Rochester Rail Link
Encyclopedia
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
that would run from the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area to the southeastern city of Rochester
Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on both banks of the Zumbro River, The city has a population of 106,769 according to the 2010 United States Census, making it Minnesota's third-largest city and the largest outside of the...
—the third-largest city in the state—and potentially integrate into a fast conventional or high-speed rail
High-speed rail
High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...
line east to Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
and on to Chicago, Illinois. This region is primarily served by U.S. Highway 52 to the Twin Cities and U.S. Highway 14 and Interstate 90
Interstate 90
Interstate 90 is the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It is the northernmost coast-to-coast interstate, and parallels US 20 for the most part. Its western terminus is in Seattle, at Edgar Martinez Drive S. near Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field, and its eastern terminus is in...
to Wisconsin, as well as Rochester International Airport
Rochester International Airport
Rochester International Airport is a nonhub primary airport located seven miles southwest of the central business district of Rochester, a city in Olmsted County, Minnesota, United States. It is the second busiest commercial airport in Minnesota...
(RST). Existing rail owned by Canadian Pacific
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
through its Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad
Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad
The Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad is a Class II railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway operating across South Dakota and southern Minnesota in the northern plains of the United States...
subsidiary largely parallels U.S. 14, but no link currently exists running north-south out of the city. A new "greenfield" route will need to be built because there has never been a direct rail route from Rochester to Minneapolis or Saint Paul, and the most direct route that used to exist (Chicago Great Western Railway
Chicago Great Western Railway
The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City. It was founded by Alpheus Beede Stickney in 1885 as a regional line between St. Paul and the Iowa state line called the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad...
via Red Wing
Red Wing, Minnesota
Red Wing is a city in Goodhue County, Minnesota, United States, on the Mississippi River. The population was 16,459 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Goodhue County....
) has been abandoned with the track removed and converted into the Douglas State Trail
Douglas State Trail
The Douglas State Trail is a multiple-use rail trail in Minnesota, USA.It occupies the abandoned Chicago Great Western Railway corridor between Rochester and Pine Island, passing through Douglas along the way...
.
Rochester has been under consideration as part of a high-speed route to Chicago since the late 1980s, with the possibility of a standalone spur route being examined more recently in the 2000s decade. The Minnesota Department of Transportation
Minnesota Department of Transportation
The Minnesota Department of Transportation oversees transportation by land, water, and air in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The cabinet-level agency is responsible for maintaining the state's trunk highway system The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT, pronounced "min-dot") oversees...
believes that it will take up to ten years to finish the line once the decision is made to move forward, due to the environmental studies, land acquisition, and purchasing/construction of rolling stock in addition to building the line itself. A statewide rail plan being finalized in early 2010 stated that a 110 mph (49.2 m/s) link may be created initially, but it should not preclude the possibility to upgrade to 150 mph (67.1 m/s) in the future. Other studies have called for even higher top speeds.
Illinois and Wisconsin received $822 million in federal funds in February 2010 to upgrade the existing Chicago–Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
rail line used by Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
's Hiawatha Service and extend it to Madison
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
, and an additional $600,000 was set aside for planning a route from Madison to the Twin Cities. The Minnesota and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation contributed matching funds, and the $1.2 million study should be complete by September 2010, which will determine the final routing for a faster rail link between the Twin Cities and Chicago. Regardless of whether Rochester is included in a line to Chicago, the Minnesota Department of Transportation considers a Rochester line to be a Tier I corridor, for implementation before the year 2030.
Past studies
A series of studies in 1991, 2000, and 2009 has consistently ranked routes through the city highly because they would add more riders, allowing greater recovery of costs through ticket sales, and could be built to handle much higher speeds, shorter running times, and more trains per day. The studies have also consistently shown high-speed trains of 150 mile per hour (or, in the most recent study, 220 mph (98.3 m/s)) running on steel rail to be the preferred option when compared to slower trains or alternative maglev technology.However, there has been significant resistance to the idea of a route through Rochester, particularly among communities along the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
which see the current Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
Empire Builder
Empire Builder
The Empire Builder is a passenger train route operated by Amtrak in the Midwestern and Northwestern United States. It is Amtrak's busiest long-distance route and busiest daily train, carrying more than 500,000 travelers annually since 2007. Overall, it is the railroad's 10th-busiest line. Before...
go through each day. The river route is nostalgic and scenic, so it has had a lot of political inertia. The river route is supported by the advocacy group OnBoardMidwest
OnBoardMidwest
OnBoardMidwest is a Minnesota-based special interest group that advocates the development of a High Speed Rail system connecting Saint Paul, Minnesota and Chicago, Illinois...
. In 2009, another Chicago plan was put forth by the French national railway company SNCF
SNCF
The SNCF , is France's national state-owned railway company. SNCF operates the country's national rail services, including the TGV, France's high-speed rail network...
, and they favored a route heading directly east out of the Twin Cities toward Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Eau Claire is a city located in the west-central part of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 65,883 as of the 2010 census, making it the largest municipality in the northwestern portion of the state, and the 9th largest in the state overall. It is the county seat of Eau Claire County,...
.
A Twin Cities to Rochester route is believed to have "independent utility", so it could operate successfully even without a direct link to Chicago. The need for a greenfield route has the advantage that it can be built to high specifications, but the disadvantage that it will take a few extra years to negotiate land purchases. It would likely take 7–9 years to build the line once the decision is made to move forward.
Tri-State Study
The Tri-State Rail Study was commissioned by the Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota Departments of Transportation (hence the "Tri-State" name) and was completed in 1991. It examined the feasibility of train services on several routes, narrowed to two by 1990. The current route of Amtrak's Empire BuilderEmpire Builder
The Empire Builder is a passenger train route operated by Amtrak in the Midwestern and Northwestern United States. It is Amtrak's busiest long-distance route and busiest daily train, carrying more than 500,000 travelers annually since 2007. Overall, it is the railroad's 10th-busiest line. Before...
was among those discarded and not studied in detail, but it was listed as a simple route comparison.
- Route No. 1, Amtrak's current route: Chicago to Milwaukee, then northwest to Portage and Tomah, then east to La Crosse before crossing the Mississippi and mostly running on the west side of the river to the Twin Cities. The "Amtrak upgrade" option for the southern corridor would make use of some of this right-of-way.
- Route No. 4, southern corridor: Chicago to Milwaukee, then straight west to Wisconsin's capital city of Madison, then up to Portage, west to La Crosse and on to Rochester, then turning north to the Twin Cities. This route was studied at 125 mph (55.9 m/s) (a so-called "Amtrak upgrade"), 185 mph (82.7 m/s) (TGVTGVThe TGV is France's high-speed rail service, currently operated by SNCF Voyages, the long-distance rail branch of SNCF, the French national rail operator....
/Inter-City Express-class service), and 300 mph (134.1 m/s) (maglev). - Route No. 7, northern corridor: Chicago to Milwaukee, then continuing north to the Green Bay/Fox Cities region, and westward through Spencer and Eau Claire before reaching Minneapolis–Saint Paul. As no passenger rail exists on this route beyond Milwaukee, it was only studied at 185 (TGV/ICE) and 300 mph (maglev).
The study concluded that the "Amtrak upgrade" 125 mph option on the southern corridor through Rochester had the best direct return on investment, and was the best option for a capital-constrained public endeavor. If money were more readily available, the study recommended 185 mph operation since this created the greatest net consumer surplus NPV. A privately funded endeavor would have the best luck at attempting a 300-mph maglev train, because it provided the greatest gross consumer surplus present value. In all cases, the southern corridor outperformed the northern corridor in the long term. The study made mention of "newly introduced Swedish Railroad 'tilt
Tilting train
A tilting train is a train that has a mechanism enabling increased speed on regular rail tracks. As a train rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide about or seated passengers to feel squashed by the outboard armrest due to...
' technology", but it was not studied.
| Speed | Motive power |
Yearly ridership est. | Trip time | Capital cost (1989 $) | Net consumer surplus NPV | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 2024 | |||||
| 125 mph | diesel | 5.8 million | 8.1 million | 4h20 | $940 million | 3004.8 |
| 185 mph | electric | 7.5 | 10.6 | 3h15 | $3.02 billion | 3851.3 |
| 300 mph | maglev | 8.5 | 12.2 | 2h15 | $5.45 billion | 3190.7 |
Tri-State II Study
The Tri-State II High Speed Rail Feasibility Study was commissioned by the Minnesota and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation and built upon the previous Tri-State study, plans from the Midwest Regional Rail InitiativeMidwest Regional Rail Initiative
The Chicago Hub Network is a collection of proposed fast conventional and high-speed rail lines in the Midwestern United States including of track. Since the 1990s, there have been multiple proposals to improve the links from Chicago, Illinois to major destinations including Indianapolis, Indiana,...
(MWRRI), and a 1997 study looking at the Chicago–Milwaukee corridor. Since the MWRRI plans advocate 110 mph diesel
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
or diesel multiple unit
Diesel multiple unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
(DMU) technology (described as "incremental" by the study authors), this was used as the base case for the study.
This study also included gas turbine
Gas turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has an upstream rotating compressor coupled to a downstream turbine, and a combustion chamber in-between....
-powered trains, in comparison to diesels and electrics. It concluded that gas turbines operating at 150 mph were the best option. Development could begin at 110 mph, but the study authors stated the corridor should be developed to 150 mph standards to allow faster trains later.
| Speed | Route | Motive power |
Yearly ridership est. | Trip time | Capital cost ($) | Benefit/cost ratio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | ? | ||||||
| 110 mph | MWRRI river route | diesel | 2.9 million | 5h27 | $940 million | N/A | |
| 110 mph | Rochester, existing ROW | diesel | 2.8 | 5h34 | $1.26 billion | 1.01 | |
| 150 mph | Rochester, existing ROW | turbine | 4.2 | 4h59 | $3.10 billion | 1.62 | |
| 150 mph | New Rochester alignment | turbine | 4.9 | 4h14 | $3.66 billion | 1.68 | |
| 185 mph | Downtown Rochester, elevated | electric | 5.9 | 3h11 | $8.27 billion | 1.34 | |
Rochester Rail Link Study
In contrast to the previous two studies, the 2003 Rochester Rail Link Feasibility Study focused on a spur link to Rochester from the Twin Cities, but avoided discussing the merits of the city's presence on a line to Chicago in significant depth. The routes recommended in that study had one terminus at the Rochester International AirportRochester International Airport
Rochester International Airport is a nonhub primary airport located seven miles southwest of the central business district of Rochester, a city in Olmsted County, Minnesota, United States. It is the second busiest commercial airport in Minnesota...
(RST) at the southern end, and closely examined linking to downtown Minneapolis and to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP), which is closer to Rochester than central Minneapolis.
It examined three motive-power options and recommended a TGV
TGV
The TGV is France's high-speed rail service, currently operated by SNCF Voyages, the long-distance rail branch of SNCF, the French national rail operator....
-like service linking the Twin Cities and Rochester using electrified trains operating at speeds up to 185 mph (82.7 m/s). In this study, the trains would carry a mixture of passengers and cargo, allowing the Rochester airport to take over some of the air freight capacity of MSP. In the leading example, a rate of 20 passenger trains per day was proposed, plus 4 freight trains in the overnight hours. The cost estimate for building the electrified line was $869 to $933 million (2002 dollars), largely depending on whether an entirely new route was used or if the line would closely follow Highway 52. The analysis indicated that the line would eventually pay for itself with passenger and cargo revenues more than covering the capital and operational costs over a 30-year period.
| Speed | Motive power |
Yearly ridership est. | Trip time | Capital cost (2002 $) | 30-year benefit/cost ratio |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2030 | |||||
| 150+ mph | turbine | 1.4 million | 2.4 million | 45–48 minutes | $697–769 million | 1.35 |
| 180+ mph | electric | 1.6 | 2.8 | 39–43 minutes | $869–933 million | 1.38 |
| 220+ mph | maglev | 2.4 | 4.3 | 31–39 minutes | $5.6– 5.9 billion | 0.56 |
Tri-State III Study
The Tri-State III High-Speed Rail Study of 2009 was commissioned by the Southeastern Minnesota Rail Alliance, a rail advocacy group based in Rochester. This study is partly a rehashing of the Tri-State II study, but with greater detail in examining the speeds possible along the current Amtrak route along the Mississippi River versus what would be possible by going through Rochester. There are many segments along the river that can only support 90 mph top speeds or lower due to relatively sharp turns.The study concluded that 220 mph service via Rochester, which is a higher speed than what has been recommended in other studies for a publicly funded system, would be the best option and would be the most profitable. However, since the study authors consider Minnesota to have constraints on the amount of funding available for the project, they ultimately suggested going with diesel-powered 110 mph service via Rochester, which would be profitable, but making sure it was built with upgradability in mind. As the route generated profits, investments could be made into eliminating grade crossings and making other improvements over time.
| Speed | Route | Motive power |
Yearly ridership est. | Trip time (Express) |
Capital cost ($) | Benefit/cost ratio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | ? | ||||||
| 110 mph | Mississippi River | diesel | 4.3 million | 5h19 | $3.2 billion | 1.60 | |
| 110 mph | Rochester | diesel | 4.7 | 5h26 | $3.3 billion | 1.86 | |
| 220 mph | Rochester | electric | 7.7 | 3h11 | $6.6 billion | 2.25 | |
Past passenger service to Rochester
Rochester previously had passenger service run by the Chicago and North WesternChicago and North Western Railway
The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was a Class I railroad in the Midwest United States. It was also known as the North Western. The railroad operated more than of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s...
and the Chicago Great Western
Chicago Great Western Railway
The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City. It was founded by Alpheus Beede Stickney in 1885 as a regional line between St. Paul and the Iowa state line called the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad...
railways. The east-west C&NW line still exists and is owned by the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad
Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad
The Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad is a Class II railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway operating across South Dakota and southern Minnesota in the northern plains of the United States...
(now a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific).
Rochester was served by many numbered trains. Named trains included the following:
Chicago and North Western:
- Rochester 400Rochester 400The Rochester 400 was the last in a series of streamlined passenger trains operated by the Chicago and North Western Railway along the railroad's southern Minnesota line...
(Mankato–Chicago, previously named the Minnesota 400 and then the Dakota 400) - Rochester Minnesota Special
Chicago Great Western:
- Blue Bird (Twin Cities–Rochester)
- Rochester Special (Twin Cities–Rochester)
- Red Bird (Twin Cities–Rochester)
A likely route for a new Twin Cities to Rochester link would roughly follow the now-abandoned CGW right-of-way used for its Minnesotan train, which crossed the C&NW line in Dodge Center
Dodge Center, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,226 people, 824 households, and 588 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,173.8 people per square mile . There were 859 housing units at an average density of 452.9 per square mile...
. The new line would then turn straight east to reach downtown Rochester.
External links
- Zip Rail – Website for the proposed Zip Rail service between Rochester and the Twin Cities
- Southeast Minnesota Rail Alliance – Advocates of a route through Rochester
- OnBoard Midwest – Advocates of a Mississippi River route
- Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority – Generally aligned with river route advocates