Who Will Use the Rail?
A billion dollar rail is being built connecting Saint Paul and Minneapolis. Give the advocates credit for pushing this through. Who will actually ride the train? The people who currently ride the bus will most likely continue to use public transportation. Those who have no other choice are a captive market. Anybody else?... Bueller?... Bueller?
As someone who takes the bus to Twins games and walks to the grocery store, I admire the goal of driving less. However, anti-car policies, such as not building park-and-rides because we do not want suburbanites to bring their cars to Saint Paul, strike me as hypocritical and counter-productive. Hypocritical, because the weather in Saint Paul causes even the most strident inner-city activist to use their car on occasion. Counter-productive, because if Saint Paul is to thrive, it must be accessible, and if people find the city too hard to get around, they can always go somewhere else. Where I have seen park-and-rides in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago and the Saint Louis Central Corridor, I have seen park-and-rides that are used beyond their capacity.
The city of Saint Paul has a marketing director. I hope she is brought into the picture once she has some free time after the Republican convention.
My questions to her are these:
The advocates that are getting the rail built should be convinced by marketing data that park-and -rides need to be built in order for this rail line to be successful, even if they may be adamant that parking be made available only to people who drive Dodge Volt plug-in electric cars.
That would be an improvement over the current position, as becoming forward looking, rather than bemoaning the loss of the streetcars, would be a positive development. If we are going to spend one billion dollars or more, we should design a rail to meet the future transportation needs of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The new rail line, as designed to date, is an albatross that could easily cost addition billions to make right.
As someone who takes the bus to Twins games and walks to the grocery store, I admire the goal of driving less. However, anti-car policies, such as not building park-and-rides because we do not want suburbanites to bring their cars to Saint Paul, strike me as hypocritical and counter-productive. Hypocritical, because the weather in Saint Paul causes even the most strident inner-city activist to use their car on occasion. Counter-productive, because if Saint Paul is to thrive, it must be accessible, and if people find the city too hard to get around, they can always go somewhere else. Where I have seen park-and-rides in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago and the Saint Louis Central Corridor, I have seen park-and-rides that are used beyond their capacity.
The city of Saint Paul has a marketing director. I hope she is brought into the picture once she has some free time after the Republican convention.
My questions to her are these:
How much of the success of the Hiawatha line can be attributed to the giant "park-and-ride" at its southern tip, the Mall of America, with 13,000 easy to find parking spaces available not far from the below grade train station? Why are car owners going to use the rail? How can public transportation be made more useful for people?
The advocates that are getting the rail built should be convinced by marketing data that park-and -rides need to be built in order for this rail line to be successful, even if they may be adamant that parking be made available only to people who drive Dodge Volt plug-in electric cars.
That would be an improvement over the current position, as becoming forward looking, rather than bemoaning the loss of the streetcars, would be a positive development. If we are going to spend one billion dollars or more, we should design a rail to meet the future transportation needs of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The new rail line, as designed to date, is an albatross that could easily cost addition billions to make right.
Labels: central corridor, light rail, UPDC
posted by David Rasmussen at 9:25 AM
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