Minnesota’s Northstar commuter rail will come to an end in January, according to an update from MetroTransit. 

Earlier this year, the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Council (the regional planning agency for the Twin Cities) started reevaluating the passenger service that connects the northern suburbs with downtown Minneapolis. Before the pandemic, about 2,000 to 3,000 people rode the trains daily, but according to MPR News, that number has fallen to just a few hundred. In 2023, the line earned about $323,589 in fares but had operating costs of roughly $11.6 million. 

Northstar was established in 2009 and operates on BNSF Railway trackage, which also manages it through its commuter rail division. (Besides Northstar, BNSF runs passenger trains for Metra in Illinois, Sounder in Washington, and Metrolink in California.) Originally, the line was supposed to connect the Twin Cities with St. Cloud, but an extension beyond Big Lake never happened. Some say that’s why the service has never prospered. Ridership on Northstar also trails behind commuter services of similar size.

With declining ridership and rising costs, MetroTransit plans to replace the commuter trains with buses that will mostly follow the same route as Northstar. According to a presentation this week, the last run will be on either Saturday, January 3, 2026, or Sunday, January 4, 2026, after the Minnesota Vikings’ last regular season game.

—Justin Franz