West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition getting closer to launching passenger rail from Eau Claire to St. Paul

By LeAnn R. Ralph

MENOMONIE  —  If passenger rail were available between Eau Claire and St. Paul, the West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition is estimating the train could potentially have a million rides per year.

Dave Christianson, executive director of the Passenger Rail Organizing Council, a sister organization of the West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition, spoke about the plans for passenger rail from Eau Claire to St. Paul at the Dunn County Planning, Resources & Development Committee’s November 14 meeting.

The West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition has been around since 1999, and the group became a 501.c3 non-profit two years ago and has formed an “organizing council,” Christianson said.

The group is working on a final report about self-supporting private rail for profit in West Central Wisconsin, he said.

Christianson, who lives in Woodbury, Minnesota, worked on developing the Minnesota State Rail Plan and has been the manager since 2010 of the Wisconsin rail plan.

About 100,000 cars per day cross over the St. Croix River bridge, and passenger rail would have a high percentage of riders going to and from the Twin Cities, Christianson said.

UW-River Falls, UW-Stout, UW-Eau Claire and the technical colleges in the area have about 33,000 students, he noted.

Union Pacific Railroad, which at that time was known as the Chicago Northwestern Railroad, ended passenger service in this area in 1963 when the “400” was discontinued, Christianson said.

The “400” was so named because the passenger rail line covered 400 miles between Chicago and St. Paul.

The interstate highway system was built in the 1950s, and since then, development has been in highways and airports, Christianson said.

In recent years, gasoline prices have increased, and the interstate highway system has experienced an increase in traffic congestion, he said.

The interstate system has been expanded by 5 percent since 1980, but travel has increased by 50 percent, Christianson said.

Rail travel offers mobility, safety and reliability while it also saves time and money. In addition to increased traffic congestion on Interstate-94, drivers also have to deal with bad roads during the winter, he said.

A number of passenger rail lines in the United States, such as Chicago to St. Louis and Chicago to Detroit, as well as train service on the east and west coasts and in Texas, are all breaking even or making money, Christianson said.

The Hiawatha Line from Chicago to Milwaukee also is covering costs. The Hiawatha currently makes seven trips per day and is looking to increase to 10 trips per day, he said.

Critical investment

A passenger rail line from Eau Claire to St. Paul is a way to attract talent to the area and a way to retain talent through enhanced connectivity, Christianson said.

For many years, employers in Wisconsin have been concerned about the “brain drain” of young people leaving the state to find jobs elsewhere.

“A good transportation corridor is a critical investment for people to stay and to bring in new businesses,” Christianson said.

Eau Claire is what is known as a regional center and is a satellite of the Twin Cities, he said.

4 trips

The travel time from Eau Claire to the depot in St. Paul would be one hour and 20 minutes. Stations would be located in Eau Claire, Menomonie, Baldwin, Hudson, Stillwater and St. Paul, and the train would make four trips per day, Christianson said.

The trains would have on-board amenities such as food, beverages and Wifi service. Rates for frequent travelers and student rates would be available as well. The cost of the train ride from Eau Claire would be around $33 for a one-way trip, he said.

Union Pacific has finished making upgrades to the tracks, and a passenger train could operate at 65 miles per hour on what is now Class 3 rail. Another upgrade to a Class 4 rail would allow travel at 85 mph, he said.

Three years ago, Union Pacific turned down a proposal for passenger rail in West Central Wisconsin. Two years ago, after the business plan was written, Christianson, who spent 25 years working in rail in the private sector, went to Omaha, Nebraska, to meet with Union Pacific senior management.

Union Pacific officials agreed to collaborate, and the West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition has had the full cooperation of Union Pacific for the last year and a half, Christianson said.

Union Depot

The St. Paul Union Depot would be the final stop on the train trip from Eau Claire.

Union Depot “is a great place to get off the train,” Christianson said.

St. Paul has a number of major bus lines going to and from the depot as well as 22 city bus lines, he noted.

The train from Eau Claire to St. Paul would need 2 to 3 percent ridership, and based on the volume of traffic on I-94, that would amount to 475,000 rides per year, Christianson said.

The rail coalition is, however, projecting up to one million rides per year for public transit, he said.

All together, the route from Eau Claire to Union Depot is 85.5 miles.

As of the November 14 PR&D meeting, seven private operations were willing to bid on the passenger service, and the next step will be to start talking with Union Pacific representatives about contracts, Christianson said.

The cost for implementing rail service from Eau Claire to St. Paul is expected to be about $200 million.

Freight railroads would contribute about $100 million, and another $100 million would come from the private and public sector, he said.

Resolutions

At this point, Christianson said, he is looking for resolutions of support from state, county and local governmental units.

The federal government still needs to give approval for passenger rail service from Eau Claire to St. Paul, and Christianson said he is looking for public support to bring with him when he goes to the federal government seeking approval.

Tom Carlson, Dunn County surveyor, asked how the frac sand trains “fighting for track space” would impact the possibility of passenger rail.

A year ago, three sand trains per day were using the rail line. Today, there are seven sand trains per day Christianson said.

If there were 12 sand trains per day, that would not allow passenger rail service, he said.

A total of $15 million gross annual income would come to the railroad from passenger service. Three sand trains to Texas would generate $15 million in gross income for the railroad, Christianson said.

The cost of shipping frac sand to Texas, however, is precisely the reason why some hydraulic fracturing operations are starting to use sand available in Texas.

Samir Nangia, an oil field services analyst and industry expert for the investment company IHS, appeared on the public radio show the West Side on 88.3 WHWC Menomonie-Eau Claire last April.

More companies are starting to use brown sand in places like Texas, Nangia said.

The brown sand goes by a variety of names, such as Brady sand or Brady brown or Brady gold.

The sand from Wisconsin is of a high quality with “crush strength and roundness.” The companies that are using inferior types of sand are doing so because the sand is available closer to the fracking operations, he said.

If the sand mine and the sand processing facility are close to the oil wells, then the companies incur very little in transportation costs, Nangia said.

Farmers

Dunn County resident Carl Casper wondered how farmers would deal with trying to move farm implements over the railroad tracks at crossings if there were 100 mph trains traveling through the area.

Casper said he “could not imagine” how farmers in the Town of Menomonie would be able to cross the tracks.

Every grade crossing has been mapped. There are 90 public crossings and 25 private crossings, such as field driveways, Christianson said.

If the trains are traveling at less than 110 mph, the signs and crossing arms that exist now are considered sufficient, he said.

If the trains were to travel faster than 110 mph, then the federal law requires bridges to be installed over crossings, and no at-grade crossings would be allowed, Christianson said.

Jim Dunning, a supervisor on the Eau Claire County Board, accompanied Christianson to the Dunn County PR&D meeting.

Dunning gave the committee a draft resolution indicating support for passenger rail and said the West Central Wisconsin Rail Coalition would like a resolution of support from the Dunn County Board.

The Dunn County Board met the evening of the PR&D meeting, so there was not enough time to place the resolution on the agenda for the November meeting.

The county board does not meet in December, and the soonest Dunn County could consider a resolution of support would be at the January meeting.

For more information, visit www.westwisconsinrail.org.