(The St. Cloud Times posted the following article by Chuanpis Santilukka on its website on February 27.)
COLD SPRING, Minn. — The future of a rail line that’s been in operation for more than a century is at a crossroads.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway officials soon will decide the fate of the 30-mile network and adjoining property. While the part of the track that goes from St. Cloud to Waite Park will definitely stay in operation, questions exist about the remaining 12-mile stretch that ends in Cold Spring, said Jerry Johnson, assistant vice president of network development for BNSF.
“Business has just fallen off on that part of the line in the last several years,” Johnson said. “It’s possible that we’ll close it, but we’re going to do everything possible to keep that as a railroad line. Abandoning it is clearly not anyone’s first option.”
The Waite Park-to-Cold Spring line carries about 200 cars per year, but BNSF would like to see the number closer to 500, said Larry Lahr, Cold Spring city administrator.
Parts of the rail line have been in operation since at least 1885, according to Stearns County History Museum documents.
Rail officials last month discussed selling or leasing some of the adjacent land and turning the line’s operation over to another company, said Bob Swanberg, Stearns County Housing and Redevelopment Authority executive director. BNSF is expected to issue a proposal on changes to area leaders and businesses within the next couple of weeks.
While some businesses have a stake in keeping the line open, city and county leaders also are eyeing what they consider prime real estate. In a fast-growing area, even property next to a rail line could make way for homes, businesses and even recreational trails, leaders said.
“It would depend on what part of the line you’re talking about, but at the depot, for example, there’s land that is hundreds of feet wide,” St. Cloud city planner Matt Glaesman said.
Unofficial figures estimate the land in question at about
225 acres with a $4 million value, according to Stearns County documents. Johnson said the land size is about right, but he was not certain about the value.
“We’re aware of where there is real estate … but we’re not far enough along to be concerned about that right now,” Johnson said.
Land development next to a railroad might not appeal to some residents, but the idea could have merit, said Anthony Alexander, a real estate agent with Herges Realty Inc.
“A lot of people, when they have a choice financially, don’t prefer to live by a railroad, but people I’ve talked to said you get used to it more easily than you would think,” Alexander said.
From rails to trails
Johnson said closing the rail line would be a last option that wouldn’t be pursued without public input. But if it does happen, leaders will look to the precedent set with other abandoned railroads: turning them into recreational trails.
“Nationally, there’s been a pretty strong effort to preserve linear corridors for trails,” said Al Vogel, director of the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Department of Freight, Railroads and Waterways.
Portions of the ever-expanding Lake Wobegon Trail are on former railroad lines, with the newest seven-mile stretch planned between Holdingford and Bowlus on a former Soo Line rail path.
Cold Spring is working with the Department of Natural Resources on a trail plan that would sit on an abandoned rail and connect Cold Spring to Richmond, city administrator Larry Lahr said. The abandoned rail begins on Cold Spring Granite Co.’s west side, which is also where the active rail ends. If the BNSF line is abandoned, the city could easily expand the future trail.
St. Cloud leaders also have a keen interest in providing more trails, Glaesman said. Members of the parks department have in the past approached BNSF officials about acquiring property for that purpose, he said.
Rockville officials in the past year also have promoted the idea of building trails to better connect the former Pleasant Lake and Rockville Township. A task force recently sent a letter to Stearns County commissioners asking them to consider building a bike trail along the active corridor or on it, if abandoned. Building connecting trails would help unify the three entities that merged in 2002, leaders have said.
Rail line businesses
For Cold Spring businesses dependent on rail service, trails and development are less important than making sure the lines are still running, a notion Lahr and Glaesman echoed.
Rail service is appealing because it allows more products to be transported at one time and it’s less expensive than using trucks, said Pat Wenner, vice president of Wenner Gas Co. Inc., a propane distributor in Cold Spring. Wenner Gas made efforts to increase its use of the line in response to BNSF’s concerns, he said, because taking away the line would affect not only his company, but also his customers.
“When it gets really cold, some of your major companies can’t draw gas from a pipeline and need propane from us,” Wenner said. “It really is a benefit to the state and the Upper Midwest. So we’re worried about (the rail line). The idea is to keep it running.”
Wenner estimated that one carload via rail could hold up to 28,000 gallons of propane, compared with the 9,000 gallons a semi-truck could carry.
Little, if anything, would change if another company took over the BNSF line, he said.
Short-line operators could possibly run the line more efficiently by using nonunion workers and providing more hands-on management, MnDOT’s Vogel said. He is in charge of contacting a short-rail line operator that could take over the railroad. Any effect on shipping rates is uncertain at this point, he said.
Cold Spring Granite officials also expressed concern about the fate of the line.
“I think its closing is something you always have to think about as a possibility, and it’s a major issue for us,” said Sharon Jensen, the company’s director of public relations. “We’ve attended a lot of meetings with the upgrades planned on (Minnesota) Highway 23, which take the rail line into account.”
Encouraging other businesses to use rail service is one way to keep it in operation, but potential customers might be scared off by the uncertainty of the rail line’s future, Swanberg said.
Other businesses could easily sprout up along the line and take advantage of it, Wenner said.
“There’s a lot more room between us and St. Cloud to bring other businesses to the rail line,” he said.
For now, at least, businesses shouldn’t worry that their rail service will be interrupted, Vogel said.