MPR: MPR Poll on Light-Rail Transit

Light Rail Transit Poll
By Dan Olson
July 2, 1999

Even as cost estimates for a proposed light-rail transit system rise, Minneapolis and St. Paul residents continue to show strong support for the idea. A new poll commissioned by Minnesota Public Radio, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and KARE-TV shows well over two-thirds of those responding to the survey support light rail.

Click here to see poll results on this question.

THE $446 MILLION cost of building the Hiawatha Avenue light-rail transit line from downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America is now pushing $500 million. Any complication, like a higher-than-expected cost of digging the tunnel for the line at the airport, could push estimates higher. But for the moment, St. Paul residents responding to the poll like light rail - 69 percent saying they consider it somewhat or very important.

Across the river, in Minneapolis, support is even stronger. A whopping 83 percent of survey respondents there support light rail. Minneapolis resident Melissa Lawrence, one of the respondents, is not, at the moment, worried at the prospect of rising costs. "I just think we need to take a larger view than those bottom line numbers," she says.

Minnesota statistics show 97 percent of Twin Cities rush-hour commuters travel in their own vehicle. In 20 years, planners predict, there'll be 600,000 more Twin Cities residents vying for road space. Light rail is being sold by some as a way of helping relieve the congestion.

White Bear Lake attorney Fritz Knaack, a former state senator who opposes spending money on light-rail transit says the 12-mile-long line along Hiawatha Avenue through Minneapolis will not relieve congestion. "It's the justification that is being used for taking transit dollars and putting them into a light rail line instead of putting them into freeway lanes where they would probably do some good," he says.

Click here to see poll results on this question.

But light rail isn't taking money from road building. Money for roads and bridges comes from the state's gas tax. None of it goes to transit. Money for transit - right now that means buses - comes from taxes and the fare box.

Knaack says people in other cities where light rail has been built also showed strong support for the idea. In Portland, Oregon, he says, support eroded after the rails were laid and the bills started mounting.

Light rail's record is patchy. A few systems have fallen short of ridership projections. Construction and operating costs are often higher than predicted. And promised housing and business development along transit lines has been slow. But in other cities, residents are clamoring for more light rail.

John Dewitt, co-chair of the Twin Cities advocacy group, Transit for Livable Communities points to Dallas as an example. "By the time we open our first light-rail line, if it is on schedule at all,[Dallas] will have built a billion-dollar extension to their light- rail system in response to public demand," he says. "They just can't build the lines fast enough down there, and the same is happening in St. Louis."

Public support for light rail in the Twin Cities may be fickle - supporters may drift away as costs rise and the realization sets in that one, 12-mile long line carrying 22,000 riders a day is not going to solve Twin Cities' roadway congestion. But if survey respondent Melissa Lawrence's attitude is an indication, light rail supporters are more than fair weather friends. "I think we need to put a stake in the ground and get started on it," she says.

It's Your Turn

Put your opinion on the record in the MPR Forum.

Dan Olson covers transportation issues for Minnesota Public Radio. To provide feedback on this story, please email dolson@mpr.org.

It's not clear where all the money to build the line will come from. Minnesota taxpayers have supplied $100 million so far. Planners are counting on up to $250 million from Congress. The House approved a transportation bill last month with money for the Hiawatha line, and the Senate may act on it's version this month. If the proposal survives House-Senate negotiations it still needs final approval from the Federal Transit Administration which is sorting through light-rail funding requests from dozens of other cities.

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