This Choo-Choo train ain’t going anywhere

1. Yes, they DID just figure it out because they took their eyes off the $40 million dollar ball so they could sell us the EC. Welcome to city planning. You snooze and WE lose. Johnson and Thune worked hard to get SD that $ from the Feds and the city wasted it through mismanagement. Is the RR to blame as well? I think they were willing to talk and were talking to the city 2 years ago at the end of Munson’s term but then MMM decided that he needed to take the city on your to sell us a place to watch Bieber on the dead end of town. This was their play and they screwed it up.

2. This was my favorite line from the AL article:

   ” ‘The one thing people have been concerned about in our town is train traffic,’ he said.”

   This, to me, pretty much sums up the state of planning in Sioux Falls.

   As far as the RR relocation goes: I was sort of ambivalent about it. Yes, it would open up lots of land for development on the East Bank. However, why was the railroad there in the first place? Because lots of industry and manufacturing used to be located there, back when downtowns were more than just apartments and office buildings. Part of me thinks that someday we may want to have some rail capacity (maybe even a passenger station?) downtown if we ever want to recover any manufacturing jobs in this town.

3. I’ve said this for a long time – the railroad was there first and they don’t have to go anywhere if it means making things more difficult for them. Forcing them to pull and push trains all over just to free up a few acres downtown is a non-starter.

   The whole argument to put the EC downtown was built upon the fraudulent idea that the tracks would be moved, but we can see now that it may never happen. If it does happen – it won’t be within the next couple of years.

   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not happy about the EC being built at the Arena site, but obviously certain people were putting the cart before the horse when suggesting we could shoehorn the EC downtown. Way too many assumptions were being made.

   In the end, the railroad holds the power here. Our mayor and city council need to acknowledge that and quit trying to pretend they can pull the strings.

4. I was hoping for the Walmart rail yard combo at 69th and cliff.

5. But what if the private school Christian kids would have to see graffiti on the sides of trains that said things like ‘Nigger’ and ‘Satan’. What a tragedy that would be.

6. I have been trying to understand why we have viaducts where we have little traffic than complain because we cannot go across RR tracks on the busiest of street. This problem did not start yesterday, last year or ten years ago. The problem has always been there but for some reason the developers get their special street projects at the expensive of the central city infrastructure. Crossing busy central and downtown RR tracks has been a problem and will continue to be a problem.

   Oh yea, I forgot who buys the elections….

7. sorry “at the expensive of the central” should have read “at the expense of the central”

8. Still hopefull for an Amtrack depot someday!!

9. I have never understood why we don’t have one. I do know that it may have to do with state RR laws.

10. Wyoming and SD are the only states with no Amtrak service. Sioux Falls is included in Minnesota’s long-term passenger rail plan, with a passenger route imagined for sometime after 2030, I think.

    Personally, I think passenger rail service is going to have to come back a lot faster than that. If and when gas prices reach $5, $10, or even higher, it’s going to be a matter of necessity.

11. Tom – Would agree, still the cheapest way to transport goods, unless this shit happens,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5Tl6q4ypJg

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