Northstar service between Minneapolis and Big Lake, Minn., was shuttered Jan. 4, with buses replacing trains along the route, according to local media reports.
The Minnesota Star Tribune and other media outlets reported in February 2025 the potential elimination of the commuter rail service and in early August 2025 that Metropolitan Council meeting documents proposed a January 2026 end date. The Met Council voted on Aug. 27 to end the service, the Tribune reported; “the last Northstar train will run … after the final Vikings regular season home game at U.S. Bank Stadium,” and the Met Council on Jan. 5 will begin running buses to replace rail service.
“This was a challenging decision,” the Tribune reported Deb Barber, Chair of Met Council’s transportation committee, as saying in August. “But we also know that we have to take the time to look at the service we provide to see that they’re efficient and effective.” Northstar’s 2025 operating budget was $18.6 million, the newspaper said, and the “Met Council estimates the bus service will cost $3.5 million in 2026.”
According to the paper, the “Met Council’s plans to ‘preserve key assets’ for future rail between cities and local use are in development, it said in a statement.”
The Tribune reported that Dave Butts, Vice President of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, which represents 26 Northstar workers, “has vocally opposed ending Northstar. “They’ve never given Northstar a chance,” he said.
As of Jan. 5, 2026, the Northstar corridor has transitioned from about 40 train trips per week to nearly 400 weekly bus trips (see map below).
BACKGROUND
“MnDOT’s recent Twin Cities – St. Cloud-Fargo/Moorhead Corridor study makes it clear we can provide more cost-effective transit service in the corridor currently being served by Northstar Commuter Rail,” the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and the Metropolitan Council said in a Feb. 24, 2025, joint statement, according to FOX 9 KMSP. “As the world and consumer demand changes, we must be willing to be flexible and innovative to offer better service while saving dollars. We have jointly started the process to explore transitioning to bus service in this corridor. That process includes working with our federal partners and our rail partners at BNSF Railway, who we have appreciated as a critical [host freight rail] partner. In the coming months, we will have more information, including timeline information and projected future savings. For Minnesotans who currently utilize this service, we are committed to working with you to ensure you have access to high-quality transportation in this corridor.”
The MnDOT study (download below) “found that transitioning to bus service between Minneapolis and St. Cloud would cost millions less than the status quo,” according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. “It costs about $12 million annually to operate Northstar, a budget that would shrink to $2 million if buses were used.”
“This is the beginning to finally end Northstar service, with its ridiculously low ridership, its ridiculously huge operating subsidies and its ridiculously expensive maintenance costs,” said Minnesota state Rep. Jon Koznick, a Republican serving District 5A, according to the Tribune.
The 40-mile Northstar service in the Northstar corridor opened Nov. 16, 2009, between downtown Minneapolis and the northern city of Big Lake (see map, right); it was originally envisioned to link with St. Cloud, but connects to that city via bus. From 2011 through 2019, it carried between 2,200 and 3,300 weekday riders during the morning and evening peak commute hours; it also featured special event service on evenings and weekends for Minnesota’s Twins, Vikings, and University of Minnesota Gopher sporting events. MotivePower (Wabtec) MP36PH-3Cs power the trains, which comprise Alstom (originally Bombardier) bilevels.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a dramatic ridership drop of nearly 98%—just 60 weekday rides in April 2020, according to the Metropolitan Council, which is the regional policy-making body providing transit, wastewater collection and treatment, and affordable housing services in the seven-county Twin Cities metro area, and is charged under state law with establishing regional growth policies and long-range plans for transportation, aviation, water resources, and regional parks. In 2021, daily ridership peaked in October at 346 daily rides or just over 13% of the October 2019 pre-pandemic level. In 2022, Northstar carried around 300 daily rides.
While employees have been returning to in-person work, “Northstar’s recovery has been lackluster, with just over 127,000 riders last year, renewing Republican lawmakers’ chorus to shut it down,” the Tribune reported. The service provides four weekday trains and no weekend service unless there is a special event.
“‘We know travel patterns have changed’ since the pandemic,” Met Council Chair Charlie Zelle said, according to the Tribune. “He said bus service would likely be more frequent to reflect the new paradigm.”
MnDOT was charged with conducting the Twin Cities – St. Cloud-Fargo/Moorhead Corridor study by the state legislature. The purpose: “to conduct an analysis and evaluation of options for development of transit and rail service improvements in the corridor between the Minnesota cities of St. Paul, Minneapolis, Coon Rapids, St. Cloud and Moorhead, and Fargo, N.Dak.” It assessed alternatives for transit service in the corridor and the elimination of Northstar commuter rail in conjunction with those alternatives.
According to the Tribune, the “study laid out different options for Northstar, but didn’t recommend that the service be terminated altogether. It explored the potential cost to extend service to the Fargo/Moorhead area, either by extending Northstar’s route, by expanding Amtrak service or by combining bus and train service.” MnDOT, it noted, is studying expanding Amtrak’s Chicago-to-St. Paul Borealis service to Coon Rapids and St. Cloud.
If the Northstar service were to end, it would involve “unspooling contracts” between MnDOT, Met Council, BNSF, the state of Minnesota, and the Federal Transit Administration, which provided a Full-Funding Grant Agreement for the $320 million project, according to the Tribune. “The federal government and possibly the state would have to be reimbursed if Northstar shut down, athough it’s unclear how much,” the paper said. “Congress would have to approve any waiver of those costs.”
The Tribune added that “[t]he remaining interest in Northstar is about $30 million to $35 million, according to the report, not including property and buildings along the line, which would need to be appraised to determine current market value.”
COMMENTARY
“The Northstar train lasted for only a few weeks past its sixteenth birthday,” commented Railway Age Contributing Editor David Peter Alan on Jan. 6. “It never had much of a chance. Its growth was stunted from the start, because it never reached St. Cloud, the next Amtrak stop upriver from St. Paul. Because its ridership never recovered from severe losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s fair to say that the cause of death was a sort of Long COVID. The Northstar service is survived by Amtrak’s Empire Builder, which only stops at St. Paul, and not at Minneapolis. Minneapolis has no more passenger trains, unless you count Metro Transit’s light rail lines, which still bear the dark blue, yellow and white livery that looked so good on Northstar.”
