The Feds released a rail plan this week that creates 4 “pillar” routes out of Chicago, with the Twin Cities being the largest — 24 trips per day! The pillars connect to regional transit routes across the country… Thoughts?: hsrail.salsalabs.org/blog-fra-midwe…

Here’s the plan in full — just a couple hundred pages: railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.dot.… Enjoy!

Were you ever young, engaged but broke/underfunded/not financially committed? So is Minnesota on this rail plan, according to the feds… #YoungLove Still, there’s lots of local planning around added rail connection to Chicago…

For my money, these are the most relevant 4 out of 198 pages I’ve skimmed through just now. (Hey, I read fast…)

Some light afternoon reading, thanks!

So a train between Chicago and Minneapolis that actually serves Madison, instead of that small town 30 miles northeast of Madison? That in itself seems like an improvement.

Yes, yes yes yes. Let’s stop making endless plans and just do it. I’ve seen plans for this my whole life and nothing to show for it.

Only complaint is no Rochester, MN service. That’s a big gap from MSP to Madison I think.

I would 10/10 take a train from IA to Duluth

Let's build it!

Signed, someone who's constantly refreshing the Empire Builder status this morning because it's delayed over an hour and would really prefer having 12 trains each way each day instead of one that's chronically late.

I wonder how hard it would be to revive service St. Paul-Des Moines-Kansas City. Minnesota seems more connected with those, among the families I know. For our part, we'd take trains to Mke and Chi very happily at reasonable times and prices.

A network philosophy and integrating into existing city infrastructure seems like a really solid approach.

Being able to easily and efficiently move around America is anti-American.

Just give me one train a day south or southwest from Minneapolis

So I have to wait until 2055 to take a train from St. Paul to Madison?

LFG!

I just bought my first electric car (range per full charge 135 miles). I need to strategize any plans for regional and long-distance travel. I would love to have a more robust train system to move about the Midwest.