Ramsey County Regional Rail News

More Photos From Movie Shoot at Union Depot

Ready for Our Close-Up

Hustle and bustle.

'Passengers' mill about in scenes from the movie, The Convincer, which was being filmed at Union Depot on Monday.

The Union Depot was the scene of a bit of Hollywood excitement Monday. The Convincer, starring Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin and Billy Crudup, is shooting in the Twin Cities and made a stop at the Depot for an all-day shoot. The movie is being directed by Wisconsin’s own Jill Sprecher based on a script she co-wrote with sister, Karen. The Convincer tells the story of a desperate insurance salesman whose scheme to get a hold of a rare violin leads to unforeseen consequences. Perhaps the most exciting part of the day was seeing the Depot full of extras playing passengers using the train station. As the photos above show, the shoot gave us a preview of what the Depot will be like when renovations are complete and the trains start rolling through again.

Union Depot TIGER Grant Videos on RTube

Don’t forget to check out videos from last week’s announcement of the $35 million TIGER Grant for Union Depot on RTube, Ramsey County’s YouTube Channel. You’ll also find videos from several other Ramsey County departments on there. Check ‘em out…

Draft Central Corridor Bike Walk Plan Released

The Bike Walk Central Corridor Team has released its draft Bike Walk Central Corridor Action Plan. The plan is scheduled to be heard at City Council on Wednesday, April 21, at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 15 Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul. Written testimony may be sent via email or snail mail to:

Emily Goodman
Suite 1400, 25 W. 4th St.
St. Paul, MN 55102

Central Corridor Project Update

Highlights for week of March 1 from the Met Council:

Crews will be pulling cables in the area around Fourth Street that will result in periodic lane closures and temporarily hooded parking meters.
Sidewalk on the northeast corner of Wall and Fourth reopens.
South and east crosswalk at Wacouta and Fourth remains closed. Alternate routes are crosswalks on the north and west sides of the intersection.
Fourth between Wall and Sibley streets remains reduced to one lane westbound.
Fourth between Sibley and Robert streets is closed to through traffic. Access to Sibley Square parking ramp will be maintained from Sibley. For an alternate route, use Kellogg Boulevard.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact the Central Corridor LRT Project office by email or phone at 651-602-1645.

Red Rock Supporters Gather at Capitol

A coalition of elected officials and supporters, led by the Washington County Rail Authority, gathered at the Capitol this week in a bipartisan effort to support the Red Rock Corridor, a proposed commuter rail corridor from Saint Paul to Hastings.

“Red Rock and this entire corridor is the next great transit opportunity for Minnesota commuters,” said Ramsey County Commissioner Jim McDonough, chair of the Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority. “We have support at all levels of government from the community to the White House. The community supports the vision and together we will not miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance.”

Read the whole story at OnBoard Midwest.

Learn more about Red Rock here.

Met Council to vote Feb. 24 on Hamline, Victoria, Western stations

Central Corridor station artist's rendering

The Metropolitan Council is expected to vote Feb. 24 on adding the three infill stations sought by St. Paul officials and community groups. The meeting agenda will be posted here before the meeting.

This was made possible recently when the Federal Transit Administration relaxed its policies for measuring cost-effectiveness and the federal and local governments committed additional funds.

The three stations on University Avenue at Hamline Avenue, Victoria Street and Western Avenue were not included in the original plan recommended by Ramsey County in 2006 and — until now — could not be squeezed into the project budget. The main reason was the FTA, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, employed a rigid pass/fail test to measure the cost-effectiveness of transit projects.

The federal government will provide half of the $15.6 million needed to pay for the additional stations. The matching local funds will come from the city of St. Paul, the Counties Transit Improvement Board, Ramsey County and the Central Corridor Funders Collaborative, a coalition of local foundations.

Central Corridor LRT Project included in president’s budget

Utility relocation work at Fourth and Robert streets in downtown St. Paul last summer.

From the Met Council’s January Making Tracks newsletter:

A decades-long dream to link St. Paul and Minneapolis by light rail transit is a step closer to reality with the Obama Administration’s request to fund the Central Corridor LRT Project in the fiscal 2011 budget.
“This signals a high degree of confidence by the federal government in the readiness of the project to begin construction this year,” Metropolitan Council Chair Peter Bell said.
The Met Council will be the grantee of federal funds. The president’s 2011 budget contains a recommendation for a Full Funding Grant Agreement, including $45 million of funding in the first year of construction. The Federal Transit Administration is expected to approve the project’s entry into final design next month and by fall to award an FFGA, committing the 50 percent federal share of $478 million.
These developments, along with a requested advance commitment of $83.6 million from Ramsey and Hennepin counties and the Counties Transit Improvement Board, would allow heavy construction to begin on schedule this summer and keep the project within budget. Utility relocation work began last fall along Fourth Street in downtown St. Paul in anticipation of heavy construction beginning late summer 2010.
The project had a $941 million budget before the federal government, the city of St. Paul, the Counties Transit Improvement Board, Ramsey County and the Central Corridor Funders’ Collaborative, a coalition of local foundations, pledged $15.6 million to add three stations sought by St. Paul and community groups. This development brings to 18 the number of stations to be built. The 11-mile line, which would begin service in 2014, will link downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis along Washington and University avenues via the state Capitol and the University of Minnesota. The line would connect with the Hiawatha LRT line at the Metrodome station in Minneapolis and the Northstar commuter rail line at the Target Field Station.
The ridership projection is about 41,000 average weekday boardings in 2030. Travel time will be about 40 minutes between the line’s eastern end in front of St. Paul’s Union Depot and the western end at Target Field Station in Minneapolis.

High Speed Rail Moving Forward

High speed rail train.

Excerpted from the OnBoard Midwest blog:

The Obama Administration has directed planning funds to high-speed rail upgrades along the Mississippi River Route in the first round of investments from the America’s Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The White House approved a total $823 million for the high-speed rail line from Chicago to Saint Paul, including an almost-$1 million grant to help transportation officials in Minnesota and Wisconsin study the feasibility of extending a high-speed rail line between Madison and Saint Paul.

Of the $8 billion being allocated, the Midwest region received approximately $2.6 billion in federal grants, second only to the West region. Nine projects in the Midwest were selected, including a planning study to explore the extension of high-speed rail service to the Twin Cities from Chicago. The grants included projects in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.

The decision by the Federal government to fund projects in the region follows years of work by planners to identify key routes and projects across the entire region. The first round of projects will help create stronger connections between key cities in the Midwest while also creating new incentives for leaders to continue to work on projects that could be part of the next round of funding.

For more information, read

OnBoard Midwest’s news release.

The White House’s information on the Saint Paul to Chicago route.

The complete list of corridors that received federal grants.

Red Rock Meeting Canceled

The Red Rock Corridor Commission Executive Committee Meeting scheduled for Monday, Feb. 8, has been canceled. The next regularly scheduled Red Rock Corridor Commission meeting will be Thursday, Feb. 25.