Dakguy201Who is pushing this one and how far west are they proposing?
I don't know. I just know that restoring North Coast Hiawatha service in its 1971-1979 form would include Minnesota routing with Empire Builder's current Twin Cities-St. Cloud-Fargo. But the Empire Builder would then switch to a Twin Cities-Willmar-Fargo route.
Willmar is a little less than 100 miles west of the Twin Cities and is located on ex-GN Wayzata Subdivision.
I was aware that one of the Montana Senators (is his name Testor?) has been beating the drum for service across southern Montana, perhaps connecting with the Empire Builder at its northwestern end. There is also a good deal of talk about additional Twin Cities/Chicago service and the Twin Cities/Duluth run.
However, I was unaware of any proposal going west from the Twin Cities. Who is pushing this one and how far west are they proposing?
The news reports I've read about the upcoming North Coast Hiawatha restoration study don't state anything about including the Willmar, MN (instead of St. Cloud) routing that the pre-cancellation 1979 train took. Will the study look into this possibility or is it out of the question?
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