u/hawkerd

If you are like me, you are excited that passenger rail has done well in recent years in Minnesota. Hopefully that means the state and Amtrak will give us more. Here is the current status of most of those projects

FRA description of Corridor ID steps

The tasks Project Sponsors must complete to successfully fulfill each of the three steps within the Corridor Identification and Development (CID or Corridor ID) Program are: Step 1: initial planning and development of a scope, schedule, and cost estimate for a service development plan (SDP); Step 2: preparing or updating an SDP; and Step 3: NEPA/preliminary engineering development and implementation.

Official FRA status of each project, and others

Great WI resource that includes MN projects

Borealis

- Has been a great success for Amtrak, blew past their ridership expectations, better cost recovery, etc. Trains are sold out often, constrained by capacity after Horizon coaches were removed. Amtrak does not have the cars to serve this effectively!

- There were talks at some point of serving Target Field with some sort of back in maneuver, and continuing North to St. Cloud. Not sure where that is at.

- After improvements are completed at the Muskego rail yard, the added frequency slot is expected to be used by another Borealis

Northern Lights Express (NLX)

- Would run from Target Field in Minneapolis to Duluth, with stops in Coon Rapids, Cambridge, Hinckley, and Superior. 152 miles, 90mph max speed, 2.5 hours, 4 round trips per day

- Waiting on step 2 FRA grant

- The state match of $194.7M was committed in May 2023. In May 2025, $77.2M of that was rerouted to balance the state budget. The remaining funds are still enough to apply for grants to complete planning, review, and design

If you want to read shitty AI-generated statements, read here link otherwise the official MnDOT page is here link

North Coast Hiawatha

- Chicago to Seattle/ Portland via southern Montana. Would route through Minnesota either on the same Empire Builder route, or turning South at Fargo to hit Breckenridge, Morris, and Willmar. Could take one of many routes after MSP based on the results of other projects (Eau Claire? Rochester? Madison? Existing Borealis route?)

- Got the step 1 grant, Work on step 1 expected to continue through 2026 link

Milwaukee - Madison - Eau Claire - Twin Cities

- This project will be done in three phases. First, Hiawatha West, which will extend two Hiawatha trains to Madison. Then, the service and frequency will be upped in Madison. After that, they will be extended to MSP

- Last I heard Amtrak was targeting 2029 for phase 1 to open

Eau Claire - Twin Cities

- single train from Eau Claire into MSP

- currently waiting for a FRA step 2 grant. step 2 work expected to go through 2029

- complements the previous line as work done here can be used by trains coming from Chicago through Madison

St Paul - Kansas City

- St. Paul city council passed a resolution supported a state study of trains from St. Paul to both Fargo and Kansas City, telling the legislature to direct MnDot to put this one into the CID pipeline

Which one do you think has the best chance of actually happening? Anything missing? I think this is all good stuff but frustrating that FRA is holding up the process.

Government should do more to help downtown Minneapolis transform. Here is how.

Post 2020, office tower values have plummeted because of hybrid work schedules. Most people, and city leaders, have realized that the hyper-corporate downtown is never coming back to its full extent, and we need to reimagine some spaces. Companies just do not need as much space as they used to, if any. High rise apartment buildings are not the property tax cash cows that healthy office towers are, but they are certainly better than empty ones.

Even with all the distress, the residential population downtown has gone way up in recent years. People do have a real desire to live in an urban environment, with excess transportation options and lots of stuff to do. We have added about 9,000 residents to downtown since 2020, even with the train safety concerns, rioting after Floyd, and the general "ghost town" feel during working hours. I think this area has a sky high future, just have to build housing and improve safety.

Everyone kind of agrees on the fact that this needs to happen, so it is surprising that, for all the vacant office space we have, there actually have not been that many of these conversions done. Post 2020, this is all I could find. Most of the population growth seems to have come from new development, not repurposing office towers.

Building	Developer	Units	When
Northstar Center	Sherman Associates	216	Completed 2024
Grain Exchange	Sherman Associated	232	Construction this fall
Flour Exchange	Trellis	110	2028?

For reference, the downtown council has a goal of 100,000 residents by 2035, and of converting 3 million of the 9 million square feet of vacant office space to residential to make it happen. This is just not cutting it to meet those goals. I think St. Paul is doing a little better than Minneapolis, but not sure.

I believe the big reason why these three properties were chosen was because of their age. Older buildings are interestingly often easier to convert just due to how they were built. Additionally the old buildings qualify for state (20%) and federal (20%) level tax credits for rehabilitation - 40% of the construction costs covered! The big 80's office towers (which I would imagine have the vast majority of vacant office space) don't have this available.

So what can our government do to help this process?

Minnesota Legislature

- Can sign into law the proposal for the CUB (conversion of underutilized buildings) credit, which would basically be a substitute for that historical rehabilitation tax to make it "worth it" for developers to come in and renovate newer buildings. Would also apply to buildings in St. Paul, Richfield, 394, 494 areas. Yes I understand the budget is forecasted to be tight. But this is super important for getting bites on these big projects and building momentum.

Minneapolis

- Minneapolis has largely gotten out of the way with zoning recently, which is good. But could still do more "red tape cutting" related to parking minimums and other stuff related to the differences between residential and commercial requirements.

- Make it easier for developers to get tax increment financing. Maybe publish a list of buildings downtown that are "pre cleared" so if a developer chose to renovate any in that set, would not have to go through the long TIF approval process.

- Follow in St. Paul's footsteps and study the buildings and their ability to be renovated, and publish that list

Metro Transit

- Clean transit stops and buses/ trains downtown, keep the riffraff out

- All day frequency, not centered around commuting

- As a side note I think the green line and gold line extensions will help this area out a LOT. First real rapid transit in from the suburbs.

MnDot/ Hennepin County/ Minneapolis

- Redesign streets/ parking to be less focused on getting people on and off the interstates, and more focused on people walking and biking. Make people drive slower. More green on the sidewalks

MPD

- Keep up the preventative stuff at bar close

- Find the small amount of people who break car windows for fun and arrest. Create a task force like St. Paul did

What else do you think needs to happen to meet these goals? Do you see a good future for Minneapolis downtown? What else can be done? Are any of my thoughts misguided?

I imagine there are a lot of people who will want to take transit from SW Minneapolis + suburbs to downtown St. Paul once the Green Line and Gold Line extensions are both open, as the time to do so will be cut down a ton. Whether that be for work or shopping or whatever.

I know I will be thrilled to avoid the B line drug bus on my way to Union Depot Amtrak station. I am also estimating my time to get there will be cut from 1hr to about 30 min.

From my google maps satellite analysis the Green Line stop at Royalston Ave is not super well connected to the Gold Line stop at Olson/ 7th.

Is there a plan to make this easier? Could the gold line bus make an extra stop right at the station? Are there existing crosswalks or is it an easy connection as it is built today?

Regardless should make a lot of peoples lives easier, I think this connection will save a lot of people a lot of time