It bears mentioning any time I find myself in wholehearted agreement with the Mesabi Daily News editorial page.
Today, the MDN properly sticks it to Phil Krinkie of the Taxpayer’s League for his bashing of rail service to Duluth specifically and the people of northern Minnesota generally in a recent Duluth News Tribune op/ed. I agree. Minnesota’s future must involve more connection between Duluth, the Range and the North Woods, not less. Rail service is one way to do that efficiently and cleanly. The idea deserves exploration.
The merits of such a project aside, Krinkie can’t even come up with accurate arguments about the project. Factual problems included:
1) He’s confused about the speed of the proposed train (thinks it will take 3.5 hours from Duluth, I believe).
2) Thinks that the train would exist only for people traveling from the cities to Duluth, not the other way around.
3) Thinks that the only thing north of Duluth is “Grand Marais” and that nobody would want to visit Grand Marais after summer (anyone ever hear of downhill skiing? anyone…. anyone?).
That’s just what I was able to pick up on. Someone more informed about the issue than I could probably poke a lot more holes.
Equally galling is Krinkie’s assumption that everyone has (or should have) a car. The subtext is that if you don’t, you’re somehow a defective citizen. Quite the opposite holds true in Europe or Japan, where fast and convenient rail service obviates the need for several automobiles per household. To own an automobile, in fact, is a costly headache regardless of where you live. Here, it is more or less normative precisely because we don’t have enough sensible alternatives (i.e., trains).
“efficiently”? Aaron, surely you jest. When has Amtrak been in the black? You need very high rider densiity to even come close to breaking even.
cjh, you pine to be just like Europe and Japan and don’t want to be just like America; why don’t you emigrate?
Do you want light rail or heavy rail to go from Laverne to Warroad?
Just who is supposed to pay for this boondoggle? We are already looking at up to a $6 Billion state deficit and Trillions for federal deficit.
I think I’ve gone over this with you in the past.
The true value of commuter rail is not in profits, it is in the combined value of fewer cars on the road and increased productivity by workers. With high speed internet, an 60 minute train ride adds two hours to the work day that were previously devoted to mindlessness. So long as you maintain ridership, and that would be what we are testing here, commuter rail improves communities along its tracks.
Even with the non-financial benefits cited, the cost is just too high to justify for a small number of riders. Very, very few people are going to commute from Duluth to the Twin Cities every day for work because there is rail service. Take the 3.5 hour estimate given by Kreinke and the 2 hour estimate given by the proponents and take the midpoint (2.75 hours) and that’s probably themost accurate estimate. To drive that distance only takes 2.25 hours. Even when workers reach the Twon Cities, they’ll have to get to where they work unless it’s right near the station.
Even for all of you rail fanatics, I can think of several rail projects that should happen a long time before this one.
I wish Todd’s facts would help the rail fanatics see reality. You want a train, get one for x-mas and set it up on your livingroom floor.
Phil Krinkie is one of the few fiscally conservative politicians I have met. Most politicians would make a drunken sailor look like penny pinching scrooge.