Shut it down!!

"The Northstar has done NOTHING to solve the congestion on Highway 10. Plus, it is always going to be money pit."

Most investment experts will tell you when you have an investment (which has promise) and is going through a rough patch, just stay calm and be patient. By the same token, most experts will tell you if you have an investment which will NEVER pay off, get out as soon as you can. Lick your wounds, and learn from your mistake. The Northstar Commuter Train is one of those investments which has been a lemon from the start.

The train lovers talked us into a real doozie with this one. Oh yes, it was going to be great. The bee's knees of transportation. It was going to be the panacea to save Highway 10 from traffic implosion. In fact, because the route up to St. Cloud was truncated, that move was looked at as a crime against humanity. Sure, the Northstar was going to be a bit expensive, but worth every red cent.

Now we are years into this project, have numerous exquisite train stations, a shortened route, and it is hemorrhaging dollars like nobody could imagine. How bad?  Like each round trip ride from (let us just say the new Ramsey Station) to Target Field costs the taxpayers over $40 round trip. And if the rail authority decided to increase the fare cost to help offset that subsidy, people would just stop riding the train and go back into their cars. Bottom line? We are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

But are we? No, we could always shut it down. The Northstar has done NOTHING to solve the congestion on Highway 10. Plus, it is always going to be money pit. It will never get better. Think of the money we could save each ride just by shutting it down. 

Interesting article this morning in the op/ed section of the paper. Another "factual" rah-rah piece for the SW LRT. I almost had a LOL moment on this still, quiet Sunday morning. Towards the end of the article, it said the subsidy cost was estimated to be only $1.75 a ride.
I would love to find the estimates for what the Northstar was prior to building it. I would guess it was about the same rather than $40 per round trip.

My solution for the state to save money is twofold. For the SW LRT, do not build it. For the Northstar rail, shut it down. It is as simple as that.