Train to nowhere...

"Republicans who are supposed to be watching the pursestrings of state government voted for this loser to become an even bigger loser." 

The little boys and girls who loved their Lionel train sets while growing up are at it again. Trains are the shiny new object, and some cannot get enough of them. The cost? Who gives a rip! Ridership? Who flippin cares! They are cool, they are trendy. And now some of the knuckleheads in St. Paul want to take this loser train, which now runs from Big Lake to Target Field, and make it even longer. Why? Search me.

About a week ago, the plan to extend the Northstar Line up to St. Cloud made it out of committee (and let us not forget about adding the stop in the metropolis of Rice). Not by a little, but by a lot. And guess what? In the 17-3 vote to approve, some of the 17 votes were Republicans! No, this is not a joke. Republicans who are supposed to be watching the pursestrings of state government, voted for this loser to become an even bigger loser. 

Some might be asking, who will ride this thing every day from St. Cloud down to Target Field? I know I am. In fact, here are some questions that begged to be asked of the fine citizens of St. Cloud:

• Do you work in downtown Minneapolis?
• Would you ride the train? If yes, every day?
• Would you ever ride it to Minneapolis other than for work or a ball game?
• How much would you be willing to pay to ride it?

Statistics show that our fairly new train eats money every mile it goes. Sorry - facts don't lie. So far it has been slightly less than 20% self sufficient. The national average for trains similar to Northstar is 30%. But there is even a bigger problem than the cost. And since I have spent most of my adult life close to Highway 10, I know of what I speak. It has done NOTHING to reduce traffic on this horrible road. And the promises made before it was built, were false. This train was supposed to be a panacea to building congestion. It is not. 

All the promises, all the crapola spewed before this thing was built, now ring hollow. Instead of etching this episode in our book of lessons learned, we are going to do just the opposite. We are going to spend good money after bad. Meanwhile NOTHING has been done to stop the theft of money (via the Social Security tax) from our seniors.

My suggestion is this. Find out how your local representative feels about this loser of a train. Find out if he or she voted for it. I have. I know exactly who for voted for and who voted against in the transportation committee.

I would like to remind all the Republicans who chosen to betray the public trust. Republicans who voted for the historically large gas tax a few years ago paid a huge price. To quote a friend of mine, "We deal with traitors more harshly than we treat the opposition." Just saying...