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Light rail debate moves to southwest metro
by Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio
July 8, 2003

Get ready for a light rail rerun. A controversy similar to the one over building the Hiawatha light rail line is brewing in the southwest suburbs. Proponents will likely recommend Wednesday that planning proceed on a light rail line from downtown Minneapolis to Eden Prairie. Opponents say light rail is too expensive compared to the alternatives. Sound familiar?

Minneapolis, Minn. —

The arguments are the same, but the landscape is different. Proponents want a line to run along a vacant rail bed owned by Hennepin County through St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Eden Prairie. Hennepin County Commissioner Gail Dorfman is a member of the committee studying the proposal. She says the southwest suburbs are growing and need to supply transportation options for residents.

"The estimated increase in the southwest metro area over the next 10 years is about 60,000 more people, 80,000 more jobs," says Dorfman. "One of the things we're looking at is, by providing more transit are we easing congestion?"

The answer, Gary Diamond says, is no. Diamond is an independent insurance agent, an Eden Prairie resident and founder of the opposition group, Trails Without Rails. His backyard borders on the likely route for a future light rail line. Marshalling now familiar arguments, Diamond says the area's population density is too light for a transit option as expensive as light rail. Diamond says buses are a better option. He says the area's underutilized bus system is cheaper and makes more sense for moving the area's residents.

"They don't all go into downtown Minneapolis. We are all spread out. Everybody goes in kind of a shotgun approach to their jobs, and it's not in one direction," says Diamond.

Another opponent, Eden Prairie resident Lynne Hempe, says other transportation modes should be tried before sinking money into rail. She's watched the southwest corridor planning process for the past year as an alternate on the planning group. Hempe says her car pooling experience shows rail should be way down on a priority list of transportation options.

"Roads and sane lanes, followed by buses, and last -- trains. And I'll tell you why. Until February, for the last 20 years I worked downtown. I did car pool. I used the sane lane. I live in Eden Prairie. The longest it would take me is 27 minutes. On average it took 18," Hempe says.

However, as we've learned -- even before the first surge of electricity powers the Hiawatha line from downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of America -- proponents also see light rail as a development tool.

The rail boosters conjure visions of rejuvenated neighborhoods around light rail stations. They argue the more or less permanent steel rails convince home builders and buyers there's a guarantee of transit permanence, compared to wandering bus routes. Minnetonka city council member Jan Callison, a member of the southwest advisory committee, says the debate reminds her of the historic consequences of communities who didn't have railroad service.

"The cities that didn't have railroads died, to a large extent," says Callison. "Light rail can be an economic tool, and that's a reality a lot of our communities face."

Callison adds, however, she's sympathetic to Eden Prairie residents who don't want a light rail line in their back yard. She's open to building a southwest light rail service that goes only to Hopkins.

The southwest corridor advisory committee, made up of elected officials, residents and business people, meets Wednesday morning in the Hopkins City Council chambers to recommend a course of action.

The southwest corridor proposal is in line behind several other transit ideas. They include the Northstar commuter rail line, the northwest suburbs express bus service and the Central Corridor project. Central Corridor is a proposed light rail or express bus line from downtown Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul along University Ave.

In fact, the southwest and central corridors are in something a competition. The one that marshals the most support, or the least objection, is in a better position to apply for federal funds. Both are expensive. Light rail along University Ave. could easily cost more than $800 million. A southwest light rail could cost $600 million.

However, all the projects are years away from construction. In fact, a state law passed this session prohibits any design or construction on the southwest corridor project before 2005.

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