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Major benefits have kept Northstar on track

When complete, Northstar will be the region’s first commuter rail line. It will provide service on a 40-mile segment of existing track between Big Lake and downtown Minneapolis. Rail stations are initially planned for Big Lake, Elk River, Anoka, Coon Rapids, Fridley and Minneapolis.

If all goes well, Northstar will inaugurate service in 2009. Northstar will carry 5,600 passengers daily by 2020, according to estimates.

The Northstar project was slowed down a few times and nearly derailed for political or financial reasons in the late 1990s. But the important regional benefits of the project have helped keep it alive:

• Promise of congestion relief
• Will move many commuters effectively
• Tracks already in place – little new infrastructure to build
• Business and development opportunities
• Passenger link to Hiawatha LRT, the international airport, shopping, etc.

Northstar passengers will be able to transfer to Hiawatha light-rail at a new LRT station to be built four blocks west of the existing terminus in the Warehouse District of downtown Minneapolis. Five trains will travel inbound to Minneapolis in the morning and return passengers home during the afternoon peak period. Some reverse commute service will be offered to bring passengers to job opportunities along the Northstar corridor.

More on Northstar Commuter Rail (September 2005 article).