(The Associated Press circulated the following article on December 1.)
WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Mary Peters will travel to Minnesota next week for meetings on the expansion plan by the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad, according to Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.
Coleman said in a prepared statement that he will accompany Peters on the visit to Rochester on Monday.
The DM&E secured federal regulatory approval for the project earlier, but it is now seeking approval for a $2.3 billion loan from the Transportation Department’s Federal Railroad Administration.
The Mayo Clinic and the city of Rochester oppose the project, arguing the increased rail traffic could threaten the safety of the clinic’s patients.
“I’ve made it clear that if I don’t see a mitigation plan before the end of this year, I will not allow this project to move forward,” Coleman said in the statement. “I appreciate the secretary’s willingness to see firsthand the safety concerns this community is facing.”
The project would rebuild 600 miles of track across South Dakota and Minnesota and add 260 miles of new track to reach Wyoming’s Powder River Basin coal mines. It would cost an estimated $6 billion, with $2.3 billion coming from the federal loan and the rest from private funding.