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Reader Survey Results: Economics of Amtrak from Minneapolis to Duluth

By on April 16, 2019 in Economics, Infrastructure, Polls, Railroads, Trains, Travel

On March 27, we posted about the numbers surrounding the proposed $600 million investment to bring Amtrak rail service along a corridor between Minneapolis and Duluth. Many of you shared your stories of rail and bus travel, and many expressed a deep appreciation for the comfort and conveniences of travel by rail. To learn more, I created a […]

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Map Monday: Fantasy Eastern US Rail Network

By on February 11, 2019 in Infrastructure, Maps, Railroads

Here’s a map from erstwhile rail and transit blogger, Alon Levy, with a proposed “high-speed” / low-speed rail network that would connect to Minnesota. First, the map itself: For Levy’s proposal, the Chicago-to-Minneapolis travel time would be 2 hours and 30 minutes. There would also be connection north to Duluth. Here’s what Levy writes about […]

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To the Gulf of Minneapolis

By on November 16, 2018 in Architecture, Bicycling, Infrastructure, Neighborhoods, Railroads, Rivers, Roads, Shipping, Streets

July 10, 2016 Downtown, West Side 18.3 Miles I frequently look at maps of Saint Paul. Call it a “blogupational” hazard. Sometimes I’ll plan a ride with the help of Google maps. Occasionally I’ll use an official City of Saint Paul paper map. Street maps from the mid and late- 1800s to the 2010s are […]

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Is Minnesota All Aboard for Intercity Rail?

By on November 5, 2018 in Railroads, Transportation

After posting about potential rapid transit routes in the Twin Cities here and potential regional rail routes in the Twin Cities here, now is the potential for intercity rail in Minnesota. History of Intercity Rail in Minnesota Post-Amtrak Like most states, Minnesota had a large intercity rail network operated by private freight railroads. With the […]

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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 […]

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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, […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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