Transit

I wanted to get a better look at the mess on University. Yesterday I came at it at the end of the ride. I was getting tired and mostly just wanted to get home. Today I headed straight over there, determined to find what the most bicycle friendly crossing is as of now and also to assess progress.

Well, there really isn't any bicycle friendly crossing. Passage is possible on both Vandalia and Cleveland but even at midday both of those streets were absolutely clogged with cars. Vandalia isn't very bicycle friendly in the best of times. Getting across University there would leave you riding somewhere you don't really want to be while on a bicycle so I was pretty easily discouraged there.

On the other hand, I ride Cleveland when all is normal. I won't be doing so any more this year.

I also wanted to check on the new station going in at Raymond.I wasn't going to get across University so I set about exploring that industrial area between Cleveland and the city limits.

Anyone who fondly remembers the Minneapolis Great Northern Depot will probably be saddened to learn that the Empire Builder now leaves from this unassuming little box.I was looking around the yard and noticed that they have some apparently retired rolling stock on sidings. I thought from a distance this might be one of the Vista Dome cars which were an advertised feature of the Empire Builder. Alas, my color recognition was way off. That's a Super Dome car from the Milwaukee Road.Amtrak still runs something called the Empire Builder. I read the two Wikipedia articles and it seems apparent that the Amtrak Empire Builder mostly uses the old Great Northern route meaning that the towns served by its competitor from the heyday of rail traffic, the Northern Pacific Railway's North Coast Limited no longer have any rail service at all.

We'll be sorry for that someday when the Interstate Highway System deteriorates and we are unable to afford to keep it in good repair. As evidence of this I point back to the start of the post and note that they had to tear out the old streetcar tracks along University Avenue before they could lay the new light rail tracks. I'll bet it happens again on the larger scale before too many more years pass.