Could it be the end of the line for Northstar Commuter Rail service?
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Alice O’Brien and Alix Westlund emerge from a Northstar Commuter Rail train that has pulled into the Ramsey Station, northwest of the Twin Cities. The engaged couple traveled from their home in Minneapolis and are waiting for O’Brien’s parent to pick them up so they can buy a car in Ramsey.
The couple only recently found out about the existence of the Northstar Commuter Rail line, O’Brien said. And soon after, they learned the train might be at the end of its line due to a bill in the Minnesota House.
“I wish we had figured this out before we found out that it was gonna disappear, because this is definitely convenient,” O’Brien said. “I’m glad we are able to use it while we have it still.”
Although they’ve relied on public transportation, they are new to the Northstar, despite both of them having family in Big Lake.
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“We don’t actually ride it a ton. We’ve only rode it a couple of times but it would be really convenient for it to keep going,” Westlund said. “It’s really nice for people that don’t have vehicles to be able to have access to the northern part of the metro.”
The price is a plus as well, Westlund said. Fares range from $3.25-$6.25, depending on where a rider boards. Westlund said they paid about $3.50.
“It’s so cheap for such a long ride,” Westlund added.
But critics say Northstar operations aren’t so cheap for Minnesota taxpayers. Legislation in the state House would start the process of ending the service. The bill's co-author, Rep. Jon Koznick, R-Lakeville, explained in a committee hearing Feb. 24 why he thinks it’s time to end the commuter rail line after 15 years.
“It has had ridiculously low ridership, ridiculously huge operating subsidies and ridiculously expensive maintenance costs,” Koznick said.
The legislation, if passed, would request federal approval to end service. In its request, the state would make it clear it would not reimburse the Federal Transit Administration for federal funds spent on Northstar.
The future without service is a big question mark for the six cities in the northwest metro that are served by the train: Big Lake, Elk River, Ramsey, Anoka, Coon Rapids and Fridley. Some municipalities are looking at the infrastructure investments and wondering who will maintain them.
Local officials from the cities and counties along the route met last week with the Met Council to discuss the potential plans if service ends. Calvin Portner, Elk River city administrator, attended the meeting over Zoom.
“Obviously things are still in flux right now the Legislature, so there weren’t a lot of details,” Portner said.
Portner said Met Council chair Charlie Zelle “assured everyone that the next project that’s going to come in, possibly a bus line, will be a higher-level service overall.”
But a bus line is tricky because Elk River does not fall under the Met Council’s jurisdiction.
“I think they see probably where we’re going to have lemons, we’re going to have lemonade at some point,” Portner said. “They understand that there’s a lot of moving pieces to this, so there’s not a lot of detail they can provide but they’re expecting things to come together quickly.”
Other cities are wondering what will happen to their signed contracts.
Fridley signed a 100-year lease with Metro Transit in 2019, said Fridley community development director Scott Hickok. In addition to that contract, he said there’s a lot that still needs to be discussed.
“We still own the parking lot and lease the parking lot beneath the east side parking area for the train station platform,” Hickok said. “There’s a lot of complicated, kind of layered agreements with these different station sites.”
Other local officials have started discussions among themselves regarding infrastructure built at the station. Brian Hagen, Ramsey city administrator, said the city is looking at adding on to existing infrastructure at the Ramsey Station. Specifically, they are looking at expanding the station pedestrian walkway so that it goes over Highway 10, he said.
Hagen said it would connect to the Mississippi Regional Trail and West Mississippi Regional Park. Visitors could use the walkway instead of crossing at busy intersections.
“It’d make a perfect connection between those two regional trail systems,” Hagen said.
The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the main reasons ridership is down, said Mike Gamache, chair of the Anoka County Board of Commissioners. The pandemic led many employees to work from home, which means fewer people commuting to the cities. Remote work then led to lower parking rates, he said.
“Some people are now driving down instead of taking the train because they found out that parking is now cheaper than it was when … a lot more people were parking downtown,” Gamache said.
He added that the scheduling of the train isn’t convenient for many riders.
“It doesn’t run all the time, so that always left a problem for parents that had kids in day care or even in school, if they had to have somebody go home and pick them up,” Gamache said.
He said the Met Council tried to set up some buses to help cover, “but it wasn’t a lot.”
Some have wondered if Northstar’s future would have looked different if the original plan to include St. Cloud in the route had been fulfilled. A line with the bigger city would likely have had more riders, said Hickok, the Fridley official.
“I do believe that if it had gone all the way to St. Cloud, and they had that anchor at the other end with a lot more population, that it might have been a different story,” Hickok said. “It’s unfortunate that it ended short of St. Cloud.”
But the train doesn’t end in St. Cloud; it ends in Big Lake. A 2024 study found that extending the line to St. Cloud would cost more than a half-billion dollars.
And the train is currently operating at a financial deficit. It cost about $11.6 million to operate Northstar in 2023, but the line collected $323,589 in fares, according to a MnDOT study released in February. Replacing the trains with bus service with similar frequency would cost $2 million each year, according to the report.
The Met Council has started to survey passengers to gather feedback as it seeks to provide bus service along the route if Northstar service shuts down. The council will hold a virtual meeting and in-person gatherings to communicate to members of the riding public about what’s next.
