Navigation

Archive | Railroads

Do Cities Like Minneapolis Have High Transit Ridership? (Part 2)

By on July 13, 2018 in Demographics, Railroads, Transit

In the last post, I discussed which foreign cities are most like Minneapolis in terms of population distribution. In this post, I’m going to present some numbers about the transit systems of those cities, in order to determine how extensive Minneapolis’ transit system could be, given the distribution of its population. Transit share in New […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

Living in Union Depot

By on March 14, 2018 in Downtown, History, Railroads, Streets, Trains

May 21, 2016 Lowertown, Downtown 15 miles The grand and solemn Saint Paul Union Depot is a train station. Although this seems patently obvious, Union Depot in fact took a 43 year break – from 1971 until 2014 – as the train station for Saint Paul. Today, Saint Paul Union Depot is a transit hub, […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

Returning to the Rails in South Dakota

By on March 7, 2018 in Railroads, Transportation

Following an extended hiatus to surf the torrent of government news these days, I’m back with another set of maps to explain the current situation with passenger rail in the U.S. and a possible vision for the future. This time, I’m focusing on our neighbor to the southwest, South Dakota. For my previous posts on […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

Remnants of Stonebridge

By on January 31, 2018 in Architecture, Railroads

May 20, 2016 Macalester-Groveland, Desnoyer Park 10 Miles Stonebridge. Today, it’s little more than a two block long street in Macalester-Groveland. From the 1910s into the early ‘30s, however, Stonebridge was the grandest estate in Saint Paul. To this day, the mystique of Stonebridge remains fascinating to local historians because of estate’s size, extravagance and […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

The Stagnant Investment in Amtrak, by Station Count

By on May 8, 2017 in Infrastructure, Railroads

Amtrak, the country’s intercity passenger rail company, has had its funding stuck in the doldrums ever since it was founded in 1971. There have been sporadic bursts of money to the government-sponsored company, mostly to invest in new locomotives and train cars and the occasional upgrade to the tracks on particular routes. However, there hasn’t […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

The Resurgence of Trains

By on April 21, 2017 in Infrastructure, Land use, Railroads

This post originally appeared on theplanninglady.com. I recently read an from the Planning Magazine titled “Rail Relationships” which I found interesting because it acknowledged the necessity for cities to build adjacent to long standing rail infrastructure as they run out of available land but also addressed the economic need to preserve their operations. The most interesting facts […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

Potential Paths for Passenger Rail in North Dakota

By on December 12, 2016 in Infrastructure, Railroads

My last few posts have looked at the rail networks in Minnesota and Wisconsin to look for opportunities for adding passenger service where little or none exists today. I also examined the system in Norway, a country with a similar population to Minnesota and Wisconsin, yet with a much more functional and robust intercity public […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

Many Prospects for Passenger Rail in Wisconsin

By on November 4, 2016 in Infrastructure, Maps, Railroads, Transportation

  In my most recent two posts I looked first at the opportunities I see for passenger rail in Minnesota, followed by an entry examining Norway’s passenger rail network to make some comparisons. There are similarities between the two such as the fact that Minnesota and Norway have about the same population and have been growing […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

Can We Save the Electric Steel Elevator Site in Prospect Park?

By on September 26, 2016 in History, Railroads

The current historic preservation issue in Minneapolis right now is not a campaign to save a building because its gingerbread ornamentation is too precious to lose. The slightly rusty and unornamented round steel sides of the Electric Steel Elevator complex in Prospect Park, part of a large complex of tall concrete cylindrical grain silos, may […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading

Just Ryde’n Around

By on August 30, 2016 in Bicycling, Bridges, Housing, Infrastructure, Neighborhoods, Photos, Railroads, Streets, Trains, Urban Design

  August 14, 2015 Macalester-Groveland, Merriam Park, Lexington-Hamline, Como Park 16.2 Miles   Cleveland Avenue, because of its proximity to my house, is the north-south street on which I ride most often. Despite that, I am still surprised by a sight or two on or near Cleveland. On Selby Avenue, three houses east of Cleveland, […]

Streets.mn is a non-profit and is volunteer run. We rely on your support to keep the servers running. If you value what you read, please consider becoming a member.

Continue Reading