Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
When it first came up that the Twin Cities - Chicago high speed line would be blocked by Wisconsin, so an alternate route might be needed, folks in Rochester started pushing to be on the line, rather than following the Mississippi River along the west bank like Amtrak does now. I don't know that it ever got as far as whether the CGW or other pre-existing routes would be used etc. I haven't heard any new info for a long time on it.
The former CGW line is all snowmobile trails or plowed under for farming. At Dodge Center, the CGW passenger trains used C&NW trackage rights to get to Rochester. I have attended a couple of information meetings in Rochester - The folks supporting this talk about new grade just west of Hwy 56 or Hwy 52 They cannot seem to agree if the line should go to St Paul, or the MSP airport. Dodge County sees no use for the line when the ZipRail and MNDOT folks spoke with them in May at a council meeting. Between 2B & 4B is the projected cost for the line.
But every so often the group gets money from the State Legislature for 'studies' - I think this is their job....
The CGW also had a route out of Rochester via Pine Island, Zumbrota and Red Wing. The southern part of that is the Douglas Bike Trail. There is a parallel ROW(about 50 yards east) for a former C&NW branch from Rochester to Zumbrota. Part of that is used for a horse riding trail.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
If you have driven US 52 from the Twin Cities to Rochester you will notice that part of the road is very hilly and this might explain why no railroad ever built a direct line between the two. Any high speed rail line between the two would be an expensive line to build and would compete against US 52 which will be upgraded to full freeway status in the next few years by MNDOT.
An alternative non Wisconsin high speed rail route could exist between the Twin Cities and Chicago via Rochester, La Cresent Minnesota (for La Crosse), Dubuque Iowa, and Rockford Illinois, but it would be very expensive to build.
My understanding with respect to high-speed rail is that vertical curves are easier to negotiate than horizontal curves (recall shots of the TGV going up and down the hills of France). Should HSR ever come to the Chicago-Twin Cities corridor, I think a case can be made for following the MILW/CP line from Chicago to La Crosse/La Crescent and then make a new alignment west to Rochester and north to the Twin Cities, thereby avoiding all the curves along the river.
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