During my first visit to Minneapolis several years ago, I took lots of photos of the new Hiawatha light rail line (now known as the Blue Line), but completely missed out a chance to check out their commuter rail. On my more recent trip to the Twin Cities, I made sure to see the Northstar. A few trains in the state have used variations on the name Northstar, including a now-defunct Amtrak train, a name which derives from Minnesota’s nickname as the North Star State, as it is the northernmost of the contiguous US states. Although it might not be glowing, this Northstar, is hard to miss, painted in an attractive blue, yellow, and red scheme.
In terms of transportation systems, the Northstar is relatively young, with passenger service starting at the end of 2009. Operating on an already-existing BNSF freight line, money was invested to purchase equipment, build stations, and to construct a maintenance facility near Big Lake. The line stretches from Target Field in Minneapolis, where it connects with the light rail, to Big Lake in the north. Although hopes were for the line to continue all the way to the city of St. Cloud, just north of Big Lake there is a several mile stretch of only single track, and it would be a significant expenditure to add another track so the line can continue to accommodate both freight and commuter traffic. Instead, bus service called the Northstar Link carries passengers from Big Lake to St. Cloud.
There are a lot of comparisons one could make with Metro-North – the most obvious being the overpasses used on the line. Along the Hudson Line there are severe limitations on the height of freight trains due to low bridges and overpasses. The line on which Northstar runs, being mostly freight, in contrast has very high overpasses to allow the plentiful freights to pass underneath. Another leg up the Northstar has over Metro-North is the fact that each passenger coach is equipped with wi-fi, something customers here have been wanting for years. On the other hand, service on the Northstar is very limited, focused around commuting hours with an occasional extra train for baseball games and concerts at Target Field. Much of this limitation is due to the frequent freight on the line, which can often delay trains (especially Amtrak’s Empire Builder).
All in all it was an interesting trip to see another one of the country’s commuter rail systems. Enjoy a collection of photos from Northstar:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Nice series! Your lede shot on the bridge with the skyline turned out much nicer than mine.
With regards to extras for sports events, “occasional” is probably the wrong word; they run an extra train for (nearly?) every Twins and Vikings game, in addition to concerts at Target Field – it’s probably around 100 extra trains per year.
I first went to Minneapolis-St. Paul, from Harmon, NY (not on the “20th Century Limited”. CRS.) via the NYC and from Chicago via the CB&Q’s Vista Dome “Twin Cities Zephyr”, back is 1955. Laid over in St. Paul and roamed the SPUD (St. Paul Union Depot) round house and Pig’s Eye Yard until departure of the M,St P & SSM “Soo-Dominion” (ice-cooled heavyweight sleeping car and CPR steam engine to Moose Jaw, SK), ENR Calgary, AB. Had a great time exploring. Have passed thru a number of times, via the “Empire Builder” and “Late Shore Limited”, to/from Croton-Harmon, but never explored the ‘Twin Cities’. Will do, someday, maybe, and spend some time exploring the restored SPUD I feel that I know the cities, from reading John Sandford’s novels. Unfortunately, I don’t speak Swahili or Progressive/Libtard, so might lose out on some thingies during a visit. I hear the beers are good (those which A-B InBev hasn’t bought up). Never had a real (pre-A-B) Leinenkugel, me. I’ll leave you my 616 B&W photos of the trip in my will.
Nice photos as always. I hope to take a quick ride to the “new” station (Ramsey I think) next month. The one thing I remember from my last visit a few years ago is that the bathrooms on the train were absolutely spotless. It was actually a pleasure to use one. I also thought it was weird that police checked tickets (or not), not the conductors, even though there were a bunch of conductors on the train.
I noticed the cars had face-to-face seating. That seems uncomfortable, with inadequate legroom, and passengers forced to look at each other during the trip. In my opinion, the seating used in most U.S. commuter trains is preferable.
Everyone has their own preference, so I like my trains having both coach and face-to-face seating. I prefer face-to-face, it’s far more sociable, I disagree there is less leg room, if you can come to an understanding with whom is sitting opposite of you, and it’s far easier to align the seats with the windows, all too often, with coach seating, you are forced to watch a wall in stead in the “window” seat…