Northstar Rail takes first ride today

ST. CLOUD, Minn. - The Northstar Commuter Rail line between the Twin Cities and central Minnesota is taking its first ride.

[Nota Sheep]

How much will it cost to move those reported 3400 people every day? I have a feeling that it would be cheaper to provide a taxi ride for everyone rather than pay the costs of running trains.

[Rob]

What I don't understand is why it doesn't go all the way to St. Cloud.

[Cricket]

Any BNSF railway workers out there have any comments on sharing the tracks with the commuter train? Just curious...

[MOM]

Does anyone know the price of a ticket?

[It was a simple fix]

And another Obie boondoggle starts draining money from the transportation budget on a regular budget.

[IrishMN]

This is a historic day for Twin City commuters from the north.

Next we need to complete the Central Corridor, and then begin completing the spoke and wheel system all around the Twin Cities. Plus, the high speed rail line to Chicago will make it unnecessary for anyone to use those outmoded polluting automobiles any more.

Let's make the car obsolete! Green technology plus a sustainable life style will make our Mother, the Earth, smile.

[Jeppy]

I'd like to accurate financial P/L reporting on all these BILLION DOLLAR white elephants.

I understand the legislature kicks in $30,000,000 (thirty million dollars) a year to keep the Hiawatha running.

It would be refreshing to see a statement of losses on all the stuff the Met Council gives away!

[Rob]

felix wrote:

<quoted text> LIBERAL,SOCIALIST, COMMUNIST, DEMOCRATS LIKE IRISHMN DONT CARE ABOUT PROFIT AND ( total loss) LOSS WHEN THEY CAN F--- YOU FOR THE MONEY

Yeah, like when MNDoT pushes another "bridge to nowhere" across the St. Croix and can't even keep up the roads we've already got. Of course, that's not transportation... that's roads.

[Anti-Tax]

All you highway whiners that are anti-tax can go jump off the falling down bridges. A choo-choo that costs less than a freeway interchange is a deal. Lets see you pony up the loot for the soon to be gravel freeway system.

[Bob the Bilderberg]

Yes, because embracing 19th century modes of transportation is so "progressive."

[Jeppy]

WHEN the LRT, bus, Northstar, bike trail users start paying one thin dime for higways then I'll jump off a fallen bridge.

In the mean time I will NEVER support these BILLION dollar Choo Choos that SUCK taxdollars from car users for their junk toys!!

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Anti-Tax wrote:

All you highway whiners that are anti-tax can go jump off the falling down bridges. A choo-choo that costs less than a freeway interchange is a deal. Lets see you pony up the loot for the soon to be gravel freeway system.

[felix]

Rob wrote:

<quoted text>
Yeah, like when MNDoT pushes another "bridge to nowhere" across the St. Croix and can't even keep up the roads we've already got. Of course, that's not transportation... that's roads.

SO WISCONSIN IS NOWHERE , AND THE BRIDGES AND ROADS WEREN'T MAINTAINED BECAUSE OF LIBERALS GIVING ALL THE TAX DOLLARS TO WELFARE VOTERS!!!!

[Jeppy]

Like when Government spends MILLIONS on bike trails that are NOT USED for transportation! A bike trail in my area is maintatined year round and will have a multi million dollar bridge next spring.

If you look for tracks in the snow from November - March THERE ARE NONE!!!

Yet highway 36 right along side the bike trail STOPS traffic at highway 120, MNDOT calls a 2 lane road! MnDOT calls it a highway, joke!

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Rob wrote:

<quoted text>
Yeah, like when MNDoT pushes another "bridge to nowhere" across the St. Croix and can't even keep up the roads we've already got. Of course, that's not transportation... that's roads.

[guest]

cost is $7

[felix]

guest wrote:

cost is $7

MAYBE ADD 25.00 PER RIDE FOR SUBSIDIES/TAXES

[Bob the Bilderberg]

guest wrote:

cost is $7

The fare may be $7 but we all know that's not the cost.

[hudaful]

Jeppy wrote:

WHEN the LRT, bus, Northstar, bike trail users start paying one thin dime for higways then I'll jump off a fallen bridge.
In the mean time I will NEVER support these BILLION dollar Choo Choos that SUCK taxdollars from car users for their junk toys!!
==========
<quoted text>

Ok, you get your way. Let's shut down the LRT on Monday. Let's look at the consequences of removing that option from the transporation equation...

Since the LRT has over 30,000 riders per weekday, and an average car carries 1.2 commuters to work, that would mean 12,500 more vehicles on 35W and Hiawatha Monday morning heading to downtown Minneapolis. 12,500 more vehicles parking downtown in Minneapolis. And, of course, those same 12,500 vehicles in your way when it's time to go home.

Since the typical urban freeway can carry 6000 vehicles per lane, that means we'd have to build another 2 lanes of bi-directional freeway (4 lanes if we don't use have commuter lanes that switch to carry traffic in opposite directions in the a.m. and in the p.m.) An urban freeway costs about $12.5 million per lane per mile to build (2006 data). 12 miles multiplied by 2 lanes, multiplied by $12.5 million equals $300 million.

If an urban highway has a lifespan of 10 years, the 'cost' per year is $30 million (before you maintain and stripe and plow it). So each of those 6000 vehicles should be charged $5000 per year to use the new freeway.

$5000 per year per vehicle. That doesn't include the cost of the vehicle. Doesn't include the cost of vehicle maintenance. Doesn't include the cost of gas. Doesn't include the cost of parking. Doesn't include the cost of snowplowing. Doesn't include the cost of filling potholes. Doesn't include the cost of sweeping sand and salt in the spring.

Thank goodness for alternatives to the automobile. You want to drive your car? Do so, no one's stopping you. Others prefer alternatives. Why should you stop them?

[Rob]

felix wrote:

<quoted text> SO WISCONSIN IS NOWHERE , AND THE BRIDGES AND ROADS WEREN'T MAINTAINED BECAUSE OF LIBERALS GIVING ALL THE TAX DOLLARS TO WELFARE VOTERS!!!!

Let Wisconsin build it's own bridges... but there are approximately 10,000 people who would be "served" by the unneeded bridge. There are already crossings at I-94(with tons of already built infrastructure connecting to the areas that would supposedly be served by a new bridge), Stillwater(if you don't like the existing crossing I suggest you choose another), and Osceola. This bridge ain't about you or your tax dollars going to welfare, my friend. It's about subsidizing land speculators who bought up tons of your precious Wisconsin cheese production acreage that will be scraped clear of topsoil and converted into impermeable surfaces needing municipal services for eternity, sewage producers pumping human shite into the ground from 2.5 acre plots, and baby factories producing screaming occupiers of schools, all requiring much more of your tax money than some mythical welfare recipients... But the welfare recipients will be there, as will other less desirable types such as petty criminals. With development comes people, with people: problems all requiring your tax dollars.

[Rob]

Jeppy wrote:

Like when Government spends MILLIONS on bike trails that are NOT USED for transportation! A bike trail in my area is maintatined year round and will have a multi million dollar bridge next spring.
If you look for tracks in the snow from November - March THERE ARE NONE!!!
Yet highway 36 right along side the bike trail STOPS traffic at highway 120, MNDOT calls a 2 lane road! MnDOT calls it a highway, joke!
==========
<quoted text>

I'm trying to figure out just exactly what it is you are expressing here. I think I agree with you... Those bike trails are a boondoggle as far as I'm concerned. I think we should convert them back to rail, commuter rail at that.

[Rob]

Bob the Bilderberg wrote:

Yes, because embracing 19th century modes of transportation is so "progressive."

Kind of like the automobile, invented in the 19th century to run on farm made alcohol or on diesel. Converted to gasoline over 100 years ago to run on rubber tires so the trust predators could take your money, and finished off over half a century ago with the freeway system to utterly destroy the American way of life and turn it distinctly undemocratic, creating our current unfair, unequal car culture.