(The following story by Laurie Blake appeared on the Star Tribune website on May 31.)
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Commissioners in three counties came to the rescue of the Northstar commuter rail project Thursday, sending Burlington Northern Sante Fe railroad a check for $24 million to seal a deal to operate passenger trains on the company’s freight tracks.
At a meeting of the Northstar Corridor Development Authority on Wednesday, Anoka, Sherburne and Hennepin representatives committed their counties to front the money necessary to start the project this summer as planned.
The Northstar would run commuter trains along a 40-mile stretch of existing freight railroad between Minneapolis and Big Lake. The plan to begin service in 2009 was jolted last month, when final federal funding and approval did not come through as anticipated. Without the assist from the counties, the passenger service faced at least a year’s delay.
The project must pay the railroad $107.5 million over the next two years to receive permanent clearance to use the tracks for passenger service. For the project to remain on schedule, the first payment of $24 million had to be made Thursday.
Project officials attempted to make promised state funds immediately available by attaching a provision in the state’s bonding bill, only to see the bill vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
That left only the counties to save the project from unraveling. Not only was the agreement with the railroad in jeopardy but also without cash to pay the bills, this summer’s planned extension of the Hiawatha light-rail line to meet the commuter rail line would have had to have been scrapped as well, said Tim Yantos, the project’s executive director. A construction delay would have added inflationary costs to the project, potentially threatening funding agreements.
“It was kind of a do-or-die moment here for the project and we said we would keep it going,” Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin said.
The three counties are committed to paying $49 million of the $320 million project. Now the counties will have to come up with an extra $16 million, which they expect will be repaid with state and federal funds, said Tim Yantos, executive director of the Northstar project.
All three counties will take votes on this extra financial commitment in June, but commissioners made informal agreements to vote yes before project officials sent the money to the railroad.
Federal approval of the project was delayed when the Federal Transit Administration required adding an extra $10 million to the contingency budget to cover surprises. Project officials reluctantly accepted the budget change but said they would adhere to the original cost projection of $310 million.
The budget change triggered a new round of required federal paperwork and that pushed back federal approval until at least fall. FTA officials indicated, however, that they will ultimately approve the project.