[Ispolkom]

The Northstar commuter rail line just opened, running northwest from Minneapolis to Big Lake. It's gotten a lot of good press, including this article. So now the Twin Cities has one (1) light-rail line and one (1) commuter line, neither of which come to St. Paul. I guess it's a start.

[profwebs]

Ispolkom, on Tue, Nov 17, 2009, 12:40 PM, said:

The Northstar commuter rail line just opened, running northwest from Minneapolis to Big Lake. It's gotten a lot of good press, including this article. So now the Twin Cities has one (1) light-rail line and one (1) commuter line, neither of which come to St. Paul. I guess it's a start.

I saw a picture of the new equipment the other day on railpictures.net and assumed it was just new equipment and not a whole new service.

If you go there and search for Northstar, it brings up a few pics. Pretty nice looking!

[MrEd]

Does this mean you can not take amtrak to the new Northstar ?

[DET63]

Schedules

[Sam31452]

DET63, on Sat, Nov 21, 2009, 01:34 PM, said:

Schedules

One of these completely usless schedules, like on the Sounder around Seattle
If you're not commuting to Minneapolis in the early morning and back to Big Lake in the late afternoon,
then this train simply won't serve you although they will spend millions of $ for the trains and the staff.

Compare this to the schedule of the NMRailrunner and you'll see what I mean.

[AlanB]

Well unlike New Mexico, they don't own the tracks and have to not only pay BNSF for each run, but also negotiate with BNSF to squeeze in each run around BNSF's freight schedule. Hopefully as time goes on and more people see the value, they'll be able to pay for some more improvements to BNSF tracks and increase not only the frequencies, but get some reverse peak service as well as extend the line to St. Cloud which was where they originally wanted to start at.

[MikefromCrete]

Sam31452, on Sun, Nov 22, 2009, 07:01 AM, said:

DET63, on Sat, Nov 21, 2009, 01:34 PM, said:

Schedules

One of these completely usless schedules, like on the Sounder around Seattle
If you're not commuting to Minneapolis in the early morning and back to Big Lake in the late afternoon,
then this train simply won't serve you although they will spend millions of $ for the trains and the staff.

Compare this to the schedule of the NMRailrunner and you'll see what I mean.

It's a commuter train, that's where the traffic is. If the route is successful, the schedule will grow.

[DET63]

Northstar on YouTube

[stntylr]

Looks like the same set as the Rail Runner just witha different paint job.

[MattW]

Yes, and that's a good thing. Motive Power Industries manufactures the MP36 locomotives, and Bombardier manufactures the bi-level coaches for more than just one transit agency. This brings the costs down for others because the manufacturing base already exists and all they have to do is place the orders, not design anything but the paint scheme.

[jamesbrownontheroad]

Bump-ity-bump...

Having made my first winter time visit to Minnesota in Dec '09 / Jan '10 (and endured about 1/3 the total population of Mn. asking me "is dat cold enough for ya?") I caught a fleeting glimpse of not only the Northstar service but also the communities along the highway who had put up roadside placards campaigning for the service t be extended to reach them.

After roughly nine months in service, how is Northstar doing? And is there any chance that in the future additional daytime runs might be squeezed in around the freight operations to broaden its appeal?

Thanks...

[Ispolkom]

jamesbrownontheroad, on 25 July 2010 - 05:30 AM, said:

Bump-ity-bump...

Having made my first winter time visit to Minnesota in Dec '09 / Jan '10 (and endured about 1/3 the total population of Mn. asking me "is dat cold enough for ya?") I caught a fleeting glimpse of not only the Northstar service but also the communities along the highway who had put up roadside placards campaigning for the service t be extended to reach them.

After roughly nine months in service, how is Northstar doing? And is there any chance that in the future additional daytime runs might be squeezed in around the freight operations to broaden its appeal?

Thanks...

Given the poor state of Minnesota's finances, I'm saying no, even though traffic is above projections.

All of this stuff takes enormous lifting and pushing. The Twin Cities is about to *finally* build its second light-rail line. Given that (I think) a fair amount of Northstar rolling stock is borrowed from Utah, an expansion is out of the question.

Geez, though, it wasn't *that* cold last Christmas, was it? A lot of snow, to be sure, for a change.

One good thing for the Northstar line, though. The last train waits for the end of the Twins game before departing. I'm sure that will build support for the line, just as the light rail service to the Metrodome did when the Twins played there.