There's light at the end of a long tunnel for the Northstar Commuter Rail project, designed to provide commuter rail service between Minneapolis and Big Lake on existing Burlington-Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks.

Stymied for years by the failure of the Minnesota Legislature to include money for the project in state bonding or transportation legislation, particularly in the Minnesota House, where a group of House Republicans have successfully blocked funding, there is optimism that this year the tide may have turned.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty's support for the project, announced at the beginning of last year following a Federal Transit Administration (FTA) study that showed that Northstar commuter rail system, at least between Minneapolis and Big Lake, was cost-effective, has continued. He included the full amount of the state's initial share, $37.5 million, in his bonding bill proposal.

The Minnesota Senate followed suit and in the House, where Northstar has for years faltered, there was $10 million put in its bonding bill, which passed by a substantial margin.

Why the change of heart in the House? Well, Rep. Kathy Tingelstad, R-Andover, who has carried Northstar legislation in that chamber for years despite often virulent opposition from members of her own caucus, has not wavered in her support of the project. And she deserves tremendous credit for that. The 2004 House election saw 13 Republicans lose their seats, two in districts that include Coon Rapids. One of them, former Rep. Bill Haas, R-Champlin, made the motion to remove Northstar from the House bonding bill last year and the two DFL replacements, Denise Dittrich and Melissa Hortman, have made no secret of their support for Northstar, both during the election campaign and since.

The chairmanship of the House Capital Investment Committee, which writes the bonding bill, also changed from Rep. Phil Krinkie, one of Northstar's strongest opponents, to Rep. Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, a Northstar supporter.

But while optimism is strong, there are still a number of formidable hurdles for Northstar to overcome before trains start running in 2008, the target opening for the system. For one thing, the bonding bill that emerges from the 2005 Minnesota Legislature has to contain the full $37.5 million for Northstar. A conference committee is now meeting to hammer out differences, including Northstar funding, between the House and Senate bills.

Without the state funding this year, there is little hope that Congress will authorize the federal government's 50 percent share of the estimated $265 million project cost. Indeed, the state's failure to come up with it share of the project cost in the past has caused the Federal Transit Administration to change Northstar from a "recommended" to a "not recommended" project.

And the transportation bill that emerged from the U.S. House last week contained no money for Northstar. According to Anoka County Commissioner Dan Erhart, chairman of the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority and a member of the Northstar Corridor Development Authority, that was expected and is not a reason for concern.

There is strong bipartisan support for the project among the Minnesota Congressional delegation and that same House transportation bill did authorize the project to move forward to final design stage. And Erhart remains optimistic of federal support after meeting in Washington D.C. last week with Secretary of Transportation Leon Panetta and the head of the FTA.

But there remains much to be done and potential stumbling blocks before Northstar becomes a reality. One is the need to negotiate an agreement with the railroad on the use of its property and improvements that need to be made. The second is to persuade the Legislature to include the balance of the state's $88.3 million share of the project in the 2006 bonding bill.

While Northstar has been a contentious political issue over the years, its need has not diminished. Indeed, the overwhelming success of the Hiawatha light rail system since its opening last summer has demonstrated that Twin Cities residents will use public transit, and the Northstar will have a link to Hiawatha at its Minneapolis terminus.

And over the years that Northstar has been a controversial issue, congestion in the Highway 10 corridor has become worse and little is being done to deal with the situation by upgrading Highway 10, largely because of a lack of state funding and the failure of the Legislature and administrations, past and present, to provide a consistent source of revenue for highway projects.

No one is suggesting that commuter rail will solve the Highway 10 congestion problem - that requires both transit and road improvements - but it can certainly ease congestion by taking people off the road and into commuter trains.

And if commuter rail does start rolling in 2008, that could be the catalyst that sparks future transit projects in the Twin Cities, including a light rail (Hiawatha-style) connecting downtown St. Paul, the State Capitol, the University of Minnesota and downtown Minneapolis, and rapid bus lines to downtown Minneapolis from Rogers, Apple Valley and Lakeville, all high growth areas in the metropolitan area.

No self-respecting major metropolitan area in the country, or the world for that matter, can afford to be without a strong transit system to take the load off the highway system. Northstar will go a long way to making sure that the Twin Cities is not left wanting in that regard.

Editor's note: This is a product of he ECM Editorial Board. The ABC Newspapers are a division of ECM Publishers, Inc., Coon Rapids.

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