State lawmakers defund proposed Twin Cities-Duluth rail project

Yahoo

19-05-2025

Minnesota lawmakers have voted to strip funding from the Northern Lights Express – the long-debated, proposed a passenger rail service designed to connect the Twin Cities and Duluth.
Both the House and Senate have approved a measure to redirect $77 million of approved state funding for the project.
Under the plan, which now heads to Gov. Tim Walz for his signature, those funds will instead cover unemployment insurance costs for seasonal school workers – a measure passed by the DFL in 2023 that Democrats wanted to retain during budget negotiations with Republicans.
House Republican Transportation Chair Rep. Jon Koznick (R–Lakeville), a longtime opponent of passenger rail projects, said the move means the Northern Lights Express train is "effectively dead."
'For years, Democrats have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on wasteful rail projects that Minnesotans barely use and can't afford,' he said in a statement.
Approximately $108 million remains in state funding for the Northern Lights Express. However, lawmakers could also move to redirect those funds as the slim chance of receiving necessary federal funding grows smaller.
Koznick said he'll be focusing his effort on ensuring the remaining funds will be spent spent on infrastructure such as roads and bridges.
If constructed, the Northern Lights Express would operate on approximately 152 miles of an existing BNSF Railway corridor. The service would make four round-trips daily and be operated by Amtrak or a similar provider, according to the NLX Alliance.
With a train operating at speeds of up to 90 miles-per-hour, a one-way trip between the Twin Cities and Twin Ports would take about two-and-a-half hours.