NLX Project Stalled After Lawmakers Reallocate Funds

The project's future is now in the complete hands of the Federal Government.

DULUTH, Minn. — The Northern Lights Express has stalled at its next approval station. This comes after some Minnesotan Lawmakers tried to gut the funding the state has already received.

In 2023, the NLX was approved of $194.5 million from the state’s legislators. The amount was Minnesota’s 20% share of the project and was waiting on the federal government for the next steps.

Recently, state lawmakers pulled $77 million from the state’s NLX funds. The pulled funds will now go towards Unemployment Insurance for hourly school works like secretaries, bus drivers, school cooks, etc., that would lose their job during the summer.

Despite the loss in some funding, local lawmakers are thinking positive about the project’s future.

“If we can keep it in that account, if the federal government decides that they are going to do move forward with this project, or invest in this project that is enough to help move that forward,” said Rep. Pete Johnson (DFL-Duluth). “But if we completely stripped all those dollars out of there, it would have probably had the federal government would have walked away from it. But they’re still looking at it. We’re still hearing that it’s a possibility.”

NLX planned route starts in Superior, Wis., making a stop at the Duluth Depot, and ends south at Minneapolis’ Target Field station with stops in Hinckley, Cambridge, and Coon Rapids.

Ken Buehler, who is with Joint Powers Alliance for NLX, spoke with the office of transportation which is overseen by (R) Sean Duffy.

“Sean Duffy was very supportive of that,” said Buehler. “We met with his staff and they echoes his comments. We believe that train projects are inevitable. As we look at the environment, as we look at people’s transportation needs, as we look at what is costs to own and operate an automobile, more and more transportation is going to be done by the community. And NLX is a part of that, and will be successful. It’s just a matter of time.”

The state still has $117.4 million set aside for NLX. According to Buehler, the Federal Railroad Administration is expected to review NLX’s future within the next month.