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The Rochester - Twin Cities Rail Corridor (Zip Rail)

The Rochester - Twin Cities Rail Corridor, or Zip Rail, is an approximately 100-mile corridor located between Rochester and the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metropolitan Area (Twin Cities). The corridor includes Olmsted, Dodge, Goodhue, Rice, Dakota, Ramsey and Hennepin counties. The rail corridor is planned to connect Rochester with existing and/or proposed transportation facilities in Minneapolis/St. Paul and is consistent with an eventual high speed passenger rail regional connection between the Twin Cities and Chicago. Zip Rail offers a different type of service than commuter rail or existing rail service:

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Project Impact(s): Economic Development, Transportation

This project is in Archive Phase.

  • Please scroll the following to view Beam's understanding of the project's strategy, indicators, expected results, and monitored metrics.
  • Please click this Link to get to the mainline view of the project.

 

Collaborators, Project Type, Impacts, Related Projects

 

Collaborators 

Lead Organization: North American High Speed Rail Group (NAHSR)

Contact: TBD ; Email: TBD ; Phone: TBD

Known/Likely Collaborators: North American High Speed Rail Group (NAHSR)

Potential Collaborators:

Related Projects

LINK - Bus Rapid Transit ; Rochester, MN Transit Development Plan Update

Impacts 

Major Impact: 

PlanScape Impacts :

Level 1: Economic Development, Transportation

Level 2:

DMC Impacts:

Community Health Impacts:

Type of Project

 

 

 

 

Strategy
Unknown

 

Expected Results

Economic Growth

  • Zip Rail would contribute annual incremental economic activity of $987 million to the State of Minnesota, $84 million of that benefiting Olmsted County. Over 25 years, this incremental economic activity would total more than $16.8 billion to the state, including more than $1.4 billion to Olmsted County.
  • Additional annual income from employment growth would be $446 million across the State of Minnesota, $45 million of that benefiting Olmsted County. Over 25 years, this additional income from employment growth would total more than $7.6 billion for the state and more than $765 million for Olmsted County.
  • Annual tax revenues would increase by $46 million to the State of Minnesota, $3 million to Olmsted County and $94 million to the federal government. Over 25 years this additional tax revenue would total more than $784 million to the state, including more than $59 million to Olmsted County, and nearly $1.6 billion to the federal government.

 

Job Creation

  • The increased economic activity described above will, over 25 years, increase employment in Minnesota by 7,888 jobs, including an increase of 610 in Olmsted County.
  • During the course of construction of the line, 3,250 jobs would be created. Over the long term, 150 rail operations and maintenance jobs would be sustained.
 

User Benefits

  • The value of time savings to businesses is estimated at $25 million in the first year of operation resulting from worker productivity while in transit on Zip Rail versus the non-productive time of driving.
  • The value of time savings to individuals using Zip Rail is estimated at $4 million in the first year of operation.
  • An estimated 40 motor vehicle crashes would be avoided in the first year of Zip Rail operations, a monetized savings of $4 million.
  • Over 25 years, 1,188 crashes would be avoided, 10 of which would be classified as fatal; total monetary savings is estimated to be $88 million.
  • Zip Rail use would reduce motor vehicle petroleum use by approximately 2.5 million gallons and emissions by 22,000 metric tons in the first year of operation with a value of $750,000 in the first year and $16 million over the entire 25-year period.

 

 

Metrics
Unknown

 

 

Last modified by support on 2021/09/05
Created by allnode on 2015/05/05

 

 

 

Site Information
Project Phase Definitions
The following defines the various project phases:
  1. Available - a product, program or service is in production
  2. Develop - program or application is being developed
  3. Plan - idea is solid, stakeholders are identified, and there is strong commitment to go forward from all parties.
  4. Concept Phase - idea scoped out with enough details to give an early sizing and/or to build a proof of concept
    demonstration
  5. Pre-concept Phase - an early idea or a requirement.
About Beam

Community Beam (dmcbeam.org) is a registry of private and public resources (organizations, projects, initiatives, programs) that underpin economic and social developments of greater Rochester:

  • For the commercial sector, we tend to register startup activities (new companies and new commercial projects) that bring diversification and high-impact opportunities to the area.
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While there are a number of registries in the community, dmcbeam.org's  distinct value is to pilot a database with a data structure and categorizations that answer the questions such as: What organizations or projects/programs in our community that have purported relevance with some of the over-arching focuses put forward by initiatives such as DMC, J2G and Health Improvements?

This database could be used as one of the ways to explore the capacities of the community. If you are someone on an exploratory journey to learn about the greater Rochester community. dmcbeam.org could be an interesting first step.

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