![]() ![]() On a 300-mile trip (round trip to Duluth) that would be $225 dollars, where two round-trip tickets would be $140. AAA estimates that it costs up to around $0.75/mile to own and operate a car. I'm no economist, but a little simple math challenges that assumption. In his opinion regarding the Northern Lights Express, Phelan indicates that it will be cheaper to drive from Minneapolis to Duluth than take the train. How many have taken a canoe or kayak down the Brule River or visited the Apostle Islands? Big Manitou Falls? The train might be just the first step to the beautiful forest, streams and lakes of the Arrowhead area of Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin. How many people from the Twin Cities know the South Shore has sandy beaches strewn with driftwood? In summer, the South Shore water of Lake Superior is often warm enough to swim in. A shuttle bus along the South Shore to Bayfield, Wis., might also make the train from Minneapolis more popular. A shuttle bus up the North Shore to the Canadian border could get people to a nice, cool lakeside resort. Duluth and Superior have their own charm. Maybe the train from Minneapolis to Duluth needs a little help. I'm still a firm supporter of mass transportation. The other missing links will cost just as much, or more, to implement and operate as the NLX. The NLX is just one link in a transportation network. Including two grandchildren on the trip and driving from Hibbing is even more attractive. Phelan's example of a future traveler from Hibbing works well in the opposite direction, too. With no connecting train service and few buses, one's left with renting a car, adding to the expense, or heading back that day. While Duluth has its attractions, I would imagine most people heading up north these days are interested in visiting parks, waterfalls and scenic overlooks farther up the shore, inland to Ely or over to Wisconsin. Since I was headed farther north, the train, if it was still running, wouldn't have helped at all. As Phelan mentioned, the drive on Interstate 35 was a chore, especially returning on Sunday afternoons. For several years I drove about 10 trips a year to a lakeside cabin near Split Rock. By this time the train to Superior was long gone. I didn't get the job, but 10 years later, after a stint in the Navy and grad school (with daily train trips), I finally moved to Minnesota. Though I had never been there, I was fascinated with the North Shore and applied. It is an attractive but incomplete solution.īack in the mid-1970s, while I was working for Amtrak in Philadelphia, a ticket agent position opened up in Superior, Wis., for the new route from the Twin Cities. Yet I have to agree with some of the points John Phelan made in his commentary about the Northern Lights Express ( "Northern Lights rail is just a shiny illusion," Opinion Exchange, June 30). Generally, anything put out by the Center for the American Experiment I read with suspicion. Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. ![]()
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