Northstar Commuter Rail

[DanPatchToget]

The Northstar St. Cloud Extension Study, which you can see if you scroll a little bit up on this thread, seems to assume the Amtrak station would be used. However I only quickly scanned the study, but I only saw mentions of the Amtrak station, not the East St. Cloud Park & Ride.

[mckilanowski]

Just because I was curious (and looking at St. Cloud train stations for something else)...

The Amtrak station in St. Cloud is, from a transit user's perspective, ideal because it places you in town but it lacks available parking. The NorthStar Link lot fits with the other NorthStar stations, which are all parking lots at the edge of town.

However... Why not build a new station at the Post Office? I've heard that all mail sorting has moved out of that location and down to the Twin Cities, so the larger facility might not be needed anyway. Or there is the parking lot next to the Post Office. Or it looks like there are parking lots on 2nd street north, mere blocks from the Convention Center. Surely a downtown location would be ideal.

[MNdible]

While I understand the desire to cross the river to get closer to downtown, it doesn't make sense to have two stations (one Amtrak, one Northstar). And the Empire Builder needs to through-route to NoDak, so it wants to stay where it is.

[DanPatchToget]

Probably easiest, cheapest, and best to make the St. Cloud Amtrak depot a transit hub with local buses connecting to all inbound and outbound Northstar trips.