Back in January 2013, Bluestem posted Deform agenda: Senator Torrey Westrom touts ridiculous personal rapid transit boondoogle, after Westrom asked Minnesota Transportation Commissioner Charlie Zelle about transit "reforms," citing the specific example of Taxi 2000.
The question begins at the 1:00:33 mark at the January 28, 2013 Transportation and Public Safety Committee confirmation hearing for Charles A. Zelle, MnDOT Commissioner.
In the light of new information a transit activist sent Bluestem Prairie--and Westrom's endorsement as the Republican candidate to challenge veteran incumbent CD7 representative Collin Peterson in 2014--the incident is worth revisiting.
While serving in the Minnesota House in 2003, Westrom signed on to HF1650, legislation that would have authorized local bonding for personal rapid transit. The bill, for which former state representative and senator Mark Olson was chief sponsor, was introduced on the last day of the 2003 session, May 19, 2003, but remained active in 2004. Michelle Bachmann, then serving in the Minnesota Senate, was the chief author of the senate companion bill, while Yvonne Prettner Solon was a co-author.
The bill was amended and recommended by the Local Government and Metropolitan Affairs Committee, and sent to the Taxes Committee on March 8, 2004.
By that date, state senator Westrom's brother, Trevor Westrom, had begun serving on the board of Taxi 2000/Skyweb Express, one of the few companies promoting personal rapid transit. According to managment information for Taxi 2000 that was preserved by the Internet Way Back Machine on February 19, 2004, Trevor Westrom was on the board. Bluestem Prairie finds no snapshots for the website past May 6, 2006.
By March 10, 2005, Trevor Westrom was chairman of the board, but then-representative Torrey Westrom did not sign on to any of the seven House bills related to personal rapid transit that were introduced in the 2005-2006 session. After 2006, no PRT bills were introduced in either chamber until March 2013, when Senator Westrom introduced a bill where he was the only sponsor; there was no House companion.
It appears that Torrey Westrom ceased sponsoring PRT-related bills after his brother joined the board of Taxi 2000 in 2004, although he didn't remove himself from the active bill that session, until the March 2013 bill.
Trevor Westrom and PRT
On October 23, 2004, the Rochester Post Bulletin reported in Minnesota Transit Firm Develops Technology to Make Sci-Fi Transport a Reality:
But the technology exists. In fact, visitors can climb into a demonstration cab on a 60-foot track at the offices of Taxi 2000 Corp. The Fridley, Minn.-based company invented it and now is trying to build a full-scale prototype of its SkyWeb Express system.
"We're working on getting a test facility funded and put together now," said Trevor Westrom of Knutson Construction Services in Rochester, a Taxi 2000 board member.
He is director of business development for Knutson, which is among a group of companies that are supporters of SkyWeb Express. "We've committed to the project," Westrom said.
"From a selfish standpoint, I'd like to see it in Rochester," he said. But Rochester is not seeking the system.
"From a business standpoint, it could go in a lot of different places," Westrom said. Such as Duluth.
A joint Duluth-Superior, Wis., metropolitan commission supported a local SkyWeb prototype in January. . . .
The Duluth system never got off the ground; a proposed system for Winona in 2010 didn't pass Congressman Walz's public vetting of earmarks. The Winona Daily News reported on March 24, 2010:
City officials, while acknowledging the congressman has the right to support any projects he chooses, disagreed with his assessment of PRT, which uses small, pod-like vehicles on guideways to shuttle passengers to their destinations.
"I respect his opinion, and I have my opinion," Mayor Jerry Miller said. "I think it would be a good project. Somebody's going to do it somewhere."
Walz cited the technology's unproven track record and the size of the earmark as rationale for not requesting federal funding. The only other funding request he submitted in the same price range was $35 million for the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System, a project that will provide treated water to 300,000 people.
(Readers may recognize the Southwestern Minnesota drinking water project as one of this year's state bonding bill political footballs; with the federal earmark ban, Minnesota's congressional delegation can't request help for the project in congressional budgeting).
Earlier Torrey Westrom PRT bills
Before the 2003-2004 session, Torrey Westrom signed on to several PRT-related bills. In 1999-2000, he was a co-author of HF3887 and HF2041; neither passed. In 2001-2002, he coauthored HF3320 and HF3318, although he was not a co-author of HF1592, Rep. Kuslie's bill to fund a grant for PRT in Rochester.
In the end, Bluestem thinks that the overlap in Representative Westrom's co-authoring of a bill that would have hepled a company (by the end of the biennium) where his brother joined the board of directors may seem awkward but isn't damaging.
What may be difficult to explain to Seventh District voters is the fascination with untested urban transit to begin with. Use Transit Dollars Wisely, a March 20, 2000 column by Senator John Marty, may help explain the early interest--though not the most recent bill in 2013, for which Senator Westrom was the sole author--and there was no House companion.
Photos: Torrey Westrom in 2013 (above); a screenshot of Trevor Westrom's involvement with Taxi 2000.
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