From a correspondent in the far north of Minnesota comes a link to this article from the Duluth News Tribune reporting that $5 million already awarded for planning the Northern Lights Express “high-speed” rail line from Minneapolis to Duluth may be rescineded. It seems that members of the House Appropriations subcommittee considering this has the weird idea that federal funds can more sensibly be spent to repair the damage from recent floods on the upper Missouri and other rivers in the Upper Midwest. The newly elected Republican congressman from the 8^th district, which includes Duluth, Chip Cravaack, says he’s undecided on whether to seek the funds. That’s one pretty good indication that it’s a good time to put a stop to the Northern Light Express project, whose one good feature seems to be its nifty name.

Or at least that’s the conclusion I draw from reading the Northern Lights Express’s own website. The website claims the project would “spur approximately $2 billion in development” and would “encourage about 18,300 jobs” and “provide an environmental sound alternative to automobiles that can be used for business and tourism.” The verb-and-adverb combinations “spur approximately”  and “encourage about” indicate to any but the least skeptical of readers that the promoters of this project have nothing close to a verifiable idea of how much development it would “spur” and how many jobs it would “encourage.” (“About 18,300” suggests a spurious precision. Why not “about 18,286”?) As for the passenger train being “an environmental sound alternative to automobiles,” I should think that that would depend on whether the rail line ever attracts an appreciable number of passengers.