urbanMSP

Not sure how I feel about that. It makes sense for both events (the World Cup and Amtrak's fleet shortage), but I fear they'll end up buying the equipment and then the rest of the Northstar equipment will get sold off.

https://streets.mn/2025/04/24/long-live-the-northstar/

Thoughts on this?

To me, it’s easy to propose any kind of changes, and admittedly I’m writing my own article on how Northstar could change to better serve Minnesota, but it’s difficult to imagine that MnDOT, the Met Council, etc. will be open ...

So is commuter rail and regional rail basically the same cities and same infrastructure, except commuter rail scheduling is optimized for commuting and regional rail scheduling is optimized for living?


I would say regional rail is optimized for diverse travel wants/needs including commuting ...

I figured I'd start this thread with all the discussion and debating about regional rail in the Northstar Line thread.

The definition of regional rail could be debated forever, but for me I define regional rail as a passenger rail service operating all day in both directions on FRA-governed tracks ...

But why do we even need commuter rail, with a handful at best of trains running from park and rides to downtown weekdays in peak direction? Much of that commuter demand has dried up since covid and everyone working from home, and express buses are fine for the demand that remains.
If anything ...

I really hope this doesn't happen, but I wonder how many commuter/regional rail systems in North America could potentially purchase the Northstar fleet. Or maybe Amtrak would buy them and renovate the coaches for intercity service (if that were to happen, using them on the NLX and a third daily MSP ...

This was posted by All Aboard Minnesota on Facebook:
"Borealis Equipment situation update - In light of the news about the Horizon cars being pulled for corrosion issues and inspection, here's the situation for the Borealis; we've been told that #1333 will operate tomorrow with three Superliners ...

Well Northstar has 18 coaches (12 coaches + 6 cab cars). With the current service they use 3 coaches and 1 cab car for each train, so 8 coaches total, but with current ridership I'm sure it could easily be just 2 coaches and 1 cab car for each train, freeing up 12 coaches for the Borealis. But ...

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Wonder how long before the Borealis resumes (or if it resumes, unfortunately you never know with our current federal government). https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/03/26/amtrak-suspends-borealis-passenger-rail-service-citing-corrosion-issues-on-cars?fbclid ...

Hey why has the Green Line been such a disaster through the U campus lately. Slow running, missed signal priority windows. Very strange. Seems to start at West Bank station - every train entering from downtown has been crawling as it approaches the station.


Speed restrictions due to track ...

I'd vote for Johnson/Lyndale, Nicollet, and Randolph/East 7th to be the next three.

The only people who still want to keep Northstar running are the ~200 people riding it and the "all trains are good trains" people on here, streets.mn, etc. who refuse to acknowledge how bad the numbers are.

I haven't seen anyone deny the ridership numbers for Northstar are bad. There are however ...

I saw on the NLX Facebook page that a bill was passed in the Minnesota House, and it’s one that’s definitely not in their favor. https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/bills/Info/HF1167

As a light rail operator there's quite a few nuisances from the public that irritate me, and one of the worst is using the emergency door opener, especially when the train isn't at a platform. Yesterday in the early morning two people got on my train at Lake Street, and as we're leaving the station ...

Out of curiosity I looked at the travel time of Northstar vs bus between Big Lake and downtown Minneapolis (using Government Plaza Station as a reference point). Northstar + light rail takes an hour, while a hypothetical bus replacement serving all the Northstar stations except Target Field would ...

From my experience using both the RRFBs are ignored more than HAWKs, though if regular traffic signals are an option I’d rather have that.

If Northstar is replaced by a bus service, I would hope there would be plenty of advanced notice, as I'd like to get video of Northstar trains all along the route, and of course ride it.

Also if this does actually happen, shame on the FTA/DOT/whoever for deciding it would be better to half-bake ...

For the first few months of operations I’ll guess 1,500 average weekday rides. When the extension to Minneapolis opens then add whatever Route 94 currently has for average weekday rides plus another 300 (most of that addition being people traveling on the Minneapolis-St. Paul segment, but a tiny ...

Let's see if it can last longer than their other local route experiments.

Depending on the routing, I like the idea of an express option, but for local service I'd rather it just be an extension of the 540 and/or 542 since those have 30-minute frequency.

I forget which thread, but I remember recently there was discussion about American Boulevard and Bloomington doing a study for transit improvements along it. Here's the project website: https://letstalk.bloomingtonmn.gov/am_blvd_transit?utm_source=ehq_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ehq-Two ...