Train linking Twin Cities, Duluth in doubt as D.C. Republicans try to yank money for passenger rail

Just a few years ago, the outlook for passenger rail in Minnesota was bright.

The state Legislature had set aside nearly $200 million for the long-planned Twin Cities to Duluth Northern Lights Express. Local planners also believed they could reel in hundreds of millions of dollars for the project from the transit-friendly Biden administration, then flush with cash from the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Now, that optimistic moment feels many miles away.

A new Republican-backed spending bill in Congress would explicitly ban federal funding for the NLX line and also gut funding for a federal grant program the Metropolitan Council is counting on for a planned extension of the Blue Line light-rail project and a bus rapid transit line.

The bill comes after state lawmakers, facing a budget crunch, recently raided the NLX account. Though they made sure to leave enough to land federal dollars, transit-hostile Republicans in Congress are moving to turn off the D.C. tap for both projects.

“It’s dire,” said state Sen. Scott Dibble, a Minneapolis DFLer and longtime supporter of public transportation.

The congressional legislation had its first public airing this week in the Republican-controlled House Appropriations subcommittee, where it advanced on a party-line vote. Republicans on the subcommittee praised the measure, saying it cut costs, prioritizes safety and reflects the Trump administration’s priorities.

The bill comes about two months after Minnesota’s Republican congressional delegation, led by Rep. Tom Emmer, sent a letter to the subcommittee’s leaders urging them to eliminate federal funding for the rail projects. Rep. Pete Stauber, who signed the letter and represents much of the area where the Northern Lights Express would operate, called it “another Minnesota boondoggle” in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

“My concerns have included cost, commuter efficiency and that it would never become self-sustaining,” Stauber said. “My colleagues on the House Appropriations Committee agreed, and now the taxpayer will be spared from paying for such a fiscally irresponsible project.”

Planners expect the 152-mile Northern Lights Express would cost more than $900 million for infrastructure and trains and carry about 700,000 people a year, or about 2,000 people a day. The Minnesota Department of Transportation said the state and local governments have spent about $13 million on NLX planning; the federal government has kicked in $7 million so far.

The Met Council estimates the $3.2 billion Blue Line extension would carry 13,700 riders a day. Backers expected the federal government to pay for 80% of the NLX project and about half of the Blue Line extension.

The Emmer-authored letter also targeted the Northstar Commuter Rail line between Minneapolis and Big Lake. The Met Council will likely wind down that line after ridership cratered during the pandemic when service was reduced.

Minnesota’s highest-ranking Democrats, including Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Betty McCollum, all said through statements that they opposed the cuts, with some saying the projects will help reduce traffic and create jobs. Transit also is a key part of Minnesota’s plans to reduce climate-warming emissions.

Others said their Republican colleagues should be trying to bring federal resources to the state, not push them out.

“This is not the economy they promised and they sure don’t seem to care who is getting screwed. They should be embarrassed,” Smith wrote in a statement.

A Walz spokesperson slammed Stauber for choosing to “ship Minnesota’s tax dollars out of state” and made a jab at his recent vote for Trump’s massive tax cut bill.

Even if the full House were to approve the bill, it would need the support of some Democrats, who generally support public transportation, in the U.S. Senate to clear a 60-vote minimum.

The bill’s near elimination of funding for the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grant Program — which funds the construction of transit and rail lines across the country — will make that improbable, said Yonah Freemark, an Urban Institute researcher and public transit expert.

“Based on experience from previous years, it seems unlikely that this massive cut … would make it into the law,” Freemark wrote in an email.

Dibble was also hopeful the Senate would moderate the House bill. The loss of federal support would kill the NLX and require local governments to save the Blue Line extension, he said. He said the proposed cuts represent an attempt by Republicans to punish opponents.

“This is about the politics of dividing people against each other, about thinking of some people as worthy and other people as unworthy,” he said.

The Metropolitan Council declined comment. Hennepin County Board Chair Irene Fernando said their plan “is to get federal funding for this critical investment.”

“These are big projects, and they are very hard for any one government entity anywhere to deliver on their own,” she said in a statement.

Keith Nelson, a member of the St. Louis County Board and chair of the NLX board, called the congressional bill a “punch to the gut” for northeastern Minnesota.

“Republicans don’t like passenger rail,” said Nelson, a self-described conservative who said he voted for Klobuchar and Trump in the last election. “They don’t like passenger rail because the Democrats like it.”

Nelson said he’s worked on the project since one of Stauber’s predecessors, longtime Rep. Jim Oberstar, asked him to do so over lunch at a Chisolm supper club decades ago. Oberstar, who died in 2014, championed transportation projects.

“He said, ‘You’re a young man. I’m not going to be around to see this happen. But you will be,’“ Nelson said. “Now I’m starting to wonder if I will.”