The following commentary by Peter Dorsen was printed in the Eden Prairie News May 18, 2017:
Equally reprehensible in a different way is the GOP-endorsed transportation bill that contains cuts in funding to Metro Transit for the Southwest Light Rail Transit. All I know is now way I’m heading into Minneapolis except in a comfortable seat on a Southwest Transit bus with a friendly driver and WiFi. I confess, whoever, I love trains.
Caught in the horrendous catastrophe at the interchange of interstates 35W and 494 on my weekly commute to Eagan makes me imagine I was hijacked to Los Angeles. Sure, work needs to be done on our roads and bridges, the interchange being a perfect example. I’m not, at the wheel of Editor Tim Engstrom’s 1990 Ford Mustang but among the blue-knuckled thousands on their twice-a-day torturous commute to and from the city.
If you believe in global warming and CO2 emissions or wish to ignore science, the current controversy should not be about a Band-Aid for an outmoded transportation system. In the long haul, it is not totally about expanding i-35W by 1.5 lanes. That’s good for now, given the horrendous commute.
$1.9 billion for the Southwest LRT is no chump change. Fortunately the Federal Transit Administration has committed to a significant part of the cost for the new people mover. The local municipalities and Hennepin County will provide the rest. Yet, there are threatening legislative lobbies at a state level to redirect the federal funds from Southwest LRT. As I write, the feds say no.
The same GOP have introduced a measure at the State Capitol asking the Department of Transportation to funnel $929 million from Southwest LRT line to a “block grant” for other transportation projects.
Adam Duininck, Metropolitan Council chairman, accuses the dissenters of creating “confusion and misinformation.” Yes, I am confused, hopefully not terminally. How can anyone reasonably argue with projected Southwest LRT ridership by 2040 of 36,000 daily. The good news: If a proposed part of a comprehensive transportation bill expunges the LRT, our governor says, “Now way!”
More good news: Federal funding is grandfathered in lest a confusing political climate might sabotage the fundage. As this project has evolved, there’s been plenty of reasonable dissent as from the Kenilworth community that the LRT must pass through. Functional, environmentally friendly mass transportation is the reality of the future despite the myopic vision of our majority-driven elected officials.
If this doesn’t work, there will be scads of everyday commuters who will have to schedule earlier appointments with their therapists.