St. Paul, Minn. — Workers are already laying track for the Central Corridor Light Rail line between downtown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul. The west end of the line will stop at Target Field.

The east end of the line line will be the Union Depot in St. Paul, and the renovation of that historic building has begun in earnest....

Passenger trains haven't been on the depot's platform since the last Burlington Northern Zephyr pulled out of the station on April 30, 1971.

Passenger rail had already been declining when the depot was built in the 1920s, according to John Diers, a railroad buff who's writing a history of the station.

"Some of the railroad presidents didn't want to build a fancy depot like this. They thought it was a waste of money," Diers said. "And it turned out they were right. Because by the time it was completed in 1924, the passenger train was already in decline."...