A lemon running on lemonaid

"In the middle of recognizing this wasteful project, the Met Council is still trying to figure out how to also resurrect the Blue Line Extension."

All aboard! The Southwest Light Rail will soon be leaving for the once bustling city of Minneapolis. Work is going on a fevered pitch, with weekend shutdowns of major highways, so SWLRT construction can continue unimpeded. Currently, this very expensive piece of "make-work", is scheduled to be up and running some time in 2023. The price tag is $2.03B, with more change orders possible. Is there irony in this social engineering project? Oh, yes. This might end up being one of the most expensive trains to nowhere, ever built.

Why do I say that?

Fact One: Between the fares charged as well as the number of "free riders" on existing LRT routes, every one of them is a cash drain for the taxpayers. Not one of them has ever been sustainable. Nor will they be.

Fact Two: Many LRT stations in the city have become hubs for the bad guys, especially after dark. An LRT station is an excellent place to get mugged or beat up by gangs of feral youths.

Fact Three: Even before the pandemic and the social unrest resulting from the Floyd issue, many companies based downtown were looking to "reduce their employee footprint allocation". In other words, it costs so much per square foot to house an employee in the workplace. By offering more opportunities to work remotely, has been good for both the employee, and the employer. However, with the pandemic and social unrest of 2020, most downtown companies have over half of their staff working from home. Can we all spell ZOOM? Labor experts say many might never return to working in an office. 

Fact Four: As soon as the SWLRT becomes operational, it will be a relic. Towards the end of this decade, we will be seeing the first electric autonomous vehicles on the road. They will be the shiny new penny. Uber wants to start using flying taxies by 2023 (same year as the SWLRT will start up). Another shiny new penny. By 2030, the SWLRT might end up looking like the Northstar does today - a museum piece. A tribute to decades gone by. 

In the middle of recognizing this wasteful project, the Met Council is still trying to figure out how to resurrect the Blue Line Extension. Never mind the fact, the Met Council has already spent $130M of taxpayer money on this dog. But - since we elected No Balz Walz instead of Jeff Johnson, we are STUCK with the worthless, unelected, Met Council. So the beat goes on.

Dig a hole, fill a hole. That old service saying stands true today for our LRT projects. A whale of a lot of money, a lot of effort, very little results. But as long as this makes the "greenies" feel better, then I guess it is worth it - NOT!