Passenger Trains > Last ride on Northstar commuter rail - January, 2026

The final ride on the Northstar Commuter Rail will bring Vikings fans home from a game against the Green Bay Packers on Jan. 3 or 4, 2026. The last commuter service will run Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, according to a presentation given to the Metropolitan Council’s Committee of the Whole on Aug. 6.Metro Transit officials Craig Lamothe, director of Northstar transition, and Adam Harrington, director of service development, outlined the plan to suspend train operations and replace them with expanded bus service connecting Ramsey, Anoka, Coon Rapids, Fridley and downtown Minneapolis.
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The line saw just 430 average weekday riders in 2024, down from a peak of 2,660 before the COVID-19 pandemic—and far below the system’s projected 2025 ridership goal. Meanwhile, operational costs have increased despite fewer trips: Northstar is now providing just 40 weekly rides, down from 72 in 2019.
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Northstar’s final down | Anoka | hometownsource.com

Heritage Rail Alliance did their annual convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul in October of 2017.   Did an 'out and back' on the Northstar commuter line.   

Yes, the outer end (Big Lake) is really in a cornfield, not much around except a rather well done maintenance shop and a big parking lot that you wonder what will evolve into.

Return train back into the stadium area (reverse commute) was almost empty, a few of us grabbed the 'cab seats' in the left hand front of the cab car coach, lower level, across from the engineer.   Next best thing to a cab ride down the BNSF main line.   And the F59's were just spotless, BTW.

What a trip that was roaring down the BNSF main!   Track speed, passing freights.   Newer and expensive stations.   Not many riders though.   Glad I got to ride it and shoot video.  But yeah, talk about a commuter line that didn't really appear to go anywhere.  A classic case of a 'phase 1' that never got to 'phase 2' and got the real ridership target that was always further northwest toward Rice.

randgust Wrote:
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> What a trip that was roaring down the BNSF main! 
>  Track speed, passing freights.   Newer and
> expensive stations.   Not many riders though. 
>  Glad I got to ride it and shoot video.  But
> yeah, talk about a commuter line that didn't
> really appear to go anywhere.  A classic case of
> a 'phase 1' that never got to 'phase 2' and got
> the real ridership target that was always further
> northwest toward Rice.

Sort of sets the limits on how low one can go in trying to justify proposed commuter services using conventional trains.

“… operational costs have increased despite fewer trips.”

Well, fixed costs are just that. I suppose not all reporters understand transportation issues.

< The line saw just 430 average weekday riders in 2024, down from a peak of 2,660
< Northstar is now providing just 40 weekly rides, down from 72 in 2019.

We will never know, but what would ridership be now if there were 72 train per week ?
Ridership is down 84% while service was cut 45%, making nothing possible but traditional commutation trips.  

I don't know a lot about the Twin Cities area, but I wonder if this could open opportunities for extending the Borealis out to Big Lake (for the maintenance base) and maybe putting a Minneapolis Empire Builder stop at Fridley, the closest-in station to Target Field (I gather a Target Field Station stop for the Empire Builder would require a back-up move).  I know, the system's rigged against everything, but I'd like to learn more from Twin Cities fans.

There's lots of opportunity that Amtrak and the State "could explore" but I doubt they will come up with anything creative. 

So it looks like they will lease the Northstar equipment to Amtrak and others? Possibly this lease will generate more revenue that the cars ever did in Minneapolis commuter service...

We all knew that this was coming for a while. Even from the start, it was predicted that if Northstar never got extended to St. Cloud, it would fail. Well guess what, that's the fate. 

Passfanatic Wrote:
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> We all knew that this was coming for a while. Even
> from the start, it was predicted that if Northstar
> never got extended to St. Cloud, it would fail.
> Well guess what, that's the fate. 

Evem the North Star trains served St. Cloud in the first place, would the service have survived the pandemic?  My guess is no.  Around the country, commuter rail service saw much sharper declines in ridership than city bus and rail systems because commuter rail riders were more likely to work in jobs for which working from was feasible.  Once working from home was allowed, why would workers want to spend so much time commuting (almost two-hour ride on the Empire Builder without stops between the Twin Cities and St. Cloud)?

RuleG Wrote:
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> Passfanatic Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > We all knew that this was coming for a while.
> Even
> > from the start, it was predicted that if
> Northstar
> > never got extended to St. Cloud, it would fail.
> > Well guess what, that's the fate. 
>
> Evem the North Star trains served St. Cloud in the
> first place, would the service have survived the
> pandemic?  My guess is no.  Around the country,
> commuter rail service saw much sharper declines in
> ridership than city bus and rail systems because
> commuter rail riders were more likely to work in
> jobs for which working from was feasible.  Once
> working from home was allowed, why would workers
> want to spend so much time commuting (almost
> two-hour ride on the Empire Builder without stops
> between the Twin Cities and St. Cloud)?

It's less than a two hour ride - more like 80 to 90 minutes. There's a LOT of padding on the Empire Builder's schedule between St. Cloud and Minneapolis - in both directions of travel.  

jp1822 Wrote:
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>
> It's less than a two hour ride - more like 80 to
> 90 minutes. There's a LOT of padding on the Empire
> Builder's schedule between St. Cloud and
> Minneapolis - in both directions of travel.  

OK, I forgot to take padding into account when trying to figure out the travel time between the Twin Cities and St. Cloud.  Nevertheless, that is still nearly three hours per day, plus the time to get to and from the St. Cloud and Minneapolis stations.  With those lengthy travel times, why wouldn't commuters from St. Cloud opt to work from home if given the choice?

randgust Wrote:
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> Heritage Rail Alliance did their annual convention
> in Minneapolis/St. Paul in October of 2017. 
>  Did an 'out and back' on the Northstar commuter
> line.   
>
> Yes, the outer end (Big Lake) is really in a
> cornfield, not much around except a rather well
> done maintenance shop and a big parking lot that
> you wonder what will evolve into.

Its a line that literally goes from nowhere to nowhere and that fails to stop where people might want to go.  I.e., does not actually go to downtown Minneapolis, does not go to St. Paul, does not stop at University of Minnesota.

The biggest regional travel market out of Minneapolis is to Rochester, MN.  So of course they built a line headed towards St. Cloud instead.

Then they only ran trains during rush hour.  Of course no one used it.

> yeah, talk about a commuter line that didn't
> really appear to go anywhere.  A classic case of
> a 'phase 1' that never got to 'phase 2' and got
> the real ridership target that was always further
> northwest toward Rice.

I'm not sure why people think St. Cloud would have produced magical amounts of riders.

The capital spending I saw on the Northstar maintenance base, parking lots, stations, ADA elevator towers, everything, was just breathtaking.   Supposedly $375 million.  The only operation I've seen that stunned me any more was the New Mexico Rail Runner, not bad running down the median with a brand new line, but when you got to a crossroad exit,.... it's empty the budget time - reportedly $385-400 million.  So when you realize that the track was already there for the Northstar, you realize how much went into support infrastructure as the equipment fleet is six locomotives and 18 cars.

abyler Wrote:
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> Its a line that literally goes from nowhere to
> nowhere and that fails to stop where people might
> want to go.  I.e., does not actually go to
> downtown Minneapolis, does not go to St. Paul,
> does not stop at University of Minnesota.

Many commuter railroads do not bring their riders directly into a Downtown area.  Exceptions I can think of right away are Metro North to Grand Central Terminal, Metra to LaSalle Street Station and Milennium Park Station, and SEPTA to Center City Philadelphia.  CalTrain is a relatively successful commuter rail system with a station located far from San Francisco's core business district.

North Star's Minneapolis station is located along the northern edge of Downtown Minneapolis.  There are light rail lines providing connecting at Target Field to bring North Star commuters into Downtown Minneapolis' core area.  That said, perhaps a station should have been built to provide more convenient access to the University of Minnesota.

>
> The biggest regional travel market out of
> Minneapolis is to Rochester, MN.  So of course
> they built a line headed towards St. Cloud
> instead.
>
> Then they only ran trains during rush hour.  Of
> course no one used it.

When I was in Minneapolis in 2015, I was able to ride the North Star from Minneapolis to Big Lake round trip on a Sunday morning.
>
> I'm not sure why people think St. Cloud would have
> produced magical amounts of riders.

Agreed, especially in post-pandemic times.