The Minnesota Department of Transportation announced Friday it will receive the first $500,000 of what they hope will be hundreds of millions of dollars for a new passenger train from the Twin Cities to Duluth. The Northern Lights Express doesn’t have a timetable for when it will be up and running because it is dependent on federal funding.

“It is I think a downpayment and you see I think they’re highlighting, the Biden administration was highlighting these contributions over the past week,” political analyst Brian McClung said on “At Issue with Tom Hauser.”

The Minnesota Legislature approved $195 million in funding during the last session contingent on the federal government paying $779 million of the $974 million project — about 80% of the cost. The federal money for Minnesota is part of $8.2 billion awarded on Friday for rail projects across the country. Many of the projects that are considered “shovel-ready” for construction received much more money than the $500,000 Minnesota and several other states received to plan rail lines.

There hasn’t been a dedicated passenger rail line between the Twin Cities and Duluth since 1985 when service was discontinued due to low ridership. From 1975 to 1985 the ridership ranged from a low of about 32,000 passengers in 1975 to a high of 101,000 in 1981.

McClung says it appears the Biden administration is trying to boost rail lines in places that haven’t traditionally had them.

“They’re looking for ways to connect more regions,” he said. “We don’t have much of this in the Midwest. It’s more common in the New England states and the northeast.”

There is no timetable for Minnesota’s new rail service between the Twin Cities and Duluth.