MINNEAPOLIS — Commuter rail operator Northstar is ending dedicated service for Minnesota Twins home games this season, citing a withdrawal of funding by one of the three counties involved in the service.
KARE-TV reports Metro Transit, the parent agency for Northstar, as well as light rail and bus service in the Twin Cities area, said Anoka County’s decision led to the end of the service. Northstar’s Twin Cities station is next to Target Field, the Twins’ home.
“Metro Transit would like to be able to provide more Northstar service to Twins games,” the agency wrote in a statement to the TV station. “Unfortunately, Anoka County, the largest county funding partner for Northstar, is withholding their share of Northstar operating funds. As such, we cannot take on additional costs to Northstar service at this time.”
Anoka County said in a statement that Northstar ridership has decreased dramatically because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it has not had a funding agreement in place with Metro Transit for 2021 or 2022. It says it is currently reviewing figures from Metro Transit for an adjusted subsidy.
Honestly, Anoka County has never wanted Northstar to succeed. Yes, it hasn’t drawn the greatest numbers of patrons on a weekday basis, but when you cut the number of trips by 60% and do nothing to promote the service, you really DO ‘get what you pay for’. The Anoka County rep on the Met Council hates transit of ANY kind (bus, rail, whatever) and cannot be bothered to do any research regarding improving transit.
Meanwhile. paralleling US Highway 10 is undergoing reconstruction virtually in sight of Northstar’s Anoka station. The delays during weekday rush hours are massive, and will get worse as the spring becomes summer. Does anyone think that more trains might help solve the traffic problems? Of course not! It’s ‘drive on at your own peril’ this summer! Oh, well…
The point is this service has not been able to prove its viability due to the fact that it is not being utilized to its full potential it needs to be expanded as I & others have stated above. I am so tired of these people who keep referring to these subsidies transit & passenger rail receive while they ignore the subsidies they receive at the gas pump with artificially low prices because the taxpayers are subsidizing their driving. What part do you not understand the Hwy Trust Fund has been bankrupt for over a decade Congress has been infusing billions of dollars a year to keep it afloat all of that adding to the deficit. As the saying goes “people in glass houses should’t throw stones”!
It amazes me how people who pay to use a site dedicated to trains can be so opposed to expanding their operation.
It amazes me how people who follow the rail passenger industry can’t distinguish between a viable service and a total turkey.
Before the pandemic, each trip on the Northstar was subsidized to the tune of $52. That is one way. They could have leased a Mercedes and paid the fuel for every rider on the Northstar and been money ahead. The Northstar has been a horrible project from the beginning.
Back to the same old funding of infrastructure need to profit comments. Lets get beyond this and realize that all transportation if subsidized one way or another, users fees to general tax dollars propping up, whether it be rural vs urban and so on. I grew up in rural Minnesota where my dad taught and has lived in the same farm town for +50 years. The county and therefore the schools has less people now then when i graduated from high school +30 years, the farms have gotten bigger but at end of day they receive more state tax dollars from services to roads.
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The reality is I agree that Northstar service really needs to be extended to St. Cloud and Southeast past St. Paul to be viable. Furthermore, I think you could make the argument for a Rochester/Twin Cities/Duluth corridor service.
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But at end of the day it requires local buy in for the local voters to decide on how they want to spend their dollars. Unfortunately, Northstar won’t succeed until Anoka County voters buy in.
Mr Evans the Hwys haven’t covered their cost in over a decade. And Profit? Hwy Trust fund has been in arrears for decades. We should be closing interstates & hwys until we have a balance in the Fund.
So maybe the Twins organization could subsidize?
One would hope that event transit would provide a positive cash flow.
A good example of event transit is found in Milwaukee. A whole lot of the annual ridership of Milwaukee County buses is the annual Summerfest music festival. The buses are jammed, the suburban park-rides overflow, and the inebriated (or stoned) passengers are kept out of the drivers’ seat until they reach the suburbs.
Totally agree, needs to go to Saint Cloud and the Red Rock corridor to the SE through Newport. Cottage Grove, Hastings, and Red Wing needs to be revived. The SE corridor was supposed to happen, can’t remember why it got shelved. Right now, Big Lake, it’s current terminus, is in the middle of nowhere.
If it made money, then more passengers would mean more profit and the trains would run, just like more freight trains run.
Before the pandemic, North Star had many riders Monday through Friday. The both lots I surveyed (Anoka and Coon Rapids) were full. I never agreed with Saturday and Sunday service.
The current Anoka County Board of Commissioners is very anti-transit and won’t pay their fair share of North Star operations. They feel is an Anoka County operation when it is a Met Council operation. The County Board is pro highway projects and spends a lot of money on said highway projects.
Also, North Star must go to St Cloud and not end half way there. Would you take a plane from MSP to Milwaukee, get off and take a bus or Amtrak to Chicago—I think not.
Ed Burns
A resident of Anoka, MN, which is the county seat for Anoka County.
They need to expand its network it is relegated from Mpls to Big Lake . It need to be extended to St. Cloud as was the original plan and needs to connect to other regional locations instead of terminating in the middle of nowhere. It could be expanded to Hastings & even Red Wing. The Republicans in MN have had their bibs on & their knives & forks out for this project from the beginning. YET MnDOT has over 230 road projects for this season when traffic levels have already dropped & shortened since covid. Time to call a time out on road projects when we don’t know what the new normal is yet.
GALEN — Highway projects in the past several decades have not been about increasing capacity. Instead, highways are rebuilt to increase safety and decrease maintenance costs.
It was a DEMOCRAT LIBERAL governor who ordered the rebuilding of Wisconsin IH 94 in Kenosha and Racine Counties Why? Because the highway was worn out and consumed far too much maintenance money and wasn’t safe.
Which carries more traffic, IH 94 in Kenosha/ Racine, or the Hiawatha? Actually the freeway carries more traffic than ALL OF AMTRAK. And that’s Kenosha/ Racine, the low spot of traffic count. There’s much more traffic in the other counties in the I-94 corridor -Milwaukee (WI), Lake (IL), Cook (IL) and Lake (IN).
Northstar has a been a horrible investment by Metro Transit. It accounts for less than 1/2% of it’s ridership yet sucks up 4% of it’s operating budget.