Commuter rail got left out in the cold in the Minnesota Legislature's rush to complete its special session business before a shutdown of state government last month. But it was not alone. The final transportation package that emerged from the Legislature did little to meet the transportation needs of the state, in general, and the Twin Cities, in particular.
That, despite a national study earlier this year showing that traffic congestion in the Twin Cities was increasing at a faster rate than any other city in the United States, save one - Atlanta, Ga. - and a Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) study, which indicated that today 65 percent of trips in the metro area are made under congested conditions and traffic was growing at a rate of 4 percent a year.
Indeed, this year's Twin Cities Annual Survey, co-sponsored by the Metropolitan Council and conducted by the University of Minnesota Center for Survey Research, found that transportation is the "single most important problem facing the metro area." Twenty-three percent of the people polled cited transportation, mostly traffic congestion, as the top problem compared with just 3 to 4 percent surveyed between 1993 and 1995.
And, according to the Transit for Livable Communities organization, a comparison of per capita spending on transit finds the Twin Cities region spends only 60 percent of the amount 12 similar regions in the U.S. spend on transit.
What did the Legislature do in 2001 to meet transportation needs? Precious little. It approved no new money for highway projects beyond the $1.2 billion deposited annually in the Minnesota Highway Users Tax Distribution Fund. There was no money for rail transit and busways, nor for the Northstar Corridor commuter rail system, and no new funding to study any bus and rail corridors.
While the Minnesota Legislature may be adopting a head in the sand attitude to the transportation needs of the state and, particularly the Twin Cities region, proponents of the Northstar Corridor commuter rail project are not.
Far from it. Efforts are now under way to find the local match for the federal money that is included in the transportation bill now moving through Congress to begin the final design and engineering work on the Northstar project. There is $10 million for Northstar in the proposed federal transportation package, and the Minnesota Senate transportation bill had included a $7 million match, which did not make it out of conference committee. The Minnesota House had included no money for commuter rail.
But, since the legislative inaction, commuter rail proponents have received an assurance from Minnesota's Eighth District Congressman Jim Oberstar, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Public Works Committee, that the federal funding will be forthcoming if the local match is 20 percent. or some $2.5 million. Commuter rail advocates, like Anoka County Commissioners Dan Erhart, chairman of the board, and Paul McCarron, chairman of the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority, as well as Sherburne County Commissioner Betsy Wergin, chairwoman of the Northstar Corridor Development Authority, are taking the leadership role in finding the local match to keep the project on track for a scheduled 2004 opening.
But, they are also looking ahead to the 2002 legislative session, which will be crunch time for the project. The state bonding bill must include the state's share of the construction cost, some $115 million, if the project is to proceed on schedule. Gov. Jesse Ventura earlier this year included that amount in his bonding proposal, and has shown strong support for commuter rail all along. There is also substantial, bi-partisan support for the commuter rail project among the legislators whose districts fall within the 80-mile corridor from Minneapolis to Rice, west of St. Cloud. And, a survey conducted by the corridor authority this past spring showed that 80 percent of residents living along the corridor thought commuter rail was a "good" or "very good" idea.
While critics point to figures that suggest the commuter rail system has a more negative cost-benefit ratio that light rail, there is also evidence that the cost per mile of the Northstar system is less expensive than light rail because it uses existing railroad tracks, less expensive than a busway system, and less expensive than constructing a new highway. And, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has said there is not nearly enough money available to meet highway needs now or in the future.
If legislators are serious about transportation alternatives to relieve mounting congestion on Twin Cities highways - take a trip up and down Highway 10 during rush hour to get a taste of congestion in the corridor area - then the Northstar Corridor project should be funded in 2002, and other rail projects, like the Dan Patch proposal on the existing freight line from Minneapolis to Northfield, a distance of 22.6 miles along the I-35W corridor, should be moved forward.
The leadership of the corridor authority in advocating alternative solutions to transportation issues facing the Twin Cities region is something the Minnesota Legislature should embrace, rather than adopt the shortsighted approach of the 2001 session. In 2002, it should appropriate the state funding necessary to make commuter rail a reality, not than just a dream.
Editor's note: This editorial was a product of the ECM Editorial Board.
