(The Star News & Shopper posted the following article by Jake Muonio on its website on April 2.)
ELK RIVER, Minn. — Officials with the Northstar Corridor Development Authority (NCDA) are feeling optimistic after several discussions with Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
NCDA and consultant Paul Anton, an economist with the Council of Economic Advisors of Minnesota, presented Pawlenty with updated economic analysis of the project Feb. 19 — creating enough interest the governor invited them back for further discussion March 11.
Paul McCarron, a former NCDA chair who is now working as a consultant on the project, said Anton helped ease the governor’s skepticism toward the project.
“(The project) had to be cost effective, ” McCarron said. “(Pawlenty) didn’t care if it included elephants … it just had to be cost effective. ”
Anton’s analysis was different from much of the previous financial analysis in several ways, McCarron said.
Previous analysis was done without counting any of the trains or stations as assets, McCarron said, thus making the projects appear less cost effective. Anton looks at a more board picture and then figured out the costs in terms of 2007 dollars — to reflect the actual cost of the project, he said.
The failure to receive funding for the project from the Legislature last year didn t help, either.
The project’s total cost — for construction and operations over 15 years — rose $18 million to $502 million (figured in 2007 dollars) because of the delay.
But even with the increase, NCDA officials say the project is not only more than cost effective, it is also much cheaper than other mass-transit alternatives.
The state’s contribution to the more-than-$500-million project is expected to be about $195 million. Estimations by Anton s firm, Anton, Lubov & Associates estimates adding an additional lane of highway over the same stretch from St. Cloud to Minneapolis would cost $1.09 billion. Constructing a bus-only route over the same distance would cost $749 million.
“The benefits (also) consist of the value time savings by commuters, including those who continue to commute by car, vehicle operating cost savings, vehicle accident cost savings, pollution cost savings and urban parking cost savings,” Anton said.
The NCDA said their research indicates 77 percent of Minnesota residents support the Twin Cities-St. Cloud/Rice commuter-rail line, and that 82 percent would use the service.
The program has garnered the support from many people at the federal level.
“(The Northstar rail) is as sound a piece of work as I have seen in many years of examining projects,” said Paul Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation in Washington, D.C.