Southern Rail Corridor (Rochester bypass)

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Southern Rail Corridor (Rochester bypass)

Postby mulad » June 21st, 2012, 9:07 am

Somewhat related to the proposed "Zip Rail" line to Rochester, but focused on freight, a study just got started to look at a future traffic on the DM&E line through the city and whether a bypass route would be needed. (I'd generally say no -- it's probably better to just grade-separate the route through town, but that's just my gut). There are three open houses planned -- the Post-Bulletin mentions that the first one will be on July 9th at 5 pm at the Rochester International Event Center, near RST Airport.

An article from Tuesday, quoted in full since things tend to disappear from the P-B website rather quickly: http://www.postbulletin.com/news/storie ... id=1500145
Olmsted County's divide on the railroad bypass issue remains as easy to see as a seating chart.

On Monday, at the first meeting of a state-brokered committee to discuss potential answers to the vexing bypass issue, the pro-city interests sat on one side of the auditorium at the Rochester Public Library, and the anti-bypass crowd sat on the other.

"It looks like we've got management on one side, and labor on the other side," said Jan Throndson, a Rochester resident and candidate for city council president in the fall election.

"If you can't intermingle among yourselves ... it does not work that way," Throndson said.

At least the two sides of locals are on equal footing. The study, funded by a $487,000 federal grant administered by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, is intended to analyze the past, present and imagined future of freight rail traffic through Minnesota's third-largest city and determine whether a bypass route — either north or south of town — is warranted, or whether in-city mitigation can assuage Mayo Clinic's concerns about potentially increased rail traffic through the heart of downtown.

"I want to make sure Rochester remains an inviting community," said Nora O'Sullivan, who represents Mayo Clinic on the committee, named the Southern Rail Corridor Planning Advisory Committee, which will follow a five-month course to its end.

The committee will meet four times through November, and three open houses are planned. The next meeting will be an open house at 5 p.m. July 9 at the Rochester International Event Center, near the Rochester International Airport.

Some members of the committee had questions about the purpose of the group.

"My question as a citizen is, who wants what now?" said Glenn Faith, a resident of the inner-city Kutzky Park neighborhood. "Is the railroad pushing for more traffic?"

"No one is really pushing us right now," said Chuck Michael, who represents the Olmsted County Railroad Association. "That's a good time to ask some questions. There's really no plan. There's really no outlook."

"We've got a rail line that goes right through the center of town. What's that going to look like 50 years from now?" Michael said.

Monday's two-hour meeting, attended by about 60 people, was mostly just to introduce committee members to one another and the public, and to set basic procedures for the group as it holds further meetings.

In addition to the Project Advisory Committee, there is a Technical Advisory Committee, made up of professionals including the Rochester, Olmsted County and Dodge County engineers.

Working in tandem, the groups mean to identify "the most promising alternatives" for further study under federal guidelines, Michael said.

"To receive that (federal) funding, you have to go through a process," Michael said. "This is the beginning of that process."

One issue, Michael said, is at what point does Rochester rail traffic rise to the level that grade separations — overpasses or underpasses — become necessary on busy streets such as Broadway or East Circle Drive.

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Re: Southern Rail Corridor (Rochester bypass)

Postby mattaudio » June 27th, 2012, 12:09 pm

If the concern is traffic/mobility/safety it seems grade separation would be easiest. If the concern is hazmat near mayo and a large population center, then I see some reason for the bypass idea. Additionally it should be studied how the existing ROW could accommodate HSR in the future, which may be more justification for a freight bypass.

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Re: Southern Rail Corridor (Rochester bypass)

Postby mulad » August 6th, 2012, 7:01 pm

I guess this may also go under the name Southeastern Minnesota Freight Rail Capacity Study. Here's a website:

http://www.dot.state.mn.us/planning/src/

At today's Passenger Rail Forum, there was a brief mention of future open houses -- maybe the three mentioned in the P-B article are spread out over a period of months...

There's an Alternatives Analysis rolled into this study as well, to determine whether a bypass is a good idea, and what the best route for a bypass would be if they need one.

Certainly they need to do add some good signaling to the line, since I believe it only uses track warrants at the moment.

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Re: Southern Rail Corridor (Rochester bypass)

Postby mulad » November 17th, 2012, 12:37 am

Documents from open houses held back in July and just this past week have been added to Mn/DOT's site here:

http://www.dot.state.mn.us/planning/src/oh.html

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Re: Southern Rail Corridor (Rochester bypass)

Postby Ottergoose » December 4th, 2012, 12:12 pm

All of the slides that mention coal trains from the PRB were already out of date; but, now that Canadian Pacific has announced their plans to sell off the DM&E west of Tracy, MN, there's absolutely no risk of coal trains rolling through Rochester in the foreseeable future.

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Re: Southern Rail Corridor (Rochester bypass)

Postby mattaudio » December 4th, 2012, 12:27 pm

I heard that on MPR this morning... sort of sad that it will likely mean hundreds of miles of rail abandonment west to the Black Hills.

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Re: Southern Rail Corridor (Rochester bypass)

Postby min-chi-cbus » December 4th, 2012, 12:50 pm

I thought this line needed to go through Southern MN and Rochester......what happened, did it get voted down by residents or the city?

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Re: Southern Rail Corridor (Rochester bypass)

Postby mattaudio » December 4th, 2012, 12:52 pm

The line is being "voted down" by the railroad which does not need to move as much coal from the PRB to the east. Probably because of cheap natural gas and depressed coal demand/prices. Therefore the bypass is a moot issue for the foreseeable future.


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