MINNEAPOLIS – Amtrak and Trinity Railway Express want to lease spare locomotives and coaches from Minnesota’s beleaguered Northstar commuter operation.
Amtrak would like to use a Northstar MP36PH-3C locomotive, three coaches, and a cab car in Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha service. The equipment would help replace capacity lost when Amtrak sidelined its Horizon fleet due to safety concerns around corrosion on the cars.
“Amtrak is working with Metro Transit in Minnesota to augment our fleet. Should the lease be approved, the disposition of the Northstar rail equipment will be discussed with our state partners,” Amtrak said in a statement.
Dallas Area Rapid Transit, on behalf of Trinity Railway Express, is seeking one Northstar MP36PH-3C, two cab cars, three coaches and additional equipment, if it becomes available. The Dallas-Fort Worth TRE is gearing up World Cup soccer events that will be held in the Metroplex in the summer of 2026.
“Based on the current and expected levels of Northstar service during the time requested, this equipment is available for both of these purposes with no expected impact on daily or event commuter rail services,” according to a Metropolitan Council Transportation Committee agenda.
The council, which oversees joint services in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, is expected to consider the requests this week.
Due to low ridership, the Metropolitan Council and state Department of Transportation are studying replacing the 40-mile commuter rail line with bus service.
Sorry, but extending the line to St Cloud wouldn’t have mattered. There simply never were enough 8-to-5 commuters from the Hwy 10 corridor to DT Mpls to justify commuter rail, and those numbers only get worse as you head further from the Twin Cities towards St. Cloud. And it’s only gotten worse. SCSU’s enrollment is half what it was 20 years ago and in any case it’s about a 20 minute walk from the campus to the proposed station in St Cloud. The parts of the St Cloud area that have grown during the last 20 years are nowhere near the Staples sub, let alone the proposed station site. And that additional 20 miles from Big Lake to St Cloud is largely rural – the largest town in that stretch is Becker at <5,000 people.
The State couldn’t/wouldn’t come up with the $$ to extend the Northstar seven miles to St Cloud but they keep dumping Fed, State & local $$ into the empty St Cloud airport to accommodate the millionaire farmers in the area for their get aways to their winter homes in AZ & FL. DIdn’t CalTran just sell locos & cars to a S. American country? Spare operable passenger rail cars are a valuable asset that shouldn’t be cast off so willingly with the current shortages, apparent short-sightedness on the part of these parties. Minnesota better hang on to this equipment they might need it if they want to preserve the Borealis service with the current wrecking crew running Washington.
Big Lake was a compromise final destination. As Anthony states, the original plan was to operate it to St. Cloud, which is what the original ridership estimates were based upon. BNSF wanted the 7-mile capacity addition, and additional funding was not forthcoming, so Northstar never really had a chance to reach its potential.
Interesting picture, looks like Minneapolis to me as Northstar never served Saint Paul. Too bad they cannot make a go of the service. I have stated before, if they completed the 7 mile section of single track around Little Falls and ran all the way to Saint Cloud instead of Big Lake where they terminate now, then I believe this would be a very viable commuter operation.
100% agree. Not sure there’s very many people who want Big Lake as their final destination. And besides to atrociously poor schedule, the stations are in terrible locations. There’s nothing surrounding them except for parking lots, and they are nowhere near the suburban downtowns the railroad passes through. This service was made for the 9-5 commuter, and there has been no effort to adapt it to the new world of hybrid work.