At first, few saw promise in Dan Patch, although the colt grew up to become Minnesota's best known racehorse. The legendary pacer's chances odds were nonetheless better that than of the chances of creating commuter rail to Northfield on the Dan Patch line, now used for freight.
Senator Kevin Dahle (DFL-Northfield) hopes to change that luck.
Minnesota Public Radio reports via the Northfield News in Ban on discussing Dan Patch passenger service to Northfield could fall:
Buried deep in the Senate transportation bill at the Minnesota Legislature is a dead horse.
The Dan Patch rail line, named for the famous early 20th Century harness racer, carries freight between the Twin Cities and Northfield. Until 1942, it also carried passengers.
Some commuters would like to see service restored. But the idea of running a passenger rail line through the several Minnesota suburbs proved so controversial that more than a decade ago lawmakers passed a special law to bar state and regional transportation officials from discussing it.
This year, lawmakers are considering whether to lift the Dan Patch moratorium. . . .
Ron Ehrhardt (DFL-Edina) opposes the line, since he believes it will disturb the peace of suburban back yards near the line, the paper reports.
Dahle and other supporters are not discouraged:
"We shouldn't settle policy by gags," said Nakasian, who helped found the Northfield Grass Roots Transit Initiative. "We should look at all options and see where taxpayers' money is best spent....I just don't think putting a prohibition that holds the rest of us hostage is quite fair, or the way to do it."
Northfield's representatives in the legislature also want their city back on the transit map.
State Sen. Kevin Dahle, DFL-Northfield has been working to undo the Dan Patch moratorium since he first won election in 2008.
"It was one of the first things I had taken up," Dahle said. "We did get it out of the House and Senate once, but it was vetoed by Governor Pawlenty."
This year, Dahle managed to push a "watered down" version through the Senate that would allow the Met Council to study the corridor again. But the bill didn't receive a hearing in the House, where Erhardt chairs the Transportation Policy Committee. A conference committee will decide whether the Dan Patch moratorium stays or goes.
As for the Met Council, it supports the effort to allow open discussion of the project.
"The Council supports lifting the prohibition because it is an impediment to regional planning," spokeswoman Bonnie Kollodge wrote in an email. "That's not a statement about the corridor itself, but rather a statement in support of being able to plan transit for the region without restrictions on specific corridors. The Council will obviously act according to the law."
Given the two colleges in Northfield who might well hop the train--and number of metro commuters in the area--Bluestem thinks that Dahle is right. The discussion should begin again.
Photo: Postcard photo of a car on the Dan Patch Electric Line, which was an electric commuter rail line in the Savage, Minnesota area. via Wikipedia.
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The people opposed to it should check out the latest statistics on how Millennials are forsaking cars. The Dan Patch Line would allow St. Olaf and Carleton college kids not just a greater freedom in where to live and work while enrolled in school, but also potentially an extra hour or two every day to study while commuting instead of having to keep their attention on the road.
Republican legislators like ALEC's Minnesota queenpin Mary Kiffmeyer are busy trying to demonize bike lanes as a Minneapolis thing when lots of people in Greater Minnesota use bicycles as healthy and inexpensive everyday transportation. Similarly, many of these same legislators try to put a city/rural oppositional framing on mass transit issues, and they hate the Dan Patch proposal because it shows that Minnesotans outside of the Twin Cities would really like mass transit too.
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Apr 29, 2013 at 09:56 AM