Cutting off future rail funds and forcing the city to look at stopping rail at Middle St. is a good idea.  Nobody has analyzed how stopping rail at Middle St. will affect rail ridership.  The city council representatives, the state elected representatives, and the HART Board  have never openly discussed the city's estimates for rail ridership. Since the vast majority of rail riders will be forced out of their current buses and funneled onto rail stations, they will ride rail no matter where it ends and then either go to work or get on another bus.  For those only interested in TODs, and all the promised benefits of this type of planning, Middle St. is station number 13.  Therefore, we will have ample opportunity to try out the TOD concept 13 times.  Stopping rail at Middle St. will show us exactly what real ridership looks like and also let our city build it's first  13 TOD communities.