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Commuter rai moving forward Laurie Blake St. Cloud-to-Minneapolis line would run on freight tracks Will commuters find a place on the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway's freight line between downtown Minneapolis and St. Cloud? The question will be answered by the end of the year. A $350,000 study is looking at the feasibility of using about 66 miles of the freight line for commuter trains, morning and evening. The communities along the rail line have turned to commuter rail as a possible alternative to Hwy. l0 because the area served by the highway is growing faster than any other sector of the state. Southbound morning traffic on Hwy. l0 typically is backed up from Coon Rapids Boulevard north to Anoka's Main Street. Because there are no plans to widen the high.way, someday the jam will back up as far as Elk River, said Tim Yantos, an Anoka county administrator who is overseeing the commuter rail study. The study will reveal whether the freight line can offer an alter- native to this traffic congestion, Yantos said. When the study is f'mished, it will spell out operat- ing and capital costs, predict rid- ership, locate stations, explore land use issues and lay out envi- ronmental impacts of commuter rail along Hwy. 10 through what is called the Northstar Corridor. The results will be the basis for negotiations with the Burling- ton Northern and Santa Fe rail- road on the use of the line. This commuter route is among seven whose potential is being analyzed in a separate study by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The other routes extend to Forest Lake, Hastings, Northfield, Bethel and Young America, and one runs between Minneapolis and St. Paul. Among other things, the state study will spell out how much the state would have to invest to pro- vide commuter rail service on these routes and what the costs and benefits of that investment would be, according to Al Vogel, the department's director of the office of rail and waterways. His final report is due Feb. 1. Although no one route is offi- cially ahead of the'others at this point, the Northstar Corridor is a standout. A total of 24 cities, counties, townships and railroad authori- ties along the route from Minne- apolis to St. Cloud have joined forces to position their commuter rail project for federal and state funding by moving ahead with their own feasibility study, one that is more detailed than the one the state is performing. The mute has the blessing of U.S. Rep~ James Oberstar, D- Minn., who helped secure the federal funds for the study. And, reportedly, the railroad is · ' open to the idea. "They [Burlington Northern Santa Fei said of all the projects in the nation that they are look- ing at working on, there are only two that seem really viable to them: Seattle's and ours," Yantos said. 'Workhorses'. There are no grandiose plans for this commuter line. The pro-. motets are not claiming it will change growth patterns or draw special development to the northern suburbs. "There are show horses and there are workhorses," said Ano- ka County Commissioner Paul McCarron. "We kind of like to think we are the workhorses. What there is here is a hell of a work force,' McCarron said. "It's a matter of opportunity," Yantos said. "The track is there. It's a top-grade track. You can go as fast as you want to go on it. It's here. The growth is happening. And the question is, do you take the opportunity that's in place to make things better for people?" Star Tribune map by .lane Friedmann Move over, light rail If everything, including state and federal funding, were to fall into place for the route, commut- er trains could be rolling in three to four years, Yantos said. That timing could put it ahead of the opening of the Hiawatha Avenue light-rail line, scheduled for 2003. The commuter rail project-- estimated to cost a "couple hun- dred million," according to Yan- tos w would be less expensive than the 12-mile light-rail line between downtown Minneapolis and the Mall of America. That will cost an estimated $400 mil- lion, plus more to route it through downtown Minneapolis. If both projects are completed, · the two raiHines would connect between N. 5th Street and N. 7th Street behind the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis. g Comments are welcome. Call: 675-9016; e-mail: Gettingthere@startribune. com; fax: 673-4359, or send mail to Getting There, Star Tribune, 425 Portland Ay. S., Minneapolis, MN 55488. In order to be pub- lished, comments must include your full name, community, and day and evening phone num- hers. The column runs on Thursday. loin the Getting There discus- sion online at http://www. startribune, comlgettingthere.