Legislature Moving LRT Money

[mr roboto]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

But how will Vikings fans from Eden Prairie get to the game?

Yeah this has nothing to do with it and you know it. Actually Southwest Transit has a game day bus. I live in EP and used it. It's great. And faster than LRT.

The most congested and the most economically productive corridor in the entire state? **** them. Wilmar needs an extra merging lane.

[Steve Bowen]

The SW LRT line formally entered the engineering phase around Christmastime. My understanding is that every FTA-approved rail project in recent history that reached the engineering phase was built.

Additionally, the Capital Improvement Program that provides the federal funding for the SW LRT "Funds light rail, heavy rail, commuter rail, streetcar, and bus rapid transit projects", according to its website, not highways or roads.

This isn't a block grant that the state can use on whatever transit projects it wants. It is matching federal funding for a very specific rail project from a program that doesn't fund highway projects.

Given that, I think it is unlikely that Minnesota GOP legislators will be able to get the funding for the SW LRT converted into highway funding only months before construction on the SW LRT is set to begin and after years and millions of dollars of planning, feedback and preliminary engineering work.

[OneTimeSEALover]

Originally Posted by ZanderX

I am not one of those to argue that the "data is fake," but low unemployment does not necessarily mean that we have a strong job market. We have low unemployment because the boomer population makes up the largest share of our total metro population, meaning that there are more people exiting the labor force than entering it. Since the Twin Cities are not an attractive destination for people to move to, and therefore saturate the labor market, the unemployment rate remains low even though the overall job growth is mediocre.

And MAYBE that is not any crisis.

[ZanderX]

I can pretty confidently say that anyone who wants a job here right now can get one. It seems like every store and restaurant I walk into has now hiring signs. It's been over a year since I've come across anyone I know here who is unemployed and looking. What more evidence do you need?

Sure, but there is a plethora of unfilled, part time and low paying retail and restaurant jobs in every city around the country, so that is not really unique.

[mr roboto]

Originally Posted by OneTimeSEALover

And MAYBE that is not any crisis.

Of course it isn't.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Feds: Southwest light-rail funds cannot be diverted to roads, bridges | Star Tribune

[Chester Burnett]

Originally Posted by Steve Bowen

The SW LRT line formally entered the engineering phase around Christmastime. My understanding is that every FTA-approved rail project in recent history that reached the engineering phase was built.

Additionally, the Capital Improvement Program that provides the federal funding for the SW LRT "Funds light rail, heavy rail, commuter rail, streetcar, and bus rapid transit projects", according to its website, not highways or roads.

This isn't a block grant that the state can use on whatever transit projects it wants. It is matching federal funding for a very specific rail project from a program that doesn't fund highway projects.

Given that, I think it is unlikely that Minnesota GOP legislators will be able to get the funding for the SW LRT converted into highway funding only months before construction on the SW LRT is set to begin and after years and millions of dollars of planning, feedback and preliminary engineering work.

And we have a winner

[OneTimeSEALover]

MAYBE federal matching. Wait and see what Congress is up to. Those forecasts of the future based on the past might be fallacious.