--- Emilie Quast <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Does anyone have the URL for a political history of
> how they chose the
> Light Rail route from Minneapolis Downtown to the VA
> Hospital? I'd really
> like to know who lobbied for what and who
> compromised whatelse in return
> for whichever.
>
> I have never been clear why the new rail system
> starts where it starts or
> why it runs along Hiawatha. This has to be a
> compromise route, but what
> were the issues that ended up limiting the
> discombubleration to ONLY
> downtown Minneapolis?
Hello Emilie,
Hiawatha route was chosen because it was viewed as the
path of least resistance by many politicians and
government folks. The majority of the property had
already been acquired to build a larger road and
community residents had stopped that from happening,
so land was readily available, and citizen committee
had requested trains not more lanes.
In the mid 90's MNDot was intending on building
dedicated bus lanes (high speed bus corridor) but that
was stopped thanks to the Park and River Alliance
lawsuit that argued the Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) was originally done for lightrail not a bus
transit corridor and thus they would need to do
another EIS. South Minneapolis residents put up
hundreds of signs in their yards that read, "Stop Hwy
55 Reroute, Trains not Lanes".
Prior to the court date federal dollars were committed
for light rail and state dollars followed. The Park
and River Alliance lawsuit was dead before it arrived
in court. If it would have stayed a bus corridor they
would have most likely won the lawsuit and a new EIS,
which may have stopped the road from being rerouted
through as much sensitive land and taking as many old
growth trees. I am sure the problems with watering of
Coldwater Spring may have been avoid as well.
One of the biggest problems is trying to develop light
rail transit in developed corridors. The government
needs to acquire private property including homes and
businesses. This makes development much more expensive
and time consuming.
Projects in abandon rail corridors like the Midtown
Greenway and other rail corridors seems to be a better
option for developing future rail transit, because
they usually involve negotiating with the company that
owns the track corridor not numerous individual homes
and businesses.
Ken Bradley
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