DME and Rochester Mn

[Anonymous]

Is it just me or is the city of Rochester Mn just wasting taxpayers money on trying to not alow the Dakota Minnesota and Eastern to run coal thru Rochester becouse of the Mayo Clinic. Both have filed lawsuites against the STB. What are your thoughts?

[mnwestern]

Dalejr:
Fear of the unknown. They are use to two land barges crawling through town and can't envision what 20-25 trains a day would be like.
Ironically, Mayo Clinic owes much of its fame to the Chicago & North Western and Chicago Great Western bringing patients there in the days when roads were so bad the patients would have died getting there.
The Rochester Post Bulletin hasn't helped. They've been in Mayo's back pocket from the beginning and helped spread stupid stuff like "two-feet of coal dust" all along the route.
Hundreds of cities with a lot more train traffic than will ever run on the DM&E survive just fine. But Rochester, full of doctors and nurses, sees itself as better than anyone else.

[Soo2610]

It's the old "build it in somebody else's back yard but don't put it in mine" syndrome. They want the economic benefit but they don't want to see or it.

[thirdrail1]

I say we put NIMBY's and BANANA's in the same category as Al Qaida! Ship 'em to Guantanamo!

[Anonymous]

I have another suggestion for anyone who doesn't think the DM&E should tap into the PRB. "TURN OFF YOUR LIGHTS!!!"

Then they can see how easy it is now days to live without electricity. Boy would I like to hear all of the Doctors and nurses at mayo complain then. (Not to mention everyone else in town)

[Anonymous]

It seems to me that many cities simply try to obstruct progress due to the "Not In My Backyard" syndrome. How would a few extra trains a day affect either Richewster Mn or the Mayo Clinic?

[Anonymous]

Say well that is allright we will just use trucks.See how the mayo people likes that.Power bills go up roads go bad fast and they get stuck between 100.000 pound trucks.

[Anonymous]

There are now at least seven parties involved in the suit filed agains the STB and the US Government because of the DM&E decision. The cities of Rochester, Mankato and Winona; the Mayo Clinic; the Sierra Club; a private individual; and another local "responsible energy usage" group. If you go to www.stb.dot.gov and search for "33407" (the DM&E's file number), a bunch of court filings will show up.

What these three cities don't seem to understand is that no matter how full of themselves they are, they are really just big farm towns. If the DM&E isn't able to generate additional revenue from coal, it faces a rather uncertain future. If it does go out of business, or best case parts of it survive and parts are dismantled, the farm economy in this part of the US will really suffer.

The DM&E is the only east-west railroad across the length of South Dakota and southern Minnesota. With no rail service, the transporation cost of grain from this area will increase substantially and the farmer's income will drop accordingly.

If this happens, lets see if Rochester can support it's malls, shopping center, and other businesses on just the Mayo employees. I don't think so.

Tom Edwards
New Ulm, MN

[Anonymous]

I agree 100% with Tom. Listening to the absolute garbage that Rochester and the other "towns" have been spewing out is very irritating. It is as if the powers that are blocking this are totally ignorant of what really would happen if they got their way.

[Soo2610]

Wonder how loud they would scream if they suddenly found themselves without rail service!? Maybe they would then figure out that the Mayo clinic isn't the only game in town buttering their bread.

[Anonymous]

I use to live there, the only thing that I can remember is that if a 80 car train goes by the town is cut in half. Nobody can get north to south etc. Big pain

[sooblue]

You wouldn't recognize Rochester now.
It is'nt a farm town anymore. They have a better multi-lane highway system than Mpls. has since they "planned" it. They arn't so dependant on rail anymore either. Rochester is one HOT town.
They have nothing to lose, neither does Mankato for that matter. Both Rochester and Mankato are highly diversified. The DM&E is in for a fight but I think they'll win in the long run.
Both towns could afford to build fly-overs if they wanted to, but that isn't the issue N.I.M.B.Y. is the real issue.

[Anonymous]

Actually from what I've read the bypass around Rochester isn't feasible. For two reasons, first the soil type isn't very stable (that's what I've read and that's what the STB said), and two the bypass around Rochester alone would add about 43 miles to the trip one way for a train. Those miles could add up quickly time wise.

Also the major highway that crosse the DM&E which is hwy 52 is four lanes and is gonna be widened to six starting this year, plus it really wouldn't be that difficult to put in two new over passes in Rochester either. The hardest part would be for the city to admit the defeat.

One interesting fact is that with all of the money that Rochester has spent fighting this, they could have a heck of a good start on one if not both of those overpasses.

P.S. I live about 300 feet from the mainline and boy would I like to see those coal trains go rolling by, a set of brand new EMD's or GE's wouldn't look bad either.

[sooblue]

I know how you feel. I grew up five houses away from the main line out of the Mpls SOO yard.
The first night after we moved into the house was the only night that we didn't sleep much, after that we never heard a train at night and it wasn't because some one complained to SOO.
People are just affraid of RRs. It's been Quiet for so long.
It will be interesting how DM&Es pending purchase of I&M rail link will affect all this.
DM&E could easly by pass Rochester with their new track.

[Soo2610]

Seems to me that most towns that have rail service are bisected by the tracks. For some strange reason the town just seems to have grown around the tracks. Could be that a station in the middle of town sounded like a good idea from a convenience and service stand point. Point still remains that the town originally grew around the railroad and probably wouldn't exist today if not for the railroad. I don't consider an average time of three minutes for an eighty car freight to pass through a big pain or a major hassle. I was raised in a town that had three major railroads going through it and the town has thrived quite well on the economic service and transportation that these rail lines provided.

[Anonymous]

I still think that it's a big farm town - just like Minneapolis and St. Paul. I travel over there from time to time and in my job as a tech college instructor, I meet with people from the IBM plant and other hi-tech businesses, so I know that there is a lot of non-ag-related stuff going on. At the same time, though, a large chunk of the retail sector in Rochester is supported by all of the small towns that surround it, and those towns are made up of ag-related communities.

If southern Minnesota ended up looking like a lot of the towns in South Dakota (no offence to those folks) Rochester would have a hard time keeping all of those malls and restaurants going just to satisfy the needs of the Mayo and IBM employees.

A good point is that the town is bisected by the railroad. All of the towns on the DM&E are that way. Right now, an 80 car train takes a lot longer to pass a crossing than a 100 car train will, if the track is rebuilt and the speed limit is increased. On the BN that parallels US Hwy 10 north of St. Cloud, the wait for a coal train or double-stack to pass a grade crossing is measured in seconds, not minutes.

Tom

[Anonymous]

There came a point when I realized that I couldn't support my jones anymore. I admit that I might have paid $100, $200, whatever per gallon, if only to keep my Cobra alive. But I couldn't get past where the juice came from. So I saved it and a couple of others for an occasion that turns out to be this one. I know this is about rail, but do you really have a GT?
John Bradley
John Bradley

[sooblue]

Well Tom,
It's true that there is a little bit of straw in the back pocket of most Minnesotans but the fortune 500 loves us because we are a resourceful
lot and if the rails, god forbid, were ripped up
we would find a way to move the goods. You can land a 747 at the airport in Rochester.
Mike

[Anonymous]

Yes, you can land a 747 at the Rochester airport,but how much grain can one of them carry? I have the pleasure of driving US Hwy 14 everyday to and from work. East of Owatonna it's not too bad, but have you been west of Mankato lately? No DM&E = no grain trains. One covered hopper = four semi's. DM&E runs one or two grain trains a day during the grain rush, each one about 100 cars long. That means 400 to 800 trucks per day on US 14, US 16, US 212, I-90, etc... These roads are already getting pounded into dust. Imagine what it would be like with no rail transportation.

Tom Edwards
New Ulm MN

[sooblue]

Hi Tom,
Rochester doesn't need the DM&E to survive. neither does Mankato or Mpls. or ST. Paul.
none of those towns are dependant on grain anymore. Mankato is becoming a bedroom community for the Southwestern part of the TC.
However! each of those towns profit from rail.
Why would Rochester or Mankato want to take a wage reduction? Or are they trading off for some thing else?
The people who need the DM&E most are in the communities surrounding Mankato and Rochester, and as you pointed out those who use the roads need the DM&E. In my job I've traveled all over southern MN. I am a plant mgr. for a block co.
most of our block is going into Rochester and Mankato and the southern tier of the TCs. About 1/3 to each area. which means that all three are growing close to the same rate roughly.
In the long run Rochester and Mankato would be better off with the DM&E, and I think that the RR will win in this debate. I hope that the DM&E succeeds in purchasing I&M. My block plant is 200 feet away from I&Ms main line in Faribault.
I truly belive that we all need rail and that it is in our best intrest to support it.

[Anonymous]

I'm all for the DME and hope that this Rochester muck can be resolved. Whenever I hear people complain about living next to a railroad (noise,smells. etc.) I always tell them "well it was here when you moved here and most likely will be here when you move away". I can't stand the NIMBYs, It caused the Minnesota Transportation Museum to move their operations to Osceola, Wisc. when residents in Stillwater complained about the smoke and noise around their suburban gated community. My grandparent's home was in Owatonna, MN right next to the Glendale Ave crossing of UP's "spine line" and only a block away from where the DME crossed the UP. I never ever heard them complain about the trains.It even became a source of income for my Grandpa for a couple years when he worked for the Rock Island after he moved into town off the farm.I guess my grandpa was the one who taught me to respect railroads and the employees who work on and around them.

[Anonymous]

I agree 100%, but the thing that sometimes is missed in Winona, Rochester, Owatonna, and Mankato is that their shopping centers, schools, gas stations, and other "normal" businesses rely on the surrounding small towns. River Hills Mall in Mankato would never have been built if it wouldn't be for all of the people from the surrounding area that shop there.

If the small towns that are farm communities dry up and blow away because the ag economy takes a hit from the disappearance of the DM&E, the 30,000 citizens of Mankato proper will not be enough to support the over-built east side shopping district. The tax base won't be there for the school district. The people who live in the small towns and work in the retail stores won't be there. Mankato would lose half of it's retail and service industry and then would truly be a suburb of the Twin Cities because everyone would drive to Eden Prairie or Shakopee to shop. A town doesn't have to directly ship grain to be involved in the ag industry.

I'm on New Ulm's committee that was set up to work with the DM&E on the line rebuilding and safety issues. I'm also a former C&NW employee (when they still owned the Winona-Rapid City line) so I'm probably one of the few folks left in that town that has some historical background on this subject. A lot of people, including some in New Ulm, haven't put a lot of thought into the long range repercussions of the DM&E going out of business or best case just being broken up into smaller, more profitable lines. Rural America is losing too many people to the cities the way it is. The larger cities like Winona, Rochester, and Mankato don't need to make matters worse by putting their short-term, self-serving agenda ahead of the welfare of the entire region.

OK, I'm off my soap box now. ;^)

Tom Edwards
New Ulm, MN

[Anonymous]

Take all that Grain and put in 18 wheelers.Guess who will complain.The well to do.

[sooblue]

Well said Tom Edwards,
Every one needs the RRs, and in the future we will need them more. Sooner or later we will need thier efficiency and the nation will lament the ripped up rail.
The Twin Cities used to have one of the most efficient light rail lines this side of Chicago.
Just now New Jersey Transit is replacing our old cars. How easy it would have been to feed that system with the Northstar rail program that we are trying to get started. the Mpls. busses are ok, I rode them all through grade school and untill I got my first car. But from day one they didn't go any where the street cars didn't go and they stunk and smoked too. Not only that but on hot days I used to watch the tar on the road ROLL UP like groung swells in front of the busses. They were just murder on our roads. The city of Mpls. had to cement all the roads the busses turned around on and now most all the roads are cement. Big town or small town all need and use the RRs.