Has citizen opposition to first the Ziprail and now the "Velos" private high speed rail line slowed or sidetracked the drive to spend billions for a bullet train between Rochester and The Cities?
Kenyon Leader Publisher and Editor Gunnar Olson suggests this is so in Friday's article, ZIP Rail talks dominate Kenyon MNDOT meeting:
Citizens Concerned About Rail Line (CCARL) met Thursday night in front of approximately 85 people at Kenyon-Wanamingo High School to hear from MNDOT representatives about the Statewide Multimodal Transportation Plan.
The anti-rail group, CCARL, sandwiched MNDOT’s presentation with an update for their followers to begin the two-hour affair, and a question and answer session with Rep. Tim Kelly from Red Wing and Senator Matt Schmitt.
Many concerned citizens had the opportunity to have their voice heard and numerous CCARL supporters stood up to make their cases as to why high speed rail is not something that Southeastern Minnesota wants. . .
Finally, Schmitt and Kelly had their opportunities to talk and field questions about the issue, and they were prepared to talk specifics. However, neither politician expressed much outrage toward the issue, but rather applauded the citizens on their engagement and pointed to the ways in which said engagement is working.
Schmitt, who noted that the citizens of his district will not be “railroaded” by this process, said that citizen engagement has slowed Olmsted County Regional Rail Authority’s plans. However, he also noted that the ZIP Rail project is not even a priority for MNDOT anymore. He pointed to a train line to Duluth and another to Chicago as higher on MNDOT’s list of concerns.
“Skepticism is this high with the executive branch,” Schmitt said, gesturing with his hand to a spot above his head. “They are not going to make any rash decisions and we will continue to keep an eye on this.”
Representative Kelly had his turn next. He began first and foremost by also applauding the citizen engagement over the issue but also urged everyone to, “take a step back and take a deep breath” concerning, “what we know and what we think we know.”
He noted that the NAHSR has abandoned their request for air rights and the president of the company had resigned. He added that the requested viability permit had not been granted and the department has run out of money for this study.
Finally, a citizen brought up the issue of eminent domain, to which Kelly responded, “many believe that this is a pipe dream and is not going to happen, but if it comes to that, we would tackle that issue.”
So as citizens poured out of KW High School on Thursday night they left with new information from CCARL, a presentation not specific to ZIP Rail from MNDOT and, in the end, their local politicians applauding their engagement while also checking their outrage due to the crippling effects groups like CCARL have had on the proposed rail line.
The Post Bulletin covered the meeting in Group brings anti-zip rail message to MNDOT meeting:
Sen. Matt Schmit, DFL-Red Wing, said he has asked the MnDOT commissioner and engineers to come down to his district and answer more technical details about any passenger rail projects. "We won't get railroaded by any project that is not ready for prime time," he said.
Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Red Wing, chairman of the transportation committee, said right now, everything with the passenger rail project looks to be on hold. A private organization has asked for a permit to do soil borings, but that permit has not been granted.
"When we go into the session this March, we will not hear new bills," he said. "We'll be putting together the transportation package that's a result of last year's bills." . . .
We have no CCARL members will be bird-dogging the state legislature about the bullet train.
Photo: Signage before Thursday's meeting. Photo by Gunnar Olson, Kenyon Leader.
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