Canadian Pacific rail merger could lead to expansion of Twin Cities bike trails

Midtown Greenway enthusiasts have dreamed for years of connecting the popular south Minneapolis bike and pedestrian path to St. Paul, crossing the Mississippi River on a lightly used railroad bridge. Yet nothing ever happened, much to the frustration of Greenway fans.

But the corporate machinations of a $31 billion railroad merger currently playing out in Washington, D.C., could defy the stalemate and dramatically expand the Twin Cities' vaunted bike network, well beyond the Greenway.

Four Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) railroad spurs in Minneapolis and St. Paul that are now either abandoned or underused could be turned over to the public and made into bike trails, partly mitigating the perceived local economic harm caused by CP's acquisition of Kansas City Southern.

The merger means that Canadian Pacific's U.S. headquarters in downtown Minneapolis will be shuttered, affecting about 200 jobs. The U.S. Surface Transportation Board is expected to make a decision about the merger early next year.

The notion of horse trading assets during a railroad merger isn't as far-fetched as it sounds, according to Jerome Johnson, a retired transportation economist who lives in St. Paul.

"When big railroads merge, everyone lines up for a handout, whether it's labor, the shippers affected, small communities," said Johnson, who co-founded Citizen Advocates for Regional Transit, a local group backing public transportation. "An economic hit to Minneapolis as a result of this merger hurts just as bad."

Railroads may be amenable to making such deals, Johnson said, because they're hungry for mergers to be approved by "politically aware" federal regulators. In this case, "something that repurposes industrial spurs that are either dead or dying seems appropriate," he said.

Of CP's local spurs, the one potentially extending the Greenway — the Short Line bridge spanning the Mississippi, used daily by one CP train — holds the highest profile. But a lightly used spur along Hiawatha Avenue in south Minneapolis could galvanize the proposed Min Hi Line project, which would connect the Greenway to Minnehaha Park.

The other two spurs include one linking Minneapolis' Camden neighborhood to the North Loop downtown, and another connecting W. Seventh Street to the Highland Bridge development on the former Ford plant site in St. Paul.

Public entities typically pool financial resources from state and local coffers to make such deals happen, Johnson said. Soren Jensen, executive director of the Midtown Greenway Coalition, said an agreement could be struck with CP to share the Short Line bridge, where only one of two lanes is used for rail traffic.

But when asked about the fate of the Twin Cities spurs, CP spokesman Andy Cummings said those divestitures haven't been proposed as part of the merger plans.

"Any future plans involving those properties would need to consider safety and ensure continued rail service to businesses that depend on it," Cummings said in an email.

The deal would create the first freight rail network connecting the United States, Mexico and Canada. Most of CP's 1,100 employees in Minnesota won't be affected by the merger, Cummings said.

Still, a budding coalition of elected officials and transportation, environmental and neighborhood organizations say CP's rail spurs could improve the Twin Cities' active transportation network. They're pushing federal officials to require handing off the rail spurs as a condition for approving the merger.

In a joint letter to the Surface Transportation Board, Democratic U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith urged CP to be open to new shared-use agreements for rail corridors. The Greenway was built on an abandoned Milwaukee Railroad corridor.

"Minnesota has an impressive history of shared-use and rails-to-trails development that support job creation, carbon reduction and economic development," they wrote.

U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar and Betty McCollum, also Democrats, and some 23 local elected officials have written letters in support as well. An Omar representative, who recently testified before the board on her behalf, emphasized the economic benefits of connecting the Greenway to St. Paul.

Jensen said Hennepin County, whose rail authority owns the Greenway, "needs to get off its hands and really start leading on this." County officials, however, have expressed different views about the CP and Kansas City Southern merger.

In a 138-page brief submitted to the County Board and subsequent testimony, county officials raised concerns about the safety of rail crossings and the amount of hazardous waste transported locally by rail, as well as increased traffic — particularly at the busy Shoreham railyard in northeast Minneapolis.

County officials have asked the board "to impose conditions that would mitigate these impacts," said spokeswoman Carolyn Marinan, noting "we hope that [CP] will do the right thing and address these concerns."

Marinan said the county has spoken with CP and others about the possibilities for public use of the spurs. "We look forward to continuing the conversations," she said.

But Johnson said the merger, which was announced in 2021, opens a rare window of opportunity that may be fast closing.

"These underutilized urban core rail spurs cannot be replicated," he said. "When they become available, the public sector can ill afford to let the opportunity slip by."