Any idea when the lightrail will be completed (to St. Cloud)?

[akronbball]

Originally Posted by knke0204

Easy marmac, easy. I understand that. If anyone in the forum knows about the Northstar Commuter Rail, it's me. I have worked on hundreds of projects for cities, colleges, and counties about this. I know the project like the back of my hand. I understand that St. Cloud was never in the final approval. But Big Lake is as far as it's going to go, if ever. Open your pocket books, and let's start building some things that are going to change the way we live our lives.

knke0204 the Northstar Commuter Rail is under construction right now and scheduled to be open later this year from Big Lake to Downtown Mpls. The Metropolitan Council already established fares for the route. (Metropolitan Council establishes fares for Northstar commuter rail - August 2009 - Metropolitan Council news release)

The cost of the $320 million rail line is being shared by the state and federal governments, the regional rail authorities for Anoka, Hennepin and Sherburne counties, the Metropolitan Council and the Minnesota Twins.

Metro Transit - Northstar Line
Northstar Commuter Rail.

[MrMinneapolis]

Not going to St. Cloud is a stupid mistake. Its only the biggest freaking hub in central Minnesota, sheesh. WTF is in big lake...besides a well you know..big lake.

[jwmn]

Northstar commuter rail begins service on November 16. Link.

[moving123456]

Originally Posted by MrMinneapolis

Not going to St. Cloud is a stupid mistake. Its only the biggest freaking hub in central Minnesota, sheesh. WTF is in big lake...besides a well you know..big lake.

Maybe the Northern Lights Express line can end somewhere like Moose Lake instead of Duluth, that would just be awesome.

I wonder how much more funding was needed to bring it to St. Cloud. The trains are being purchased anyway. The rails are already there. I have read that St. Cloud is also building a new transit center for the buses to Big Lake, which probably could have been spent on a train station instead.

[marmac]

Originally Posted by MrMinneapolis

Not going to St. Cloud is a stupid mistake. Its only the biggest freaking hub in central Minnesota, sheesh. WTF is in big lake...besides a well you know..big lake.

Here is my guess as to why it extends as far as Big Lake and not to St Cloud ( besides extra cost)

Ridership !

I'm guessing a lot more people from the Big Lake ---area ---comute to the twin cities every day than from the St Cloud area.

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by MrMinneapolis

Not going to St. Cloud is a stupid mistake. Its only the biggest freaking hub in central Minnesota, sheesh. WTF is in big lake...besides a well you know..big lake.

It's really not that 'stupid', I have been part of studies for this, and the ridership just isnt there. The cost to build stops in Becker, and througough the city of St. Cloud, plus extra cars, operators, and maintenance AND the actual rail wouldnt have been affordable enough to build.

The cooridor extending to Big Lake is perfect. Although there isnt much in Big Lake, the Highway 10/I 94 consisting of COmmunities such as Big Lake, Becker, Albertville, St. Michael, Monticello, Rogers, Otsego, Elk River which have more than 100,000 people that more than likely take 94 or 10 to work in the "Cities" everyday.

Soon as it gets built and the ridership is there and the line stops losing money, then the extension to STC will be highly considered.

I think SCSU SCTC and the City of St Cloud should put forth some money, because they are all going to benefit

[MrMinneapolis]

Originally Posted by knke0204

It's really not that 'stupid', I have been part of studies for this, and the ridership just isnt there. The cost to build stops in Becker, and througough the city of St. Cloud, plus extra cars, operators, and maintenance AND the actual rail wouldnt have been affordable enough to build.

The cooridor extending to Big Lake is perfect. Although there isnt much in Big Lake, the Highway 10/I 94 consisting of COmmunities such as Big Lake, Becker, Albertville, St. Michael, Monticello, Rogers, Otsego, Elk River which have more than 100,000 people that more than likely take 94 or 10 to work in the "Cities" everyday.

Soon as it gets built and the ridership is there and the line stops losing money, then the extension to STC will be highly considered.

I think SCSU SCTC and the City of St Cloud should put forth some money, because they are all going to benefit

I think the rider ship is there just not in the same vein as the study. It will be mostly "tourist" ridership, not so much work commute ridership.

I also agree they should all put up some dough too. And really you would only need 1 stop in st cloud IMO. The problem is with these systems is they want to put stop every couple freakin miles. put fewer stops and up the speed of the train and you can emulate european standards.

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by akronbball

Did you check out Amtrak? I know that the Empire Builder runs from Minneapolis to St. Cloud.

Good suggestion! I know it leaves St Paul westbound about 11:00 pm daily, and it's a pretty fast trip to St. Cloud, as it is the next station. Coming back, it leaves SC eastbound at about 6:00 a.m. or thereabouts.

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by MrMinneapolis

I think the rider ship is there just not in the same vein as the study. It will be mostly "tourist" ridership, not so much work commute ridership.

I also agree they should all put up some dough too. And really you would only need 1 stop in st cloud IMO. The problem is with these systems is they want to put stop every couple freakin miles. put fewer stops and up the speed of the train and you can emulate european standards.

By European standards, do you mean high speed rail? If yes, Northstar is not intended to be high speed rail, it is strictly a commuter line. Commuter lines are supposed to have lots of stops. (It's not being built as a "tourist" line, either. I don't think very many politicians or voters would support building a tourist line to St Cloud!)

[Slig]

Originally Posted by knke0204

It's really not that 'stupid', I have been part of studies for this, and the ridership just isnt there. The cost to build stops in Becker, and througough the city of St. Cloud, plus extra cars, operators, and maintenance AND the actual rail wouldnt have been affordable enough to build.

The cooridor extending to Big Lake is perfect. Although there isnt much in Big Lake, the Highway 10/I 94 consisting of COmmunities such as Big Lake, Becker, Albertville, St. Michael, Monticello, Rogers, Otsego, Elk River which have more than 100,000 people that more than likely take 94 or 10 to work in the "Cities" everyday.

Soon as it gets built and the ridership is there and the line stops losing money, then the extension to STC will be highly considered.

I think SCSU SCTC and the City of St Cloud should put forth some money, because they are all going to benefit

I highly doubt 100,000 people from Big Lake, Becker, Albertville, St. Michael, Monticello, Rogers, Otsego, Elk River take 94 or 10 to work in the "cities" every day.

2000 Census population
Big Lake = 6063
Becker = 2673
Albertville = 3621
St. Michael = 9099
Monticello = 11414
Rogers = 3588
Otsego = 6389
Elk River = 16447
Total population in 2000 = 59,294

I know the population there has grown significantly over the last 9 years so let's just say for argument's sake that the population has doubled, that would mean there are 118,588 people living in those areas. Out of that population you could only expect about half of it to be employed (the other half are made up of children, the elderly/retired, unemployed and stay-at-homes, disabled, etc.) and out of those who are employed at most half of them travel that direction to work every day. That would leave approximately 30,000 people which is far less than the 100,000 you claim.