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The Northstar rail line was envisioned as a convenient way for commuters to live in northern Twin Cities suburbs and hop a train to work in downtown Minneapolis.

To help that happen, cities along its 40-mile path bought land around the stations and built parking ramps, walkways and other infrastructure.

The Metropolitan Council's decision to suspend the 16-year-old rail service in early January has left cities on Northstar's route uncertain about the future of their stations and the millions of dollars in infrastructure surrounding them.

At the Anoka station, Mayor Erik Skogquist pointed toward a parking ramp, a pedestrian overpass and two stairwells with elevators – all built since the rail line opened in 2009.

"Right now, it's kind of murky,” he said. “But what we were told originally was everything in the Burlington Northern right-of way was going to be removed."

The parking ramp at the station cost $10 million to build, and the city of Anoka helped foot the bill. Skogquist said the staircase people use to access the ramp is within BNSF Railway’s right-of-way, while the elevator is on city land.

"That's where it gets a little bit messy,” Skogquist said. “Because the infrastructure … it's not cleanly defined on Burlington Northern right-of-way or city property. And so trying to figure out what that would look like if all this is gone is difficult."

He said the city would like to keep using the ramp, but if the elevator and stairwells are torn down, the ramp wouldn’t be ADA compliant, so it would be unusable. 

“The big concern for us is that we're going to have a parking ramp that's not going to be ADA accessible,” Skogquist said. “So is that able to stay? Are we going to be compensated?”

It’s also unclear whether the city might have to repay federal dollars that were used to build the parking ramp, he said.

The Northstar rail line originally was envisioned to stretch all the way to St. Cloud. But those plans were scaled back due to cost, and the service stops in Big Lake instead.

Ridership never met expectations and plummeted during the pandemic as more people worked from home. Republican state lawmakers cited its high taxpayer subsidies and called for its shutdown.

In August, the Met Council voted to end the rail service in early January and replace the trains with commuter buses. That doesn't leave much time to unravel complicated leases and sort out what will happen to the stations and surrounding structures. 

Other Northstar cities have similar questions. In Fridley, a tunnel under the railroad tracks connects pedestrians with neighborhoods, trails and an elementary school, said Mayor David Ostwald.

"Having that tunnel remain open is pretty important to us, because we have developed infrastructure to go there – trails, roads, things like that, so that people that live on one side of the tracks can safely cross over,” he said.

Ostwald said the Met Council has agreed to turn the tunnel over to Fridley. But it's still not clear who will pay for maintenance and liability insurance. He's hoping for some clear answers and possibly financial compensation for the city.

"At some point, you know, we've invested into it, and they've invested into it, and it's their decision to cancel it,” Ostwald said. “So OK, who's going to get stuck footing the bill on this whole deal?"

In a statement, BNSF Railway said unused infrastructure next to active rail lines must be removed for safety reasons. When platforms or other structures remain in place without a clear purpose, “they can attract unsafe or inappropriate activity that poses risks to the public,” it stated.

Drew Kerr, a spokesperson for Metro Transit, which operates Northstar, said it’s working with cities to decide whether to transfer ownership of structures around the stations, or remove them altogether if they’re no longer needed.

Skogquist, the Anoka mayor, said he thinks tearing out millions of dollars of public investment would be a mistake.

"Once it's gone, it's very difficult and very expensive to put back,” he said.

Skogquist would rather see the state keep operating Northstar and attract more riders by adding more frequent trips. Or, maybe the existing Northstar stations could be used for Amtrak's Borealis train that runs from St. Paul to Chicago, he said.

"It's probably going to be pretty difficult to stop the train from stopping now,” Skogquist said. “But I think it's really important to make sure we have this infrastructure in place so that maybe different minds and different times can look at this and say, ‘We can utilize this in maybe a slightly different way.’”

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Kirsti Marohn

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Cities along the Northstar commuter rail invested heavily in stations and surrounding infrastructure to support suburban-to-downtown travel. With service set to be suspended in January, those communities are now unsure what will happen next.

Northstar’s looming shutdown leaves cities in limbo

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