north metro

Biggest thing: Revise the schedules. My wife and I have ridden commuter rail both in the Boston area and in the UK. In all instances we were taking advantage of the ability to go out and back at non peak (commuter) times. Consider light rail - goes both ways, first year ridership exceeds expectations. NorthStar - treated like just another downtown centered commuter bus, surprise, surprise, struggles to get ridership.

The limited number of trips per day is the biggest obstacle to more riders. But the number of trips is restricted by the traffic on the BN rail line because they were too cheap to build their own rails. Bad design choice in the beginning dooms the line, too bad.

The trains already have wireless internet. When I am on Facebook I constantly see Northstar advertisements. A quick search on Youtube reveals several videos about Northstar. Metro Transit has already created a video about how to use the ticket machines. Don't think these are the problems. The reality, which Leigh Lenzmeier and others seem determined to ignore, is that Northstar is not a very convenient way for most people to commute, especially those who do not work in downtown Minneapolis. The schedule cannot be altered for the reasons mentioned in the article. This probably should have been considered before they started spending $16 million per year to operate it.

Unfortunately, it's the schedule that's killing the Northstar Line & it's ridership. Because it is so inconvenient, no one wants to ride it. Even on weekends, the service is terrible, including transfers to buses going to St. Cloud on weekends. You can throw in Wi-Fi and maybe ridership will increase by a small margin but it's the schedule that makes or break ridership. I won't even get into the fact that it doesn't serve St. Cloud, even though it should.

(article quote)"A class of journalism students has devoted an entire semester to thinking up public-relations campaigns for the three-year-old, 41-mile line from Minneapolis to Big Lake." ---- Journalism students were tapped to complete an analysis and PR campaign? I thought a newly minted graduate, quoted in a previous Strib article about college grad unemployment, was only joking about her marketing degree being worth nothing. Now I know she was serious and I know why too. They are not even asked to design cute little choo-choo train props.

This has to be the most moronic article I've ever read in the Strib....and that's saying something. Some student says riding the train is "scary"? What!? IT'S A STUPID TRAIN! Argh! Why do we continue pouring money into this wasteland known as Northstar when people are so stupid they are scared to ride it? And for the commentor who says they should have built their own tracks, that would have made the initial cost 10 times the original. It wouldn't have even gotten off the ground. Why do I have to continue to pay for free rides for morons?

Here's a thought.... Rider fees should cover 100% of operating costs.

The Northstar may be cheaper than a taxi or driving a car and paying $10 to park it, but there needs to be some thanks to the U.S. taxpayers that are contributing about $20 each way for every rider for intial purchase and daily maintenance and operations. It would be far cheaper to pay commuters to carpool. Just think, no $13,000,000 stations, fewer vehicles on the existing roads, less pollution, less oil and gas imported from the Middle East, and a lot of well paid entrepeneurs who might actually be able to drive their commuting buddies right to their doors. That would be a little like the applauded 3M van pool program, except that the gov't would chip in say $10 per person per one way trip and the rider would ride free !! Everyone wins but the bloated transportation bureaucracy.

I know it would be expensive to do so, but they need to add trips to make Northstar more viable. Even for commuters, with trains only every 30 minutes and ending by 7:44 in the morning (Coon Rapids, earlier to the west), it's not very convenient. Add 2-3 more morning and evening trips, a 1pm outbound trip, and a late evening (9-10pm) outbound trip and you'll have riders.

"Scheduling more Northstar trains is tricky because Burlington Northern owns the track and schedules more than 100 trains over the same route each day." And therein lies the problem, or at least one of them. Northstar was poorly designed from the beginning. This is the only commuter train in the country that is having these kinds of problems, and it boils down to these problems: 1, It operates on BNSF track. Sharing the track with freight rail operations means the freight company, in this case, BNSF, will always put their operations first. They are, after all, a private company which owns the track. And, when a derailment occurs, as one did in July 2011, caused Northstar operations to be halted for almost a week while the mess was cleaned up. 2. It operates at grade with numerous at-grade crossings that reduce the safety of the train and make it slow down, which results in a longer trip. 3. It is diesel-powered, resulting in a higher operating cost and a larger carbon footprint when compared to electrically-powered commuter trains. and 4. It's speed is limited by all three above. What should be a 20 minute trip now takes approximately 50 minutes from Big Lake to Target Field, and 47 minutes going north. And that is only to Big Lake. What we have with the city-pair (Minneapolis and Big Lake) now in existence is called the Minimally Operable Segment (MOS), and it is what was put in place to get s project approved, even though the initial documents all said it was supposed to go to St. Cloud. The Northstar Corridor Development Authority (NCDA) and the State couldn't for whatever reason justify a 60-mile long route to St. Cloud, and now MetroTransit and the NCDA will not make the move to complete the line to St. Cloud unless ridership goes up. But what they fail to realize is to get ridership to go up they need to complete the line to St. Cloud. And they are too stubborn to admit so. I am very glad the St. Cloud State students did this, because it is studies like this that might get some people to rethink old worn out strategies. Unless something happens soon, this line faces the possibility of being shut down due to lack of ridership. That would be too bad. Because we have been hearing for over a decade the Maple Grove - St. Cloud - I-94 Corridor is the fastest growing area in the state, and it could use a well thought out and well run commuter train. Just not the one we have now.