Business, overall, is good, if not great. During this year's first quarter -- January through March -- Northstar served 137,849 rides, Gibbons said. That's 4,000 rides short of projections, meaning Northstar reached 97 percent of its expectations. Officials were pleased, Gibbons said.
"Talking to other startup systems throughout the country, we've learned that it takes quite a while for people to grow familiar with commuter rail," said Tim Yantos, executive director of the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority and Northstar Corridor Development Authority. "We don't have trains every seven minutes. Our focus is to move people at the busiest times of the day."
Bachmann has always opposed funding for rail projects like Northstar. This is what used to be on Bachmann's campaign website:
"As your District 52 State Senator, I will work hard to add capacity to Minnesota highways.... This is my personal commitment to you." "Michele believes a successful transportation policy must put an end to the diversion of scarce funds to impractical and expensive rail transit programs that will have no direct benefit for area residents and will cost millions of dollars in the future for operating subsidies. She has called for dedicating 100 percent of the sales tax on vehicles to road construction."
During the last election Bachmann pretended to support Northstar (ECM editorial):
And while tending to matters at home in her district she found time to pillage legislative candidates who voted their conscience on the state’s transportation issues, but had to leave early from our one-hour endorsement interview.
What really sealed her fate, however, was her unwillingness to later answer point-blank questions about a bridge project in St. Cloud and the Northstar Commuter Rail. We find it disingenuous that she wears a Northstar lapel pin but won’t comment on whether or when the line should ever be extended to St. Cloud and Rice.
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