I wish NLX nothing but success. But I have to question what will be gained by Mr. Buehler throwing commuter rail under the bus. He speaks about how rail travel works everywhere else in the world. The reason it works so well is because the various modes of transport are coordinated with each other, to produce a near-seamless experience. And, whether Mr. Buehler wishes to admit it or not, that includes commuter rail. Wouldn't it be far more beneficial to explain to lawmakers that by coordinating with commuter rail, NLX will serve more than the towns along that route, but also the towns along the Green and Blue Lines, Northstar, and eventually the Southwest? COVID has meant a hit to commuter rail, but we don't yet know the long-term effects. In some cities, we are seeing public transport begin to recover from COVID-related losses, and the ever-increasing cost of gasoline may push the recovery even further and faster. Attempting to push away from commuter rail to score some short-term gain does nothing but jeopardize commuter rail AND NLX down the road. Metro should be standing firmly behind NLX. NLX needs to do the same for Metro. You will sink or swim together.
@@captainkrajick Very glad it's received financial support from the state. Let's hope that the feds throw in sooner rather than later, as support can shift with the political tides. If the route does get built, let's hope transit planners and NLX get together to coordinate timetables. MnDOT has other regional rail aspirations, and if they can get Metro and NLX into synch, it should translate into better ridership numbers, which can help justify further rail expansion.
The whole discussion about NorthStar is ridiculous. The reason nobody rides northstar is because it doesn't run frequently enough to be useful, not because nobody wants a local regional rail style train. It only has two round trips, with 2 inbound in the morning and 2 outbound in the evening, and doesn't extend to the large population center at St Cloud. The speaker is correct that the Northstar model doesn't work well post-pandemic, as travel patterns are no longer hyperfocused on the idea of 'into the city in the morning rush and out in the evening rush,' but the solution isn't to abandon the idea of NorthStar-type system all together, but rather do what systems like Boston are doing, and run service in both directions at consistent headways at all times of the day including weekends. Travel demands aren't concentrated in rush hour anymore but rather at all hours in all directions, so that's the service we should be aiming to do. The 4 daily round trips for the NLX is a reasonable start, but as the service hopefully improves in popularity, more and more trips should be added with a long term goal of hourly or at least bi-hourly service.
It used to have 4 times that many trips before the pandemic, as well as special trips for most sport events downtown. I do believe extending it to St Cloud would increase ridership drastically.
Once you get the stations and ROW and trackage established, adding to that later becomes easier. Linking this into other services is a reasonable later development.
I wish NLX nothing but success. But I have to question what will be gained by Mr. Buehler throwing commuter rail under the bus.
He speaks about how rail travel works everywhere else in the world. The reason it works so well is because the various modes of transport are coordinated with each other, to produce a near-seamless experience. And, whether Mr. Buehler wishes to admit it or not, that includes commuter rail.
Wouldn't it be far more beneficial to explain to lawmakers that by coordinating with commuter rail, NLX will serve more than the towns along that route, but also the towns along the Green and Blue Lines, Northstar, and eventually the Southwest?
COVID has meant a hit to commuter rail, but we don't yet know the long-term effects. In some cities, we are seeing public transport begin to recover from COVID-related losses, and the ever-increasing cost of gasoline may push the recovery even further and faster. Attempting to push away from commuter rail to score some short-term gain does nothing but jeopardize commuter rail AND NLX down the road.
Metro should be standing firmly behind NLX. NLX needs to do the same for Metro. You will sink or swim together.
How did you react to the recent news?
@@captainkrajick Very glad it's received financial support from the state. Let's hope that the feds throw in sooner rather than later, as support can shift with the political tides.
If the route does get built, let's hope transit planners and NLX get together to coordinate timetables. MnDOT has other regional rail aspirations, and if they can get Metro and NLX into synch, it should translate into better ridership numbers, which can help justify further rail expansion.
The whole discussion about NorthStar is ridiculous. The reason nobody rides northstar is because it doesn't run frequently enough to be useful, not because nobody wants a local regional rail style train. It only has two round trips, with 2 inbound in the morning and 2 outbound in the evening, and doesn't extend to the large population center at St Cloud.
The speaker is correct that the Northstar model doesn't work well post-pandemic, as travel patterns are no longer hyperfocused on the idea of 'into the city in the morning rush and out in the evening rush,' but the solution isn't to abandon the idea of NorthStar-type system all together, but rather do what systems like Boston are doing, and run service in both directions at consistent headways at all times of the day including weekends. Travel demands aren't concentrated in rush hour anymore but rather at all hours in all directions, so that's the service we should be aiming to do.
The 4 daily round trips for the NLX is a reasonable start, but as the service hopefully improves in popularity, more and more trips should be added with a long term goal of hourly or at least bi-hourly service.
It used to have 4 times that many trips before the pandemic, as well as special trips for most sport events downtown. I do believe extending it to St Cloud would increase ridership drastically.
Establishing passenger service at all allows potentially part of that line to also support a future commuter service - hopefully.
it's a shame it can't continue to st. paul & connect with the train to chicago. or better yet, just run the chicago train all the way to duluth.
Once you get the stations and ROW and trackage established, adding to that later becomes easier. Linking this into other services is a reasonable later development.
90mph? Why not 110? I-ETMS will be good for 110 by the time construction begins.
Probably because it's Class 5 track and not Class 6 track.
@@daniellewis1789 You don’t need a separated ROW for 110mph.
@@packr72 You need Class 6 track.
Way to go Ken.
PЯӨMӨƧM 😻