Committee votes to suspend Northstar Commuter Rail

The Metropolitan Council this week voted to suspend the North Star Commuter Rail service in January and establish bus service in the same corridor. 

The service would end the weekend of Jan. 3, allowing the service to continue for the Minnesota Vikings regular season home games. 

Two bus routes, 888 and 827, will offer service up to Ramsey, but does not extend into Sherburne County. The state Department of Transportation is working with the county to develop bus service there, Transportation Committee Chair, Councilmember Deb Barber, said. 

The bus routes would begin on Jan. 5. They would offer more trips during the day, and keep similar travel times and weekend service, Barber said during the meeting on Wednesday.

Barber said commuters' working schedules became more flexible after the start of COVID-19 in 2020.

That pattern shift was “quite different from the regularity of commuting to work nearly every day of the week during rush hour in 2019,” she said.

“This was a challenging decision,” Barber said. “We do know that this was an important part of our network, but we also know that we have to take the time to look at the services we’re providing to see if they’re efficient and effective ... This is not something that any of us is super eager to do.”

Bus service in the corridor will have nearly 400 trips to and from Minneapolis each week, according to the Metro Council. Currently, the rail offers 40 trips per week.

The Northstar Commuter Rail per ride subsidy was $116 per trip in 2023, according to Metro Transit officials. The expanded bus service subsidy is expected to be $16.07 per trip.

Metro Council Chair Charlie Zelle said the change to bus service is about enhancing service. 

“We’re creating a more agile transit system that can adapt to our communities’ evolving needs while providing better connectivity across the region,” Zelle said.