4.5. SR 09-21-1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Maintenance and servicing of the cars and locomotives for a passenger rail system of the type envisioned for the Northstar Corridor must reflect the characteristics of the service plan as well as the realities of the availability of real estate convenient to the railroad line itself. A "Preliminary Passenger Rail Serx)ice Plan" has been prepared and submitted to the Authority. As the conceptual service plan which has been developed is only preliminary at this time, the implications of that plan for the location of the maintenance facilities should be regarded as very tentative. An operating simulation of the service pattern has not yet been run, so that the -, accuracy of the running times is still an open question. Similarly, demand forecasts have not been developed, so that the fleet size is still at issue. The service plan itself has only now been submitted to the Authority for review, so that its acceptability as a concept is still not established. Finally, other than conclusions reached through ~vindshield surveys, the actual availability of land has not been determined. However, if the initial service plan concept is taken as a starting point, some preliminary conclusions can be reached. The service concept provides for both an "intercity" type of service, with morning, midday and afternoon trains in both directions from both St. Cloud and Minneapolis, running every day (weekdays, weekends and holidays) between the two ends of the Northstar Corridor. On weekdays, there is superimposed on the through trains a set of peak-hour "commuter trips" which operate only between Minneapolis and ~lk River or Ramsey, slightly short of halfway between the Twin Cities and St. Cloud. For purposes of economical operation, the initial timetable has been designed to permit this entire service to be operated with only three sets of equipment, and, as noted in the "Preliminary Plan," based on an assumed use of bi-level equipment in push-pull mode, this might require a total fleet of four locomotives, four cab cars, and seven coaches. These figures are highly preliminary, and subject to modification for several reasons, not the least of which is the need to balance fleet size with projected ridership. Under the example timetables, no trains lay overnight at Minneapolis. This is primarily because of the nature of the "commuter" part of the-business, in which trains originate in suburban areas and operate to the CBD in the morning, and back out in the evening. It also reflects the reality of real estate demand, which produces high prices in downtown areas, thus discouraging semi- industrial uses such as railroad maintenance facilities. Trains will lay over for varying periods during the day at the Downtown Minneapolis station, and one or two off-line storage tracks and the ability to provide minimal between-trip cleaning and servicing will be required. These functions cannot take place on the mainline, ~:s the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad requires the tracks for its own fi'eight operations during the day. In the morning, one train will originate at ,St. Cloud (or Rice, if that is chosen as the northern terminus). That train is one which makes the last through trip outbound from Minneapolis at 5:35pm, arriving in St. Cloud at 7:00pm. The service concept provides for a daily rotation of equipment from train to train, so that a different trainset will be laying over at St. Cloud each