The commuter rail is the best option as it is on existing rail and is the cheapest!

One more mass transit project that we cannot afford, don't need and won't use but it will still cost a lot, never break even and consume a lot of time & money in studies, legal fees, impact statements and tax dollars first.

Matt's $0.02 recommendations: - As Northstar has proven, our metro isn't suited to commuter rail that ends in the sticks. If it is built, it needs to go to Eau Claire and provide intercity service 6-10x a day, meant to service travelers (connecting via other transit modes) rather than commuters. - Focus on express buses (peak hours) and station-to-station BRT (off-peak hours) for now. - Light rail is not feasible at this point and will never be feasible to Hudson. Focus on LRT via the East Side and 3M to Woodbury at some point maybe 20 years from now after other lines are built.

Hahhhahhhha, what a joke. This is fantasy, just build more and better roads and be done with it. I wonder what this study cost?

@morejustice one benefit of commuter rail would be that the St. Paul - Minneapolis section could be interlined and provide frequent high-capacity service between downtowns (to supplement the high-volume local transit served by the Central LRT). This would mean trains between Mpls and St. Paul, then branching off past Union Depot to White Bear/Northeast, Eau Claire/East, and Hastings/Red Wing/Southeast.

Minneapolis to Eau Claire would be great. But Wisconsin better chip in to help out.

With the ridership issues of the Northstar route, I really doubt the commuter rail option as viable. Stick to option 1 with existing Express buses to Woodbury and Park and Ride lots. The transportation stuff is getting out of hand. If someone is working in the Twin Cities and lives in Hudson, or Eau Claire, they should really consider moving, or find a job in Wisconsin. That is simply ridiculous. Mass transit is designed to serve densely populated areas, and any options should focus on the immediate Twin Cities metro, not peripheral communities that are not even part of the third ring suburbs.

Roads are not free!!!!! they cost billions and billions to maintain and the GAS TAX IS NOT covering the cost.....and as the population ages, how do you expect the handicapped and elderly to get around...guess you want them to drive???? stupid.

Bus rapid transit is the way to go on this corridor.

Something that people need to realize is that the price of gas WILL go up as time goes on. Right now, if you took out oil subsidies and we paid for what the actual price of gas should be, it would be around $5/gallon. As oil does become more scarce, the price will go up. We will hit peak production in the lifetime of most who read this article. Why would we not want to be prepared for a time when people can't afford to drive 30k miles a year in a car? It is much easier to build the tracks, and then modify how the train engine works than it is to get 20k commuters to all buy a fuel cell car. We need to truly plan for the actual future, and not a future that is based upon fiction.