MnDOT begins Zip Rail environmental study

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor

Several options for high-speed passenger rail service between the Twin Cities and Rochester, Minn., known as Zip Rail, will undergo the first phase of a two-step environmental impact statement review process.

 

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), the Federal Railroad Administration and the Olmsted County Regional Railroad Authority filed a Notice of Intent to prepare a Tiered Environmental Impact Statement for the Zip Rail project.

Based on public and agency input gathered during the scoping process and the technical analyses conducted to date, MnDOT determined that the no-build alternative and eight end-point to end-point corridors will be evaluated in the first phase (Tier 1) of the EIS. The Tier 1 EIS will examine the social, economic and environmental impacts of each option.

The Zip Rail study area covers approximately a 100-mile corridor between Rochester and the Twin Cities, which includes Dakota, Dodge, Goodhue, Hennepin, Olmsted, Ramsey and Rice counties and various end points in the Twin Cities and Rochester. There is no continuous existing railroad connection between the Twin Cities and Rochester, so many of the potential corridors would create new transportation routes.

 

Tags: