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.
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.
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.
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It's Your Turn
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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.
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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.