Secrets of the City

They have a commuter rail run like this in Toronto called the Go Train. Runs from Mississauga to downtown. It breaks down occasionally.

1) how many cars do those 3400 riders represent?
2) how effective are current bus routes?
3) this is truly a rush-hour-only business commuter train. AM starts at 5:45am and ends at 8:15am. PM starts @ 3:45pm and ends @ 6:15pm.

You may wonder, as I did, what Rep. Bachmann thinks of this project, as it largely serves her district. This Q & A from June suggests she had a less than enthusiastic embrace of the project then. 

 A month later, she listened to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce support the project, but was still not ready to give the thumbs up. “I’m not against light rail and never have been,” she told them.

It’s certainly different from her position last August, when she said:

“This is their agenda,” Bachmann states bluntly. “I know it is hard to believe, it’s hard to fathom — but this is ‘mission accomplished’ for them,” she asserts. “They want Americans to take transit and move to the inner cities. They want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, [and] take light rail to their government jobs. That’s their vision for America.”

1) Take a look around you during a morning commute, g rote. Just a guess, but I would suggest it represents nearly 3,000 cars.

2) Taken an express bus to Big Lake, MN recently?

3) Yeah, hence the name COMMUTER. Your point?

This is what Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, had to say about Northstar back in 2004:

“We’re choking to death in the northwest quadrant. We cannot get anywhere. Try to drive through our area, we are choking. Please get us some way to get around. This is the best thing we got going,” Abeler said.

The train has left the station…

“They want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements…

Like in Nordeast:

You bother me about a steak!?

… They want Americans to take transit and move to the inner cities. They want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements … blah blah blah blah

Wait, wait! How does a commuter line originating from Big Lake, where people live, force people to move to the “inner cities” (code words for “where white people shouldn’t live if they fear for their lives”)? These are people who already have a home, in exurbia, who are being given another option to get them to their jobs downtown.

Michele, what color is the sky on your planet?

Actually, that quote was cherry picked from her comments about gasoline prices.

So, it’s basically taken out of context.

Thanks, Bob.

I took “commuter rail” from Grand Central to Stamford, CT on a Sunday morning, just two weekends ago. The line runs every 30 minutes to New Haven, with an express at the top of the hour.

I think 9.25 was a little pricy, but you didn’t see how much I paid to take the Acela from Stamford to Boston.

so was her point that the folks who “control” gas pricing want consumers to move closer to work? and thereby consume less gas in their commutes? because that’s air-tight logic.

I think her point was that the Democrats have a social engineering agenda that is anti-suburb McMansions and pro-Tenement apartments.

I think it’s more Mind Control not gas price control.

I took the commuter rail from Penn Station to Stamford to Hartford and back in late June. It died in Queens on the return trip, 4 minutes from Penn Station, and I got held hostage without water or AC for more than 3 hours. They gave me my $25 back. Never again.

I think 9.25 was a little pricy, but you didn’t see how much I paid to take the Acela from Stamford to Boston.

Plus, $9.25 buys you about 1/2-hour of parking in Manhattan.

I don’t think Fraulein Bachmann has visited downtown lately. Those certainly aren’t “tenements” that have been built — in either Minneapolis or St. Paul. Some are going for a fraction of their original price, too.

When it costs upwards of $15 now to park all day in a prime downtown parking ramp, and when you also factor in the other commuting costs, moving back into the “inner city” might make some economic sense for people. I really don’t think of that as a Democratic conspiracy or even a plot by social engineers.

Train engineers, yes!

She’s just talking like politicians talk. Doesn’t have to be true, just convincing to the folks who elect her.

@Rat: And people wonder why the Founding Fathers were reluctant to allow for the direct election of the President.

Reminds me of the Harvard, IL train from close to the WI border to Chicago. That’s the best way to dodge that horrific traffic in the Windy City. Plus you can drink your own beers during non-holidays. Can’t beat it.

3000~ means nothing — its a number used to compare this project to other FTA projects. The number that matters is the next six to twelve months of ridership. Look at Hiawatha, way above any predictions — why? the models are all flawed, but they don’t use them to figure ridership anymore, more to just rate projects against eachother.

@Scott: Sadly, there will be opponents who’ll call the Northstar a failure if it doesn’t repeat the Hiawatha’s level of success.

Despite living near this line (and please don’t call it light rail, ever.) and loving rail, I’m not completely exicited about this train. It is a step in the right direction for sure and has lots of potential for greatness, but the timetable is lousy. You’d think downtown restaurants/shopping/entertainment would be lobbying for some later trips in the evening. Even if later trips cost a little more or something. As is? It doesn’t make sense.

I thought I heard them say they’d reevaluate the timetables/schedules depending on what the ridership looks like.

Also, if I understand correctly, this rail line will be used for freight during the evening hours. The fact that it uses non-dedicated rails is why they could create the service so quickly –and by quickly, I mean within a decade or two.

I was not aware of the full context of Bachmann’s comments, Rat. Thanks for link. It provided this little gem at the end:

Bachmann predicts gasoline will rise above $5 a gallon if Barack Obama is elected president.

Really? Well, the Obama Administration is just getting started. Anyone want to speculate on the cost of a gallon of gas had the McCain/Palin ticket won?

@justpbob: IIRC, the Northstar is to run on what was an already-available freight line. It just needed upgrading to accomodate passenger travel. That is why the cost of the project was a fraction of that required to build the Hiawatha or Central Corridor LRTs … and a fraction of what it would’ve cost to add lanes to 35W and Highway 10.

Not to (ahem) derail the thread, but the MN State Fair seed art featuring Rep. Bachmann and the President’s birth certificate got a shoutout on last night’s Rachel Maddow show,

@beddubbau

Yes, the Northstar Line totally could be the midwestern LIRR. Including the alcohol and bridge and tunnel types.

@Rat

I was in Mississauga on business and two things I learned. It’s, like, $60+ US to Toronto in a taxi. There’s a restaurant called Butt Rhettlers. That said, it’s massive (like a big, boring-ass Bloomington (exactly)), so it’s good to hear that have that train. That and the 401 and QEW = hot messes (but apparently 401 is the busiest highway in the world). Also, I lost a mitten in Mississauga.

There’s a little section of Mississauga called Streetsville that is more of a small town.