The Northstar Line was a commuter rail route in Minnesota. Northstar ran 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 served as part of the Northstar Corridor between Minneapolis and St. Cloud. Planning for the line began in 1997, when the Northstar Corridor Development Authority (NCDA) was formed. The corridor was also served by Interstate 94 and U.S. Highway 10. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . In August 2025, Metro Transit officially announced the termination of the line in favor of bus service. The last trains ran on January 4, 2026, with replacement bus service beginning on January 5, 2026.
Background The route was initially designed to run the full distance of between Minneapolis and Rice, Minnesota, northwest of St. Cloud, with 11 stations. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) submitted a Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Final Environmental Impact Statement in October 2000 and March 2002, respectively, and in turn the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) concluded the process with a Record of Decision in December 2002. The project was counting on federal funding for half of its construction costs, but estimated ridership for the full route was not high enough to qualify for that federal funding. To produce a more favorable proposal, project partners modified the Locally Preferred Alternative and defined a Minimum Operable Segment, which halved the line's length to , terminating at Big Lake and eliminating the three stations in Rice, St. Cloud, and Becker. Later modifications further reduced the scope of Northstar service, reducing daily trains from 18 to 12, and deferring stations at Coon Rapids–Foley Boulevard and Northeast Minneapolis at 7th Street. To comply with the FTA's Record of Decision, the Minimum Operable Segment became Phase I; completing the line to Rice. Construction of the remaining five stations would occur at an undetermined later date as Phase II.
Several public demonstrations of commuter rail service on the Northstar corridor were trialed by MnDOT from 1997 to 2002. A 300-seat train was operated from St. Cloud to Minneapolis on January 28, 2002, using two bilevel passenger cars that were being delivered to Sound Transit in Seattle for use on the Sounder commuter rail system. The public were allowed to ride with an advance reservation.
When the line was first proposed, then-Governor Jesse Ventura was an early advocate of the rail line.Microsoft Word - 128pdf.doc - Governor Jesse Ventura Moving Minnesota Transportation Conference Radisson South, Bloomington February 12, 2002 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.(July 2005), "City Rail briefs", Trains Magazine, p. 29. 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, before full funding for the line had been secured. On December 11, 2007, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation Thomas Barrett met with Governor Pawlenty in Anoka County and officially signed a Full Funding Grant Agreement of $156.8 million, nearly half of the funding for the $317 million, line from Minneapolis to Big Lake. The money enabled the release of an additional $97.5 million in state bonding money set aside for the project.
The federal government invested $156.8 million, the state paid $98.6 million and the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority pledged $34.8 million. The remaining partners were Sherburne County Regional Rail Authority ($8.2 million), Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority ($8 million), the Metropolitan Council ($5.9 million) and the Minnesota Twins ($2.6 million, for the station improvements under the new Target Field where the Minneapolis station was constructed). Of the $317 million total, $107.5 million went to paying BNSF for a perpetual easement for track rights and facilities along the line and to pay the BNSF employees that operate the trains. The operating budget for the first full year of service (2010) was $16.8 million.
Corridor buses
During development of the rail line, MnDOT initiated an interim commuter bus, Northstar Commuter Coach, in response to worsening highway congestion and lack of transit alternatives in the corridor. The service stopped at future Elk River and Riverdale station sites, and terminated in downtown Minneapolis at Ramp B/5th Street Transit Center adjacent to the future Target Field Station. Inaugurated October 1, 2001, the route operated eight round-trips during weekdays and averaged 225 daily riders in its first year of service. Operations were transferred to NCDA in 2003 and the route was discontinued with the opening of the commuter rail line in 2009.
On January 22, 2007, an additional commuter bus, Ramsey Star Express, began operating in the corridor. The route, sponsored by the City of Ramsey and operated by Metro Transit, provided four round-trips on weekdays between Ramsey station and Ramp B/5th Street Transit Center in downtown Minneapolis. The route saw an average of 115 daily riders. A rail station was previously considered in Ramsey but was eliminated before the Final Environmental Impact Statements were released. However, in an effort to bolster Northstar ridership, an infill station at the same site was completed in 2012 and bus service was discontinued, saving the city $500,000 annually.
Metro Transit route restructuring in late 2000 resulted in the creation of express bus routes 850, 851, and 852 to downtown Minneapolis. Route 851 served the Riverdale station site and the vicinity of the future Anoka station. Routes 850 and 852 primarily serve the Foley Boulevard station, providing local service north and connecting to two Northstar stations. Route 851 was discontinued after the opening of rail service and because no station has been built at the existing Foley Boulevard park and ride Routes 850 and 852 remain in operation.
Construction and operation
The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) and the Northstar Corridor Development Authority (NCDA) studied options to handle the increasing commuter load and felt that a commuter rail line was the best option. Development of the corridor 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 most of the route already existed, the investment went into building new stations, upgrading track, enhancing the safety of crossings, and updating signals. A significant portion of the funds were used to extend the METRO Blue Line to the Target Field station on the west side of Interstate 394 and 5th Street in downtown Minneapolis. This terminal station was integrated into the Minnesota Twins' new ballpark, Target Field, which opened in March 2010.
During normal operation, the line had six trains running in the morning and evening rush hour periods, with limited service on weekends and holidays. Bus feeder lines, including the Northstar Link from St. Cloud to Big Lake station, brought residents along the corridor to the nearest train station. Once downtown, commuters could walk upstairs to the METRO Blue and Green Lines, take a bus to other areas of the city, or go into one of the nearby buildings integrated into the Minneapolis skyway system. In 2010, Metro Ridership fell well short of its first-year goal of 3,400 weekday trips from this station. Metro Transit had a goal of 5,900 by 2030 intending to save commuters 900,000 hours over the course of a year when compared to taking a dedicated bus line.
From its opening until January 2014, Northstar trains arrived on time for 96 percent of trips, making it one of the most reliable services from Metro Transit. Starting in the winter of 2014, on-time performance suffered due to heavy freight traffic and severe cold weather. By the end of February 2014, on-time reliability was down to 74 percent. Freight traffic from the North Dakota oil boom contributed to congestion and delays for trains. The delays were also felt by the Amtrak Empire Builder route which travels through the same corridor. Delays were severe enough for legislators to hold a public hearing at the State Capitol with BNSF in attendance. During the hearing, BNSF stated that delays were due to cold weather and not freight traffic. The cold weather had caused mechanical issues and limited how long crews could work outside. BNSF spent money on repairs and maintenance along the corridor through 2014, which included replacing ties and switches, and adding covers, which would protect switches from ice and snow. While January through October 2014 saw trains arriving on-time just 65.7 percent of the time, during the month of December trains were back to 95 percent on-time performance. Metro Transit offered refunds to customers whose trains were more than 10 minutes late in January and February 2015 in an effort to draw back ridership. During January 2015, trips were on time 98% of the time.
Ridership Annual Passenger Ridership Year Ridership % Change 2009 78,782 - 2010 710,426 % 2011 703,427 % 2012 % 2013 787,239 % 2014 721,214 % 2015 722,637 % 2016 711,168 % 2017 793,796 % 2018 787,327 % 2019 767,500 % 2020 152,600 % 2021 50,433 % 2022 77,076 % 2023 97,264 % 2024 127,400 %2025121,800 -4.39% Sources:
Ridership in the first 15 days averaged 2,207 per day (33,112 total), just short of the goal of 2,460. By the end of January 2010, goals had been exceeded by 3%.Article does not clearly state whether these were December 2009 or January 2010 figures. Ridership for 2010 was originally projected to be 897,000, though ultimately ended up being 715,000. Because ridership varied significantly through the course of a year, Metro Transit's month-to-month goals were different from the yearly average goal. Daily ridership was 2,814 in early 2019, the same level it was in 2017. Ridership was projected to be 5,590 in 2025 and 6,200 in 2030, according to a 2009 study by Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc.
In 2019 Northstar averaged 2,660 weekday rides and 705 weekend rides. Event service comprised 3137% of total annual boardings. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ridership dropped to 152,600 passengers in 2020 and 50,433 in 2021. Ridership never recovered to pre-pandemic levels before closure.
Route
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) traveled eastbound past the Federal Reserve Bank and 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 turned northwest to the GN East side line, which then joined the parallel ex-Northern Pacific main line. The ex-Great Northern and ex-Northern Pacific lines merged into BNSF, becoming the BNSF Northern Transcon (transcontinental) line.