urbanMSP

Hearing the train horn at 1:30 AM this morning reminded me to share this: https://www.startribune.com/train-whistle-st-louis-park-edina/601345120

Didn't St. Louis Park already do a study awhile ago about making the crossings on the Dan Patch Line quiet-zone compliant? With just one train a few ...

At this point I'm neutral over the Blue Line Extension. In its currently proposed form it will be an absolute slog getting through North Minneapolis, and from there to Brooklyn Center running in the middle of a suburban stroad with no grade crossing protection is not how to run a rail service that's ...

My very simplified view of Denver after having visited: It's Minneapolis but also a capitol city and has mountains nearby.

On a more detailed level I'm sure there's plenty of differences between Denver and the Twin Cities, and that includes transportation. I rode all of Denver's rail lines for ...

Yeah... I've lost basically all hope of Minnesota ever getting an at least decent rail system. The state has clearly shown it doesn't give a damn and will make up any excuse not to do it.

Here's my take on what we could do with Northstar: https://streets.mn/2025/05/08/northstar ... be-wasted/

I won't get my hopes up on lots of choice riders being comfortable riding the Green Line Extension besides to something like a Twins or Vikings game. Sadly this isn't the good old days when the Hiawatha Line was young and issues were few and far between (at least from my experience), and while both ...

Well if they're putting in this much effort to get rid of Northstar, then they can also put in the effort to find some other use for the trains in our state.

Or do a complete swap with the Hiawatha. They get our coaches that are perfectly suited for that route, and we get their coaches to do a Twin ...

sounds like metro transit will remove all the infrastructure in the BNSF right of way if the train is stopped.

Also sounds like the service will be stopped


Got a source for the infrastructure removal?

I can see the skyways being removed, and most of the stuff on the platforms like the ...

Anyone heard of karenthecamera? They're the first house if you use the sidewalk from 46th Street Station that turns west onto 45th Street, and they want the sidewalk removed due to crime and anti-social activity going on that's been caught on cameras they installed on their property.

Not that they ...

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.