Blue Line Extension - Bottineau LRT

Roads - Rails - Sidewalks - Bikeways
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VacantLuxuries
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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby VacantLuxuries » August 15th, 2018, 3:34 pm

The last four Corridor Management Committee meetings have been cancelled. I'm starting to think this might be in trouble.

David Greene
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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby David Greene » August 15th, 2018, 4:08 pm

I'm wondering how much the Trump administration is playing into the silence on this and SWLRT.

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Tcmetro
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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby Tcmetro » August 15th, 2018, 6:53 pm

Isn't the Blue Line extension still in engineering?

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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby Oreos&Milk » August 16th, 2018, 12:08 am

It needs to be remained "Trump Express line" and this proposal needs to be titled "Make Minnesota Great Again" and then we can have a good shot at getting it passed. ......and no, I am not being sarcastic, totally serious on this one. :( We need to do what it takes to get it done. A few years into construction of both lines we can talk about changing the name again before it opens.

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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby DanPatchToget » August 16th, 2018, 1:59 am

Has Trump ever been supportive of public transit? I shouldn't assume, but I never have high hopes that a Republican will support transit investments, especially a light rail line.

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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby Qhaberl » August 16th, 2018, 6:43 am

I’m not sure exactly what they mean by “share”

If the tracks are shared with freight rail and light rail, will that not mean that light rail is always stuck behind freight trains? No way these companies would give light rail the right-of-way.

Am I totally misunderstanding what they mean by Share?


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Tcmetro
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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby Tcmetro » August 16th, 2018, 7:05 am

The corridor is owned by the railroad. The railroad would have to allow the Met Council to build within that corridor. They wouldn't want to for a number of reasons, mainly loss of space for future expansion or liability/insurance costs if an accident were to occur.

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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby DanPatchToget » August 16th, 2018, 7:09 am

I'm thinking liability/insurance costs are 100% the reason why BNSF doesn't want to share land. This is a branch line with only one train per day, and the only way I could see traffic increase on this line is CP detouring trains from their mainline onto the BNSF line, which was planned a few years ago but Crystal and Hennepin County blocked that.

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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby John21 » August 16th, 2018, 7:28 am


Tcmetro
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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby Tcmetro » August 16th, 2018, 8:55 am

They could have planned to use Bottineau Blvd, but too late now that the entire thing has been reconstructed.

mattaudio
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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby mattaudio » August 17th, 2018, 9:48 am

It's almost like we're absolutely awful at how we get rail transit projects accomplished.

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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby HiawathaGuy » September 7th, 2018, 3:03 pm

This is beyond annoying...
BNSF Railway is playing HARDBALL!

Bottineau LRT construction delayed until 2020 (if ever)

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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby David Greene » September 7th, 2018, 3:10 pm

Time to look at W. Broadway and terminating in Robbinsdale?

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VacantLuxuries
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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby VacantLuxuries » September 7th, 2018, 3:12 pm

I wish at this point Met Council would be willing to take a step back and say "You know what, we screwed up assuming BNSF would cooperate, let's not waste any more time fighting with them and come up with a different plan."

Terminate in Robbinsdale, let Target pay for the expansion north if they really want their campus connected by rail.

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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby HiawathaGuy » September 7th, 2018, 3:22 pm

I wish at this point Met Council would be willing to take a step back and say "You know what, we screwed up assuming BNSF would cooperate, let's not waste any more time fighting with them and come up with a different plan."

Terminate in Robbinsdale, let Target pay for the expansion north if they really want their campus connected by rail.
I think it's more that it'll take at least another 10-15 years to get anything to Robbinsdale, if they 'start over'... That might be our only option forward, but I can't blame Met Council for wanting to keep trying to work with BNSF.

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VacantLuxuries
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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby VacantLuxuries » September 7th, 2018, 3:37 pm

If it's going to take 10-15 years, better to get on that now instead of spending another 1-3 years banging our head against the wall. Maybe with a bit of luck, we'll have a governor and legislature that lets us get some meatier transit taxes and plan another Bottineau without having to genuflect to the changing demands and whims of the FTA.

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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby HiawathaGuy » September 7th, 2018, 3:52 pm

If it's going to take 10-15 years, better to get on that now instead of spending another 1-3 years banging our head against the wall. Maybe with a bit of luck, we'll have a governor and legislature that lets us get some meatier transit taxes and plan another Bottineau without having to genuflect to the changing demands and whims of the FTA.
Do you have any examples of any regions/cities that do this currently?

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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby DanPatchToget » September 7th, 2018, 4:03 pm

Can BNSF please provide an explanation of how the Blue Line extension is inconsistent with their passenger principles? This is a spur line used by one freight per day (well two if you count a UP freight for a short stretch) serving small local industries (and once in a blue moon the Monticello Nuclear Plant). Why are they so protective of this line?

Is this revenge for the county blocking their planned track connection with Canadian Pacific in Crystal?

HiawathaGuy
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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby HiawathaGuy » September 7th, 2018, 4:07 pm

Can BNSF please provide an explanation of how the Blue Line extension is inconsistent with their passenger principles? This is a spur line used by one freight per day (well two if you count a UP freight for a short stretch) serving small local industries (and once in a blue moon the Monticello Nuclear Plant). Why are they so protective of this line?

Is this revenge for the county blocking their planned track connection with Canadian Pacific in Crystal?
I think you're on to something! I think things will eventually work out - it just sucks that it has to be so dumb! That and it's even more dumb that Met Council didn't think this might be an issue years ago!

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Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)

Postby VacantLuxuries » September 7th, 2018, 4:14 pm

Seattle and Los Angeles. They're raising their own funds for projects so they don't need to meet federal matching funds requirements. If we want to get serious about our transit system, we need to stop participating in a system where we start planning under the rules of one administration, and hope the one in power ten years later still wants to fund the project.


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