In early January Metro Transit is replacing the Northstar with a fleet of buses.
“We had high hopes for Northstar commuter rail and the ridership but the market has changed since 2020 and really put a dent in the success of that service,” said Metro Transit’s Adam Harrington. “Our inability to add mid day service as well has been a challenge.”
Harrington admits that seeing the Northstar vanish is tough, but he believes newly created bus options are going to be better for North Metro residents going from the Ramsey, Anoka or Coon Rapids stations to downtown Minneapolis.
“One of the things we’re really excited about is our ability to add much more service on the schedule so we’ll have trips on weekdays with arrivals in downtown Minneapolis between 6 am and 9 am,” Harrington said. “Then running hourly all throughout the middle of the day and the last trip leaving downtown Minneapolis about 7 pm.”
Low fare bus trips
There will be plenty of options for people wanting to ride to Minneapolis and back.
“It’s about 40 weekly trips that we provide today if you look at all days of the week,” Harrington said. “With the new bus service it’s going to be nearly 400, about 380 trips per week that we’re providing. We’re now adding weekend service back on Saturday and Sunday to orient those trips around events and activities in downtown Minneapolis.”
Route 888 is the new bus service that will carry people from the North Metro to Marquette and 2nd Avenue in Minneapolis.
Said Harrington: “It will be a very comfortable ride in and out of downtown.”
Metro Transit is hoping to lure passengers with an affordable fare.
“The base cash fare for this service is $3.25 per ride, per direction,” Harrington said. “All the passes that customers currently use on North Star will be valid on this service as well so there will probably be substantial cost savings as far as the fare goes.”
The last Northstar runs on January 4th after the Green Bay-Minnesota NFL game. For complete route information go to metrotransit.org/northstar.
