By Mark Fischenich
MANKATO — The Minnesota Valley Line won’t be joining the Hiawatha Line anytime soon even if legislation introduced by Rep. Terry Morrow becomes law.
The Minnesota Valley Line also won’t be in the same league as the North Star line or the Central Corridor line — rail routes from Minneapolis to Big Lake and St. Paul, respectively, that will become the third and fourth passenger rail lines in the state.
But Morrow wants the Minnesota Valley Line — which would run from the Greater Mankato Area to the Twin Cities — to join a long and growing queue of proposed passenger rail lines.
“After seeing bill after bill come to the Legislature regarding different rail lines, I want to ensure that the Greater Mankato area is included in the discussions,” the St. Peter Democrat said in a statement announcing the legislation.
Interest in rail service spiked with the 2004 opening of the Hiawatha Line between the Mall of America and downtown Minneapolis. Prior to that, Minnesota’s only regular rail service was Amtrak’s daily Empire Builder, which crosses Minnesota on its route from Chicago to the Pacific northwest.
Mankato, however, had previously stayed on the sidelines as lawmakers from nearly all corners of the state sought to generate interest, planning money and — in some cases — construction dollars for new passenger rail.
The North Star line is scheduled to begin operations later this year, and there’s a continued push to eventually extend it to St. Cloud. The Central Corridor line connecting the Twin Cities is expected to open in 2014.
Other proposals are in widely varying stages of advancement. The Metropolitan Council is finalizing route choices for the Southwest Corridor (14 miles from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie), and there’s been preliminary talk of extending commuter rail to Chaska.
The Northern Lights Express is being pushed by Duluth officials, and the Rush Line would connect the metro to Hinckley via the bedroom communities and suburbs north of the Twin Cities. Even more preliminary is the Dan Patch, which would run from Northfield to Minneapolis and serve many of the southern suburbs.
And southeastern Minnesota is looking at the possibility of connecting with high-speed rail service being proposed for Chicago to St. Paul.
Cost of the projects runs from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars and the planning process can run for decades, but Morrow said passenger rail service needs to be part of the state’s long-term transportation plan.
“We know that rail service — passenger, commuter and freight — is more efficient, helps preserve roads and bridges and helps protect the environment,” said Morrow, a member of the Minnesota Comprehensive Statewide Rail Plan advisory committee.
His bill would allocate $500,000 from a future bonding bill for the environmental study, predesign and preliminary engineering of a commuter rail line connecting Mankato to the Twin Cities.
