{"id":2696,"date":"2025-02-14T18:58:48","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T18:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/?p=2696"},"modified":"2025-04-29T19:00:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T19:00:33","slug":"citing-cost-concerns-house-gop-bill-moves-to-pause-spending-on-light-rail-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/2025\/02\/14\/citing-cost-concerns-house-gop-bill-moves-to-pause-spending-on-light-rail-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Citing cost concerns, House GOP bill moves to pause spending on light rail projects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Stop that train! That\u2019s what Rep. Kristin Robbins<\/a> (R-Maple Grove) would like to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She sponsors HF14<\/a> to temporarily prohibit any Metropolitan Council spending on any other light rail transit projects until the Southwest LRT Green Line extension project is completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The primary project that would be affected by such a moratorium would be the METRO Blue Line extension, which is proposed to operate on 13.4 miles of light rail track between downtown Minneapolis and Brooklyn Park. That project is still in the design phase, with construction currently slated to begin in 2027 and the first trains scheduled to leave the station in 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The House Transportation Finance and Policy Committee took the bill up on Wednesday and \u2014 during a vigorous debate and committee members\u2019 proposals to re-refer the bill to other committees \u2014 the committee chair, Rep. Jon Koznick<\/a> (R-Lakeville), called the question and the committee voted 8-7 along party lines to refer the bill to the House Floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is an attempt to help save taxpayers money by pausing the construction of the Blue Line light rail until the Southwest light rail line is complete and then we can evaluate whether the Blue Line still makes sense,\u201d Robbins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After saying that the Southwest LRT Green Line extension was a project slated to cost $1.25 billion in 2018 that has grown to a projected $2.9 billion, Robbins talked about the projected costs of the Blue Line extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe cannot afford to make this same mistake again with the Blue Line,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was originally going to cost $999 million and open in 2022. \u2026 And now here we are in 2025 with a projected cost of $3.2 billion and now it\u2019s slated to open in 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robbins suggested that a bus rapid transit line could be completed for a fraction of the cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All 10 testifiers spoke against the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast fall, all the cities along the Blue Line extension passed municipal consent for this project,\u201d said Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison. \u201cConsent is earned through a lot of public engagement. \u2026 It\u2019s taken many, many years to get to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cApproximately 20% of all Hennepin County households without a car live within one mile of what will be the Blue Line extension,\u201d said Brooklyn Park Mayor Hollies Winston. \u201cBrooklyn Park will be putting $8 million of infrastructure improvements along the line. \u2026 And numerous developers are talking to us about developing a biotech corridor along the line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Katie Jones<\/a> (DFL-Mpls) challenged Robbins on her comparison to the Green Line extension\u2019s cost overruns and delays, saying they were primarily related to building an underwater tunnel, something absent from the Blue Line extension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stop that train! That\u2019s what Rep. Kristin Robbins (R-Maple Grove) would like to do. She sponsors HF14 to temporarily prohibit any Metropolitan Council spending on any other light rail transit projects until the Southwest LRT Green Line extension project is completed. The primary project that would be affected by such a moratorium would be the METRO Blue Line extension, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1714,1708,1715],"class_list":["post-2696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-metro-blue-line-extension","tag-rep-kristin-robbins","tag-southwest-lrt-green-line-extension-project","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2697,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696\/revisions\/2697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}