…is, reportedly, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
If at first you build a $500 Million train and it comes in closer to $700M, so you build a “$1.4 Billion” train that comes in over $2 Billion, so you build a $2 Bllion dollar train that’s going to be well over $3 billion if they finish it at all…
…then why the heck not estimate an extension to an existing useless crack den of a train for $2.9-$3.2 Billion and shoot for $4.5B by the time you’re done?
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That much money… that’s really amazing. To solve what?
And right through North Mpls. Will the construction involve hazard pay?
In The Olden Days (before Covid), employees worked in downtown Minneapolis but lived in the suburbs. They sacrificed time and money to live and work in separate places. A commuter train helped make it possible. Nowadays (post Covid), employees live in the suburbs and want to work there, too. A train won’t help with that.
It’s not an unreasonable expectation. The Governor’s Executive Orders locking down the state forced everyone to instantly and radically update their work procedures to work from home during the pandemic. We proved it was possible to do business via Zoom meetings, email, cell phone, and high-speed internet, at least for the “laptop class” of workers – clerical, accountants, lawyers, doctors, teachers, financial analysts, advertising, programming – while avoiding the time and expense of the commute. And that gave us more time for family.
Now that the pandemic is over, why should we go back to the office? The work got done. The customers were satisfied. We proved we could do it then. Why can’t we do it now? What’s the point of sacrificing family time to sit in traffic, pay for parking, pack a lunch, and dodge carjackers downtown? Or pack a lunch, ride the train and dodge panhandlers?
A commuter train for the Twin Cities is a relic of an earlier age, in all senses. It was a waste of money before. Now, it’s an insult.
Nowadays (post Covid), employees live in the suburbs and want to work there
This trend was already well established long prior to the Kung flu. The hysterical overreaction was merely a catalyst.
Also, I think you’ll find that many employers are now reducing those work from home opportunities. I don’t think this will re-inflate the importance of downtown Mpls (or any downtown) because businesses have continued moving out to the suburbs since the Hysteria (you can see this in the growing problems in big city downtown commercial real estate markets).
What baffles me is why the “party of science” doesn’t figure out that when a train carriage needs to weigh about 50 tons to stay on the tracks, that rail is not really a good means of transport. All that weight imposes those very capital costs.
And as an engineer who’s done some good predictive models, the fact of constant overruns means that it’s intentional. You can price these things out like the freight railroads do.
We once had light rail running on every major route in Saint Paul. It was called The Trolley or Streetcars by another name.
My first paid job, when I was six, was pulling up the rail spikes on the Dale Street line. They paid a nickel for each spike. The job was more of a community relations stunt than work, but hey, a nickel could buy a hell of a lot of candy in the early 50’s.
So why were they ripping up the light rail tracks?
Well, because some genius figured out that 9 cents out of every dime put in the fare box went to maintain the roadbed and electric lines, whereas gas taxes paid for roads and buses got to ride on them free – plus buses could steer around things, take detours and go places where there was no track.
Pssssst, someone ought to tell that to the Met Council and hey, if done right, even buses can finance bribery and kickbacks.
And right through North Mpls.
40 years from now there will be people moaning about how the light rail line through North Minneapolis completely disrupted and cut off a vibrant and thriving minority community and we have to make it right by putting a dome and a bridge over the line for justice.
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