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Rail line to Duluth gets nudge from feds
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The federal government is giving a $1.1 million nudge to a proposed passenger rail line that would connect Duluth and Minneapolis.
The grant, announced Tuesday, will go to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, which will look at what would need to be done to existing tracks to allow trains to travel as fast as 110 miles per hour.
The goal "is to be competitive with car travel from Minneapolis to Duluth-Superior," said Jill Brown, a spokeswoman for the project. She also noted that planners want to have stations in the Coon Rapids-Anoka area so suburban commuters could use the train to get to Minneapolis.
The 150-mile line, called the Northern Lights Express, could cost as much as $400 million. Service would begin in 2012.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced a total of $30 million in intercity rail grants. Other states receiving money are Arizona, California, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
JIM FOTI
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Shades of Carol Molnau
For years, I heard the same tired old statement about the Hiawatha light rail line: "It's the train to nowhere; who would ever want to ride … read more a light rail train from the Mall of America or MSP to Downtown Minneapolis?" Carol Molnau was one of the most vocal; ridership on the Hiawatha line is more than double projections. Now the same people are using the same line about commuter rail and the Duluth high-speed line. People want alternatives to driving, and once rail is available, they will ride the system in large numbers. Final point: roads and airports are not built for free, either. We need a balanced transportation system.
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