The Journey

The Northstar locomotive resting at Big Lake. Photo by Randy Stern

The test of a transportation mode is how it would serve the public. The “how” in this case is to find a way to bridge a growing part of a metropolitan area with their top weekday workplace destination.

When I previewed the Northstar commuter rail line, I pointed out how the growth in Anoka County and along the U.S. Highway 10 corridor to the northwest necessitated the development of the first modern commuter rail line in the state of Minnesota. Because of the opening of the Northstar line, it is now possible to commute from the town of Big Lake through Anoka and Coon Rapids to Downtown Minneapolis without diving into the scrum of U.S. Highway 10 and Interstate 94.

Even further good news is the availability of the rail service during the weekends. The one complaint I had when I lived in the Washington, D.C. area was the lack of weekend service on the MARC and VRE commuter rail lines. This prevented me from partaking of a quicker reverse commute service to Prince William County, Virginia or Montgomery County, Maryland on a Saturday. Even more frustrating was the absolute lack of a less expensive weekend rail service to Baltimore than Amtrak for a Sunday ballgame at Camden Yards (or to catch a cheap flight out of BWI).

Northstar joins several commuter rail systems in North America to offer weekend service – thus making the line available for leisure travelers as well as work commuters. Better still, Northstar provides a vital link for sports fans to get to their events in Minneapolis. Metro Transit has scheduled trains for strategic times to ferry Vikings and Twins from the train’s route and feeder areas.

On the first Saturday of revenue service, I was joined by my friend Michael from Duluth and his parents for a roundtrip ride on the Northstar commuter train. We started at Target Field station for the entire run to Big Lake with a return after a half hour layover.

Needless to say, our outbound train was packed. There were five cars on the first train with standing room only on every car. We were somewhat lucky as only Michael stood amongst the four of us. The layover was due to the fact that the stations along the way had an overflow crowd waiting to get on back to Minneapolis. Metro Transit decided to bring out a second southbound train a half hour later to take care of any overflow. We jumped on the overflow train back to Minneapolis.

How was the train? The seats are comfortable and there are tables available for work to be done, along with power outlets. You have two levels of seating in each car, similar to commuter rail lines in Southern California, Toronto/Hamilton, Seattle/Tacoma and a few other metropolitan areas. Let’s not forget about the convenience of having a bathroom on board each train car! Not every commuter rail service have this added convenience.

What is missing are a few amenities that would be advantageous for commuters, such as Wi-Fi and mobile phone signal boosters. These amenities were probably not available due to the fact that Wi-Fi signals are not readily available along the rail lines once you get west of Anoka, or, rather, my mobile signal was dropped past Ramsey. I’m certain that rival carriers have better coverage along the rail line than I do.

According to Metro Transit, they normally run four-car trains on the weekdays, with a maximum of a five-car train on weekends. I would expect the five-car trains to run for Vikings and Twins games. Each car will seat 145 people, with a weekday maximum of 580 passengers per train. On the first day of revenue service, Metro Transit stated they had 1,200 patrons ride on Northstar. If these numbers continue to grow, Northstar will be a huge success.

However, the real key for success of Northstar will be determined on how riders along the corridor use this service. Seeing that there is not a lot of immediate development at the stations, it simply seems that the commuter rail’s focus will be on serving downtown Minneapolis. However, it is worth noting that on the weekdays you can catch a connector bus from Big Lake to St. Cloud. This would be advantageous for reverse commuters with jobs up that way, including students attending St. Cloud State University. I would also like to see shuttle connectors for areas that would be worth visiting for shopping and entertainment purposes. For example, a shoppers’ shuttle from the Elk River station to the Albertville Premium Outlets would help boost shopping traffic from The Cities.

Amtrak’s old slogan pretty much summed up this Northstar run: “There’s something about a train that’s magic.” I hope that magic continues on Minnesota’s new commuter line for years to come. I know I might be taking it again sometime in the future.