.
And my special proviso is that only the inhabitants of Minneapolis and St. Paul get taxed.
I would never advocate for this crap.
You remember this route as the one that was such a money loser Amtrak dumped it in 1985.
Now Anoka County and partners seek to resurrect it, apparently unaware that there’s now a freeway called I-35 that carries people up to Duluth quickly, efficiently, cheaply, and conveniently. Anoka County also is apparently unaware that once a train dumps you off in Duluth there is no easy way to get around.
But that doesn’t matter. It’s all about hiring lobbyists, wining and dining, and visiting Washington, DC to act like a big shot.
I grew up in Bloomington. In 1971 (4th grade) we had an overnight fieldtrip to Duluth. We took Amtrak from Minneapolis to Duluth. Except for our group of 4th graders, teachers and chapperones, I don’t recall any other passengers on the two-car train.
That Amtrak service no longer exists.
There is a reason that it no longer exists. There wasn’t any demand for it.
But when he talked to all the workers at his new plant in Fargo, North Dakota, he told them that something had happened to his home town.
Originally, he could depend on his crew there getting up early and working hard until quitting time. He'd built a great business, but he now couldn't find people like that any more in his hometown and so was moving production out. Fargo was the first stop in those expansion plans and he liked what he had saw. He told his employees to keep up the good work and not vote Democrat or Fargo would suffer the same fate as Duluth.
Long story short is that a railroad from Duluth to Minneapolis will only speed up the process of emptying out Duluth.
His in forum doesn’t show one. He was still chugging along with choo choo talk 10 days ago.
Jeno’s pizza (Jeno Pauluchi - sp?).
The great Jeno’s pizzaroll controversy of the early 80s. The residents of Duluth were of the mindset that the purpose of a corporation is to provide jobs. Jeno publicly stated that it was to make money. He moved a large factory out of Duluth.
ping
...because there are just SOOOOOO MANY PEOPLE who can’t WAIT go get to Duluth! /sarc
(The only guy I know who ever went there was my uncle, and that’s only because the Coast Guard stationed him there)
I still remember Jeno's occasional appearances on the local news back in the day. Every other sentence had a word that had to be bleeped out.
North Dakota actively courted Minnesota corporations to move in those days. Not anymore. Between the oil boom and all the kids who moved out in my day, the state is about as close to full employment as you can get. That's why they will be dumping two of the three jackasses which they send to Washington one week from tomorrow. The third guy, Comrade Conrad, gets to skate only because he isn't up until 2012.
Why don’t they really ask themselves why anyone in the twin cities who is going ‘up north’ (most likely to their cabins) would take the train? Most of the traffic going up that way probably takes place on weekends and I very much doubt someone going to their cabin is going to take the the train to Duluth, if that was the case how do they get from there to the cabin????? Inquiring minds want to know.
hard to take the sled,boat or dog on a train, too.
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