Agenda - Council Work Session - 01/26/2010

Home

Metropolitan Council November 2, 2009 Kurt Ulrich, City Administrator City of Ramsey 7550 Sunwood Drive NW Ramsey, MN 55303 Re: Northstar Commuter Rail Station Dear Mr. Ulrich: Over the past several months, the City of Ramsey has raised numerous issues and concerns regarding a proposed Northstar Station, continuation of bus service, and CMAQ grants. To date, it doesn't appear that the Council has been very helpful in explaining our position, so I'd like to take this opportunity to attempt to provide some clarity. First, there seems to be confusion over the ridership analysis used for your CMAQ application versus that used to justify a commuter rail station. Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality (CMAQ) grants are intended, as the name implies, to reduce congestion and air emissions. As you know the City was awarded a CMAQ grant in 2005 for bus service and a parking facility starting in 2009. However, the City of Ramsey advanced the bus service portion of project, which has been successfully operated since 2007. Currently, the City is seeking a CMAQ grant for a Northstar rail station. To receive a new CMAQ grant, the City needs to demonstrate new ridership. In calculating rail ridership for the grant, the City cannot count the existing bus ridership -because the congestion mitigation and air quality impacts attributable to those riders were already counted and paid for through the previous CMAQ grant. While bus ridership cannot be used for purposes of your CMAQ rail station application, it can nevertheless be used to justify a rail station. As you know, a commuter rail station at Ramsey has been considered since 1999 when a ridership analysis was conducted as part of the Northstar Commuter Rail DEIS. The ridership estimates using the regional model at that time indicated that overall ridership on Northstar Commuter Rail does not increase enough to justify the capital and operating cost for the Ramsey station. In 2004 a Rail Station Feasibility Shldy was conducted. fir a potential Ramsey Station, and most recently the 2009 Ramsey Station Preliminary Engineering Study was prepared for Anoka County Regional Rail Authority. Both studies considered scenarios including express bus service from Ramsey as compared to commuter rail. Neither significantly changed ridership on the overall Northstar Line. While the ridership modeling to date does not support a Ramsey rail station, a couple of factors could have a positive impact over the course of the next year or two. First, the regional model estimates all rides at all stations served by Northstar Line. A key data input to the regional model is residential and employment estimates. These depend on input from each City's Comprehensive Plan to accurately forecast ridership. We would expect that the City's updated comprehensive plan will show additional development and will boost ridership projections. The City's comprehensive plan update is 10 months delinquent, and we would encourage you to submit a complete update at your earliest convenience. www. metrocouncil. org 390 Robert Street North • St. Paul, MN 55101-1805 (651) 602-1000 Fax (651) 602-1550 TTY (651) 291-09041 An Equa( Opportunity Employer