High Speed Passenger Rail on the Horizon

It appears more likely as each day passes that a regional high speed rail corridor is going to be established along the Rocky Mountains corridor from Belen, New Mexico, through Colorado and up to Casper, Wyoming. Progress is being made on several fronts to get this exciting transportation alternative to become a reality, perhaps as early as 2015. The big challenges that remain beside securing matching funding from Congress is to relocate the industrial coal-carrying trains on to newer tracks farther east on the plains, particularly in Colorado.

New Mexico is quite far along with a passenger line already in operation in the Albuquerque corridor with an extension to Santa Fe to be operating in 2008 and the line extended on to Las Vegas and Raton by 2011. The promise of this high speed rail line would mean a trip from Cheyenne to Denver would take about an hour versus about an hour and a half via automobile. A trip from Denver to Albuquerque could be as short as three and a quarter hours. Cheyenne to Casper could be done via this high-speed train in a little over two hours instead of three and one-half by automobile.

Lets hope that this becomes a reality in the next decade and the rail lines are extended to Phoenix and Tucson to the south and Billings and Rapid City to the north by 2025.

http://www.rangerxpress.com/

http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2007/04/22/opinion_2007/staff_editorials/ourview833.txt

A Wild Lonesome Guest on the Property

Normally the Pronghorn Antelope are in herds of at least 7-8 and sometimes up to 30 in number, but this fellow decided to go it alone for awhile it seems and took up residence on the property for a few hours. He basically snacked on the newly green prairie grass and then laid down and stared at the surrounding countryside. Darkness fell so I do not know if he is still out there or if he decided to get back to his "people". He was about 6o feet from the front door for the most part and he ignored the barking St Bernards and the twice-per-hour automobile that came by. There are literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of these critters on the prairie surrounding Cheyenne and they blend in quite well with the vegetation on the gently rolling plains. Maybe this fellow had spring fever and had to get out and away from the herd and see what was out there without being overseen by the boss.

Plans for New Taj Mahal for Minnesota Vikings Unveiled

The Minnesota Vikings became the latest pro team to announce plans for a spectacular magnificent building with all the bells and whistles. The stadium is to be built on the eastside of Downtown Minneapolis as part of a larger multi-use development with costs expected to be well in excess of $1 billion dollars. As one might expect, taxpayers in the Twin Cities and the Land of 10,000 Lakes will pickup the vast majority of the expense, probably around 80 % or more of it by the time everything is accounted for by the date of the building's projected opening in 2012.

While the design of the facility is quite beautiful and architecturally impressive, it probably is overkill. But it would mean the awarding of future Super Bowls, Final Fours, and other noteworthy conventions and events to the Twin Cities which would have a significant positive economic impact as there is no competition with a building and development of this size in that region and the cities of Detroit and St. Louis are the nearest areas with comparable facilities.

http://www.startribune.com/510/story/1131935.html

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2843492