Minnesota’s Department of Transportation is currently revising the State Rail Plan. This includes a proposal to re-activate passenger rail service between Northfield and the Twin Cities, making Northfield much more connected to central Minnesota.
More than 35 cities, counties, and institutions including Carleton have joined in support of passenger rail service between Southern Minnesota and the Twin Cities on an existing rail line that runs through Northfield. In response, MnDOT is considering designating the project as Phase One, which could bring passenger rail service to Northfield within 2-4 years!
Please leave a comment on the MnDOT website before March 10 to help bring passenger rail to Northfield!
Tell them you “support the designation of the central Minnesota rail corridor through Northfield as a Phase One project in the State’s 2015 Rail Plan!”
Benefits:
- Potential to remove millions of cars off the roads (and billions of pounds of CO2 emissions!)
- Make it easier for commuters to get to/from work (Did you know that 46% of Rice County’s low and medium income wage earners, and 57% of our high wage earners commute out of Rice County for work every day?)
- Provide an easy way for Carleton students to get to Northfield after breaks
- Encourage our transition away from a car-dependent society
- Would connect Northfield to Amtrak’s interstate lines, continuing south into Iowa and Kansas among other states
Click here for more information on the initiative, and here for more information on the MnDOT State Rail Plan.
Please remember to leave a comment before March 10! If possible, please submit from a non-Carleton email address so that Carleton emails aren’t counted as one “student vote.”
Thanks for all your help!