MINNEAPOLIS — One of the counties that helps fund Minnesota’s Northstar commuter rail service is seeking to reduce its share of payments to keep the line running, and joining in questions whether the operation should continue in the wake of a massive loss of ridership because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports Anoka County is arguing the $3.1 million it paid toward the service in the first two quarters of 2020 should be reduced to $1.8 million because ridership dropped by 95%, and wants that amount either returned by the Metropolitan Council, which oversees transit in the Twin Cities, or to have its bill this year reduced by the same amount.The council, however, says the funding is outlined by a 2018 agreement, and that Anoka County owes $2.9 million this year and $2.5 million for the second half of 2020. The other two counties which help fund the operation say they will honor the agreement.
Scott Schulte, chairman of the Anoka County Board, told the newspaper that commuter buses could replace the train, which through August had carried just 26,374 riders this year. And a state legislator says he will introduce a bill next year to shut the line down, although similar legislation that he introduced failed this year. [see “Digest: Northeast Corridor service disrupted …,” Trains News Wire, March 24, 2021, and “Digest: Canada increasing fines for rail trespassing …,” News Wire, June 24, 2021].
The chairman of the Metropolitan Council, Charlie Zelle says such talk is premature because a variety of local, state, and federal agencies would have a say in a potential shutdown, and because the pandemic has dragged on, delaying return-to-work plans for many workers, making it impossible to estimate long-term commuter plans. Zelle also said federal pandemic relief funding has subsidized Northstar operations and that “there has been no additional financial impact on Anoka County.”
If the system were to be shut down, the state would have to repay $85 million in federal funds used to build the line.
A certain Party has been itching to shut this down from day one, it shouldn’t be a commuter rail it should be a regional rail system connecting cities & towns in the state starting with St. Cloud which was the original destination planned until they terminated it in the middle of nowhere with a bus connection for the final leg to St Cloud. Here’s an idea take all the Federal, State & local hundreds of millions of $$ they’ve spent keeping the St Cloud airport on life support for the last decade & run the Northstar the final few miles to St Cloud!
Because a temporary loss of ridership totally justifies shutting down an operation permanently.