While Bluestem was off feeding the chickens and looking into Trump's agricultural advisory committee declaration of war against those Americans who've never grown anything more than a backyard tomato, a couple of items about what's known in some parts as "Zombie Ziprail" surfaced in the media.
At the Star Tribune's "Who Knew?" division, Janet Moore reported in Private plan for Twin Cities-Rochester high-speed rail draws pushback:
The prospect of a high-speed rail line slicing through the rural stretch of land between the Twin Cities and Rochester, and financed by Chinese and other private investors, is to some an exquisite dream.
To others, it’s folly.
. . .[A] privately held Bloomington firm called the North American High Speed Rail Group (NAHSR) is keeping the idea of a high-speed rail line alive. Recently the group said that it was reorganizing and is now known as the Minnesota Corridor Project. None of NAHSR’s officers has experience developing such a project.
The group’s reorganization will continue to meet opposition from a determined grass-roots group called Citizens Concerned About Rail Line (CCARL) and several southern Minnesota lawmakers.
“Do we want Chinese foreign nationals owning the major transportation corridor cutting through the southern portion of Minnesota?” said Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa. “I don’t think so.” He plans on reintroducing legislation next year that would cripple efforts to build high-speed rail.
Some residents along the route fear that their farms and homes could be taken for public use through eminent domain, a prospect they find even more distasteful because it would be a private company engaged in the taking. They also worry about the project’s impact on the area’s environment, safety and quality of life. And they question whether there’s sufficient ridership to sustain the service.
“There’s nowhere near the capacity to support this,” said CCARL co-founder Heather Arndt, whose farm in Hader is a few miles away from the proposed rail corridor. “There’s no economic benefit for us or local businesses. By taking our farmland, they’re decreasing our income and devaluing our land. . . .
While none of this is a news flash for Bluestem readers, we're happy the Strib is looking beyond the rail group's press releases. Good work.
Closer to the path of the rolling dead, Doug Jones writes the Kenyon Leader in Stay dead Zombie Zip Rail:
A year ago Olmsted County took a $2 million loss when MnDOT officially killed zip rail, so why won't it stay dead? . . .
Among the many funny elements of this pipe dream are that it would run entirely down the median of Highway 52, elevated to fly over all crossroads. And the biggest laffer is that the investment would be covered by passenger fares and "high valued" freight like "medical samples."
As Chairman Steve Drazkowski has said, legislation will be presented to the next session of the Legislature to close the door on any MnDOT participation in this scheme.
So signs saying "NO ZOMBIE ZIP RAIL" keep springing up because no one in Goodhue County supports it, and even letter-to-the-editor writers in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune sound dubious.
There's that.
Photo: These yard signs sprang up in warmer weather. Maybe they'll hepl folks understand that common people don't much like the idea that a private firm can use eminent domain to take property for private gain, and such concepts make the peasants resentful. It's not rocket science.
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