The bonding package Governor Tim Walz is proposing has 64 million dollars for rail safety improvements in Minnesota, including 52 million for a grade crossing separation in Moorhead. Walz says the problem in that community is “trains backing up and setting there ’til your pizza’s cold, your kids are late at practice, whatever it might be. Every person who’s ever been to Moorhead, the trains back up and they’re stuck there.”
Walz is also asking for 11 million dollars to leverage federal money for developing passenger rail lines such as the Northern Lights Express between Duluth and the Twin Cities, and a second daily Amtrak run between the Twin Cities and Chicago.