| Articles Home |
Sometimes I wonder how a region's transit is laid out, how is an overall plan designed to co-ordinate intermodal transfers between bus, train, airports, pedestrians, bicycles, highways, etc. I think most of the time it just is not coordinated, though I wonder what the hell they were thinking when they removed intercity train service from downtown Minneapolis and downtown St Paul and put it in an industrial wasteland away from any connections. Was this done to improve the usability of the service? Haw haw haw.
In 1971 they removed Amtrak from the downtown St Paul Union Depot to a location that is a couple blocks walk from the nearest bus line. No other rail or light rail connects to it and it is in a deserted seeming industrial area and not even a pedestrian walkway is evident. You can drive to it though it is not directly connected to the freeway exit which is about a mile away. It is not near any trunk highway or freeway. It is not near intercity bus service, any large intercity airport or small local airport. It is not near anything and is hard to find and has been that way for almost 40 years and it looks like the powers that be wanted to kill it off, successfully too.
Commuter rail lines (Northstar, Redrock) are supposed to be implemented but there seems to be no plan to actually coordinate rail or intercity services. Ramsey County has an unfunded wish to connect the Amtrak to the commuter rail routes and buses back at Union Depot but where is the money, in fact there is no money for commuter rail either. Meanwhile as 40 years of inertia hurtle along there is a light rail line, (LRT Central Corridor on University Avenue,) scheduled to be built several blocks away but no connection or stop. And that too is a "wish" that has no money at this time. Amtrak may as well be located in Chicago as far as any coordination with local transportation. No bus service or bicycle-pedestrian pathways are anticipated to be implemented. Why improve something that exists when there are unfunded wishes by local romantics to change it, right? I wish I had some cheap and fast jetpacks to swoosh me to work but that does not seem to work very well either, I still take the bus.
I saw the Amtrak station up close once when there was a demonstration of commuter rail cars rolling through a decade or so ago. I just remember a lonely little rail platform and a couple of tumbleweeds rolling by, I saw more comings and goings in a hobo jungle in North Dakota...