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Earlier this month, the White House announced that funding for high-speed rail serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul region – stopping at St. Paul's Union Depot – is included in the 2008 stimulus legislation. In its blueprint for an intercity high-speed rail network, the U.S. Department of Transportation has identified key 100- to 600-mile corridors linking major metro areas. While use of stimulus funding for intercity, high-speed rail continues to generate discussion (for proof, see the comments in today's article), it's evident that years of consensus building on this issue are now paying off.
Stakeholders have been meeting in St. Paul since 2002 first to identify priority sites for a high-speed rail station, then to develop plans for and support the retooling of the Union Depot for this purpose. The choice of Union Depot as the hub will help to preserve balance in the evolving system of light and heavy rail transit in the region. It will also concentrate growth in an established downtown area fully loaded with infrastructure.
Some friends and colleagues have dismissed the value of such a balance, and proposed to move the hub for high-speed rail from the Union Depot to the Minneapolis Intermodal Station to be sited in that city's north loop. The station's mix of rail, buses and bicycles will create an exciting new urban place. However, the tracks along the two routes required to approach the north loop from Chicago (Ayd Mill Road and Pierce Butler Route) are not "shovel ready," a shortcoming confounded by the stimulus dollars' ineligibility for planning. We can't build high-speed rail to the north loop, or plan for same, using these federal dollars.
The high-speed rail connection to Chicago will enhance access for residents across the metropolitan area, and its station at Union Depot will provide Twin Citians with access to a system connecting seven states around the windy city.