Quote:
Originally Posted by Aylmer
I'm really not an expert, nor am I from the area. I hope that some of the Winnipeg forumers can chime in. From the sounds of it, it's mostly a long-weekend destination for shopping, entertainment, etc. I haven't heard of the reverse.
I figure that there must also be demand for intermediary trips, such as Grand Forks- or Fargo-Minneapolis.
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As has been mentioned, a Winnipeg-Minneapolis train probably wouldn't be routed through Fargo or Grand Forks.
I would not expect a train between this city pair to do very well. Business travellers fly (it's never a cheap ticket, it is quite often cheaper to buy a ticket to Atlanta or some other Delta city via MSP than it is to fly to MSP itself), and leisure travellers drive. One of the main benefits of driving is that Minneapolis is a place where having a car is helpful, so when you drive you have a car to use there. But that said, the improving rapid transit system in the Twin Cities is making a car less essential than it used to be.
Given that a train is unlikely to match the speed that a car travel between Winnipeg and Minneapolis, there has to be a cost advantage. And can an operator make a train work with low cost tickets? I don't think so.