If it seems like a transit boondoggle gets nominated for the Golden Turkey Award every year, that’s because it’s true, and 2025 is no exception. This year, the Gold Line…
Derailed The fever for spending vast sums of taxpayer’s money on rail projects of dubious value which has afflicted policy makers in Minnesota in recent years seems to be breaking.…
Back in 2023, that “historic” “trifecta” voted to spend $200 million on the Northern Lights Express (NLX), a passenger train service running between Minneapolis and Duluth. I doubted that this…
As you know by now, Gov. Tim Walz and three of the four legislative leaders announced at a press conference Thursday morning that an agreement was reached on the overall…
Back in 2018, I asked, “Why is the Ramsey County board going to waste up to $2 billion on a pointless streetcar?” This was in reference to the proposal “to…
On May 21, Amtrak launched its new Borealis service, a second daily train running between St. Paul and Chicago. Amtrak has released its monthly performance report for May, so it only…
DFL vs Ridesharing On Monday, I — along with thousands of others, I imagine — received an email from Lyft reading: John, the Minneapolis City Council is considering an ordinance…
Back in 2018, I asked “Why is the Ramsey County board going to waste up to $2 billion on a pointless streetcar?” This was in reference to the proposal “to…
The Minnesota Legislature is about to build another new office building for themselves, and the Golden Turkey committee is here for it. Without a single vote on the floor of…
Plans to revive a failed Twin Cities-to-Duluth train service ignore history.
“Progressives” often allege that conservatives want to take the United States back to the 1950s. In fact, with their obsession with getting Americans back onto trains, it is America’s “progressives”…
When the state legislature set aside $200 million in support of a passenger rail service between Duluth and Minneapolis earlier this year, a project known as the Northern Lights Express…
The Minnesota Legislature is about to build another new office building for themselves and once again, they’re doing it without ever taking a vote on the floor of the House…
When state and local governments propose transit projects they have to generate estimates of ridership. In 2017, Metro Transit used a “Regional Travel Demand Model” to generate an estimate of…
The cost of the new State Office Building, already nominated for a Golden Turkey award, just ballooned from $454 million to $729 million due to huge interest costs. Never in…
The Golden Turkey committee tried to get through the nomination process this year without choosing a rail or bus project, but those plans were derailed (get it?) when the legislature…
In “Get on board with the train to Duluth” (June 11) the Star Tribune’s Editorial Board announced its support for the Northern Lights Express (NLX), the proposed passenger train service…
Last week, the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) released its fourth report on the $2.7 billion Southwest Light Rail Line (SWLRT). It found, according to the Star Tribune, that; The Metropolitan Council…
Last week, the Star Tribune reported: In seven years, Minneapolis transportation planners want 60% of trips in the city taken on public transit, or made by biking, walking or rolling.…
As I noted last month, the state government voted to waste $200 million on a train running between Minneapolis and Duluth. The media is now — belatedly — asking “How…
I’ve explained before just what a total waste of money the proposed Northern Lights Express will be. It will be a slower, more expensive, and less convenient way of moving…
There isn’t space in the newsletter to write about all the bad things that passed this week, so here are just ten things that happened this week in St. Paul…
One of my favorite replies to my last article about the Northern Lights Express was “Have you ever been to Europe?” Well, yes, actually, I lived there for the first…
I’m always surprised at the amount of pushback that criticisms of the Northern Lights Express draw. I write about a number of contentious topics here — taxes, spending, regulations, for…