https://www.dot.state.mn.us/nlx/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Lights_Express

Top Speed: 90mph (~144 km/h)

Avg. Speed: 60mph (~96 km/h)

Projected Yearly Ridership: 700k

A one-way trip will take about 2.5 hours, roughly the same as driving.

The project has received $194.7M from Minnesota, meeting the 20% local funding required for federal grants

  • EmmaGoldman [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Damn, they can only justify funds to set it up for a top speed of 90? Shit, hopefully that gets rectified eventually.

    It won't, this continent is cursed.

    • Starlet [she/her, it/its]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      And yet that's still faster than the only other line in the state (79 mph, 127 km/h)

      Show

    • YearOfTheCommieDesktop [they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      its slow and shits not even electrified. nor is the miserable excuse for commuter rail they have in mpls (lot of love went into parts of it but gimped from the start by not going to st cloud)

      but like, a train is a train. its at least not slower than driving, and the drive it replaces can be pretty miserable when there's traffic or construction so I think it'll get some adoption. Duluth sees a lot of tourism too

      • Starlet [she/her, it/its]
        hexagon
        ·
        1 year ago

        ^^^

        Projects like this are more or less the best we can hope for as long as Amtrak is privately run. I'm happy we're at least getting trains that don't take twice the time that driving does