Mayo Clinic collides with coal trains

0 Comments | USA TODAY, July, 2006 | by Judy Keen

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Trains rumble slowly through downtown about three times a day, blocking traffic for a few minutes on the threshold of the Mayo Clinic.

The inconvenience isn't a big deal to many of this city's 95,000 residents. "Trains are romantic" and played a key role in the area's history, says John Hunkele, 50, a baker.

But a plan by the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad (DM&E) to run mile-long trains loaded with coal through here daily has fueled a bitter eight-year battle pitting the famous clinic and its hometown against a growing railroad.

On one side is DM&E, which is based in Sioux Falls, S.D. It wants to expand into a 2,762-mile network carrying coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin. DM&E President Kevin Schieffer says eight coal trains...