The Freedom Foundation of Minnesota continues to do good work when it comes to investigating the transit in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area.  This summary by Tom Steward shows that their is no evidence to justify the St. Cloud extension of the North Star rail.  Steward writes, "As of the end of May, the new Northstar Link bus service was attracting less than 60 percent of its projected passenger load. That should be a red flag for planners and proponents, who've been on board for expanding Northstar service to St. Cloud from the start.  The projected number of passengers is supposed to be a key factor in deciding whether to move forward with doubling the length of the 40 mile line. To that end, officials inaugurated the Northstar Link Commuter Bus service last November "to demonstrate the demand for transit services" and "to help make their case for federal funding," as stated on their website catchthelink.com."  Of course that didn't stop them from building a "a convenient new $565,000 park and ride lot ...for Link passengers just off Highway 10 in St. Cloud, paid for with state bonding money and additional taxpayer funds from Northstar."

Some good news from Stewards report though.  It looks like someone in government is finally getting the message about the cost of rail lines.  "Supporters of public transit must be willing to share some simple truths that folks don't want to hear," said Federal Transit Administration Administrator Peter Rogoff. "One is this -- Paint is cheap, rail systems are extremely expensive. Yes, transit riders often want to go by rail. But it turns out you can entice even die-hard rail riders onto a bus, if you call it a 'special' bus and just paint it a different color than the rest of the fleet."