The Northstar Commuter Train 10/2/2017

I arose at 4:30 AM and left Motel 6 by 4:50 AM to make my 5:22 AM train out of the 28th Street station in Bloomington, Minnesota. I bought my Day Pass just as the 5:00 AM train was leaving, but it did not matter. The minutes went quickly by and the train arrived on time. I boarded and enjoyed the early morning ride on the Metro Blue Line to Target Field station. Once there, I bought my round-trip Northstar Commuter train ticket, went down the stairs and had it checked before boarding Northstar cab car 603 to Big Lake.

The Northstar Line is a commuter rail route in Minnesota, operating 40 miles from Big Lake to downtown Minneapolis at Target Field using existing track and right-of-way owned by the BNSF Railway. Passenger service began on November 16, 2009. The rail line serves part of the Northstar Corridor between Minneapolis and St. Cloud. Planning for the line began in 1997 when the Northstar Corridor Development Authority was formed. The corridor is mostly served by Interstate 94 and U.S. Highway 10.

The route was initially designed to run the full distance between Minneapolis and Rice, Minnesota, near St. Cloud. The project was counting on federal funding for half of its construction costs. The estimated ridership for the full route was not high enough to qualify for that much needed federal funding.

When the line was first proposed, then-Governor Jesse Ventura was an early advocate and convinced some people to come around to his point of view. Ventura's successor, Governor Tim Pawlenty, did not initially support it. He changed his mind after MnDOT determined that a scaled-back version of the line would qualify for federal funding. The 2004 Minnesota Legislative session did not pass a bonding bill, which meant a lack of funds for initial project work. Some counties in the area and the Metropolitan Council came up with matching funds to allow funding from the United States federal government to continue.

During the 2005 state legislative session, a bonding bill including $37.5 million of funding for the proposed project was passed. The bill was signed on April 11, 2005 by Governor Tim Pawlenty at the site of the Riverdale station in Coon Rapids. The 2006 state legislature, along with city, county and federal governments, provided funding to complete the corridor to Big Lake.

Construction began on the maintenance facility near Big Lake station and on the Blue Line light rail extension in September 2007 and the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Northstar Corridor Development Authority studied options for development of the corridor to handle the increasing commuter load and felt that a commuter rail line was the best option. It was expected to cost about US$265 million in 2008 dollars, estimated to be less than one-third the cost of upgrading existing highways, though the cost would later climb to $317 million. Because almost all of the route being used already existed, the investment mostly went into building new stations, upgrading track, enhancing the safety of crossings and updating signals. A significant portion of the funds were to extend the METRO Blue Line to the Target Field station on the west side of Interstate 394 and 5th Street. This terminal station is integrated into the Minnesota Twins' new ballpark, Target Field, which opened in March 2010.

The line has six trains running in the morning and evening rush hour periods and limited service on weekends and holidays. Bus feeder lines, including the Northstar Link from St. Cloud to Big Lake station, bring residents along the corridor to the nearest train station. Once in downtown, commuters can walk upstairs to the METRO Blue and Green Lines, take a bus into other areas of the city, or go into one of the nearby buildings integrated into the Minneapolis skyway system.

At Target Field Station, the parallel rail lines of the old Great Northern Railway (north side track now BNSF) and the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway (south side track now Union Pacific) travel eastbound past the Federal Reserve Bank, the site of the old Minneapolis Great Northern Depot, across the Mississippi River on the Minneapolis BNSF Rail Bridge and then across Nicollet Island. At a wye, the route turns northwest in the GN East side line, which then joins the parallel ex-Northern Pacific main line. The ex-Great Northern and ex-Northern Pacific lines are merged into BNSF and this is now the BNSF Northern Transcon (transcontinental) line.

The route travels north through the Northtown Classification Yards, over Interstate 694 and makes its first stop at 61st Avenue in Fridley at the yard limit of Northtown, where it enters BNSF's Staples Subdivision. The double track line continues past the current Foley Boulevard park-and-ride bus station and turns northwest at Coon Creek Junction, where the old GN route to Duluth (now BNSF's Hinckley Subdivision) splits off and heads straight north. The current Coon Rapids station is behind the Riverdale shopping center by Round Lake Boulevard and new stations were also built in Anoka, Elk River and Big Lake.

The line opened in 2009 with five MP36PH-3C locomotives and seventeen Bombardier bi-level coach cars. Each passenger car has about 140 seats and room for 355 when full with standees. The coaches have two doors on either side. Upon the opening, Metro Transit immediately announced that a sixth locomotive was being acquired from the Utah Transit Authority's FrontRunner service in the Salt Lake City area and a lease agreement was soon signed. Typical weekday operation requires five trains, each consisting of one locomotive and three or four coaches. A single train is used for weekend service, making three round trips each day. The platforms are only designed for five-car trains, so longer trains would require additional construction.

This train was a positioning move for the one on which I would be returning and chose a table seat upstairs, finding it had a power outlet and noticing the cars were equipped with cameras. We left on time at 6:15 AM and proceeded through the early morning darkness to Big Lake, stopping first at Fridley at 6:29 AM then continuing west on the BNSF mainline to Coon Rapids at 6:38 AM and Anoka at 6:42 AM.

We passed an inbound train before Anoka then continued to Ramsey at 6:47 AM, proceeded to Elk River at 6:52 AM then to Big Lake, arriving there at 7:04 AM, three minutes early. It had been a great ride aboard the Northstar Line and I detrained.

The train at Big Lake.

Northstar cab car 603. I returned to my table for the ride back to Target Field.

The train left at 7:18 AM and I relaxed with my camera ready for some pre-dawn to morning pictures.

The Big Lake water tower. The Northstar has their maintenance base in Big Lake.

Fields on the way the Elk River.

Fields on the way to Ramsey, after which we went on to Anoka then Coon Rapids, followed by Fridley.

The train crossed the Mississippi River before we arrived back at Target station.

The train at rest. I went upstairs to take the Blue Line train back to where I started this morning.

My Blue Line train to 28th Street.

Later, my train back at 22nd Street. I went and filled the rental car then drove to Target before returning to Motel 6, checking out and returning the rental car. I was driven back to Terminal 1 of Minneapolis International Airport then retrieved my boarding pass and rode the entire Hiawatha Light Rail system then returned to the airport to wait for my flight home.

I was pre-boarded and watched "Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Men Tells No Tales", which made it a quick flight before we arrived at John Wayne Airport where my mother picked me up, thus ending another exciting trip to the Twin Cities, riding Milwaukee 261 and the Northstar Commuter line..

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