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Twin Cities Business - Short Lines, Big Problems http://tcbmag.com/news/articles/2017/June/short-lines,-big-problems Though the railroad was upgraded east of roughly its midpoint at Winthrop, the western portion remains in dire shape. "The bridge [at Morton] was built in 1912. It needs a $15 million rebuild. It's so expensive because it's a mile long," says Julie Rath, administrator for the Minnesota Valley Regional Railway Authority. "It can't take [conventional] 286,000 -pound railcars, so we are shipping cars not full," Rath continues. "We ship at night because it's less likely the rails will have expanded." There is a bill before the Legislature to forgive over $4 million in state loans dating to the counties' takeover of the railroad in 2002, because it cannot generate sufficient revenue to pay them back. "Revenue streams were hoped to be sufficient to pay back loans in 15 years," says Mark Wegner, president/CEO of the Twin Cities & Western Railroad, which operates the Prairie Line under contract to the county rail authority, "but they are not." The state has been its own worst enemy. Last year the Legislature, at the behest of utility companies, changed a law that required utilities to pay rent to railroads for crossing their The start of the mile -long Morton trestle track. The rent was replaced by a one-time $1,200 payment. "$1,200 used to be our application fee," Rath notes. She says the rail authority received $160,000 in annual rent from utilities. "It's our operating budget." So a difficult situation on the railroad is now acute, which is why the Legislature is considering forgiving its loan, says Rep. Paul Thorkelson (R-Hanska), who represents Morton and chairs the House transportation finance committee. SMALL BUSINESSES, CRITICAL MASS The University of Minnesota has been following the Minnesota Prairie Line since it was purchased by the counties. Its most recent economic impact study covers 2014. It suggests that though Morton is home to a limited number of jobs and employers, when the entire line is factored in, the railroad is a robust economic engine, generating $448 million in annual activity, including 960 jobs and $65 million in wages. The railroad itself created $3.4 million in economic activity, including 25 jobs and $1.4 million in salaries. And the investment the state made in upgrading the line to 25 mph welded rail from Winthrop to Norwood has paid off. "There's been investment in business along the line," Wegner says. "[Heartland Corn's] ethanol plant in Winthrop tripled in size," while Dairy Farmers of America has substantially increased its frozen butter business. Harvest Land Co-op in Morton could make a similar investment, it says, should the western portion of the line be stabilized. Harvest Land's Morton elevator serves 300 farms. It employs 150 total, three in Morton. [Close] "We took over the elevator in the early 1980s and it got to the The Morton elevator complex point we couldn't operate because the tracks weren't good enough," says grain operations manager Roger Vaske. 8 of 9 6/16/17, 11:35 AM