north suburban Minneapolis Amtrak stop

[apok86]

This is my first post but i have been lurking of this forum for a few months. I’m a huge fan of rail travel and want Amtrak to be the best it can be.

If you had the change to ride the empire builder through the north suburbs of Minneapolis you may have noticed 5 new shinny train stations that are used for the new northstar commuter rail service. How hard would it be to get Amtrak to add a stop to the Emperor Builder at one of these stations.

The stations are owned my Metropolitan Council served by metro transit trains. I can’t imagine that the met council would have a problem with Amtrak using their station but you never know. If you want more info about the northstar commuter rail it can be found at www.northstartrain.org

I would like to see a stop added to the Emperor Builder in Anoka MN. This would be approximately 26 miles from the MSP Amtrak stop. Anoka County has a population of approx 325 thousand people. Since the station is already built all that would really need to be done is to install an Amtrak Quik-Trak Machine.

This stop would serve a similar purpose as the Glenview or Joliet IL stops. Many families in the north suburbs of Minneapolis have college students in Fargo / Moorhead and Chicago both served by the builder. People who live in this area would be more likely to take the train if they wouldn’t have to go to the moderately sketchy midway Saint Paul Amtrak station. This situation should improve (god / gov willing) in the next couple of years when the MSP stop is moved back to Saint Paul Union Depot.

There are a few possible problems now of which I see as being too big of an obstacle. This stop would be in an area on the bnsf mainline that is in very good repair and Amtrak can usually sail from Saint Cloud Station (SCD) to north town yard at top speed. Amtrak may not want to lose time here by stopping. Additionally being on a busy sections of the bnsf mainline I’m sure bnsf would prefer to have Amtrak moving right along. This stop would be in michele bachmann’s congressional district.

Do you think this would be a good / bad idea? Has anyone had any experience getting Amtrak to change it’s service? Is there some crazy bureaucratic process for Amtrak to add a stop? Any feedback would be awesome.

 

[TransitGeek]

A similar situation happened in my current hometown, Riverside, CA. The old Santa Fe depot closed in 1984, ending service on the Southwest Chief. After the inception of Los Angeles' commuter rail system, Metrolink, we got a very shiny new station downtown in 1993. Amtrak did eventually put our fair city back onto the Chief's route- in 2002, a touch shy of 9 years later.

Good news? You can get Amtrak to stop at new commuter rail stations. Bad news? It might take a while.

 

[Exiled in Express]

How is the parking situation at the station? Amtrak pretty much means overnight parking and MetroTransit does not seem very friendly to that. There are not really any transit connections other than the early eastbound Northstar from Big Lake and Elk River so potential passengers would arrive via private auto. Parking at Midway is tight at best so a reliever lot could be useful.

No staff also means no checked baggage. This does not seem like a problem given the generous carry on rules and the audience you seem to think this would target. Amtrak and especially the Builder are running at capacity with some frequency so I am not sure if there is incentive to seek out more passengers until they can handle what they have. Right now the suburban riders are not taking because they don;t want to make the drive to Midway, Amtrak's goodwill could be lost if the reason becomes "they won't sell me a ticket".

I would welcome the hometown points run opportunity.

 

[Ispolkom]

I would welcome the hometown points run opportunity.

That was my immediate thought.

 

[PennCentralFan]

The Midway station is not sketchy. It is hardly dangerous and in an industrial area. It's not in a residential area and not in a commercial area. The station is well staffed and very safe.

 

[AferVentus]

Better yet - how about a stop in Rochester, MN? It is a large community and not too far off from the current route. But then you'd miss the Mississippi river....

 

[Guest]

The Midway station is not sketchy. It is hardly dangerous and in an industrial area. It's not in a residential area and not in a commercial area. The station is well staffed and very safe.

I agree and don't really know why anyone would think of it as sketchy. While it is a bit dated looking, you are much safer there than at CHI, WAS, PHL, NYP or LAX, etc. I have left my car there numerous times, including for a recent four-week trip and have never had a problem.

While having extra suburban stations would be nice for those folks, comparing the Twin Cities and Chicago as comparable cities is not appropriate based on population. The Midway station is much more convenient to Anoka than MSP International Airport, which seems to do okay.

 

[MattW]

Well why not put an intercity station as the last station on a commuter rail system? People that live along the line between the city and the suburb don't have to go all the way into the city just to catch an intercity train. The NEC of course is something of an unusual case, but isn't that a good way for commuter/intercity rail operations to work together?

 

[lyke99]

Better yet - how about a stop in Rochester, MN? It is a large community and not too far off from the current route. But then you'd miss the Mississippi river....

Not only would you miss the Mississippi River, you would need to run south on the UP (ex-Rock Island Spine Line) to Owatonna, which is about 40 miles west of Rochester; then head east through Rochester to Winona to regain the route.

This routing would add at least two hours to the running time between MSP and Winona - there is no direct line between the Twin Cities and Rochester.

 

[WICT106]

I think it would make more sense to fix up the track between Portage, Madison, and Watertown, WI, and do a simple re-route of the Builder as it crosses WI -- Of course, I realize the work that is cut out for those who wish Madison to have rail service. Right now the goal is just to keep the effort and advocacy alive. But I think this move would add more ridership to the Builder than a stop around Northtown yd, MSP. I wonder if a grant could be sent directly through Amtrak, instead of through the WI DOT. hmmm . . . . . .

 

[Anderson]

There are examples of suburban stops all throughout the NEC: New Carrollton, MD; Quantico and Alexandria, VA; and Martinsburg, WV are all served by overlapping local rail systems (the Washington Metro, MARC, and the VRE), and in fact Amtrak has an agreement with the VRE folks for Fredericksburg-Washington transport as well. Napierville, IL is another case outside of Chicago (it's near the end of the Metra system going west). The two outer Boston stops (Back Bay and Rt. 128) also jump to mind.

The question is whether Amtrak picks up enough new business to justify both adding in a station/renovating a station as well as adding more time to the schedule.

 

[PennCentralFan]

I don't know if a suburban stop in msp will work. Unlike Chicago the twin cities isn't as big. The midway station in st. paul is centrally located and off of I-94. Now if the SPUD becomes the stop I could see a suburban stop. I'm not too thrilled about the SPUD stop. Parking may be tougher. Right now parking is tight at the midway station but there is an overflow lot which has room. Parking in downtown st. paul is at a premium so I wonder if there'll be free longterm parking at SPUD.

 

[Ispolkom]

I don't know if a suburban stop in msp will work. Unlike Chicago the twin cities isn't as big. The midway station in st. paul is centrally located and off of I-94. Now if the SPUD becomes the stop I could see a suburban stop. I'm not too thrilled about the SPUD stop. Parking may be tougher. Right now parking is tight at the midway station but there is an overflow lot which has room. Parking in downtown st. paul is at a premium so I wonder if there'll be free longterm parking at SPUD.

There won't be free parking near SPUD, though the parking underneath the depot is pretty reasonable. Now, anyway.

You're right that there are many good points about St. Paul Midway Station. It's located between the two downtowns (probably the key reason for its location), and is pretty close to I-94, plus there's lots of parking. It's certainly closer and more convenient to my house (a straight shot up Cleveland Avenue) than SPUD is. You can argue about the light rail improving things, but mainly as a typical St. Paulan (or is it St. Pauline?), I'd be happy to have Amtrak move to SPUD just to stick it to Minneapolis. Shame they didn't preserve their railroad stations better.