Northstar Line - Background

Background

The route was initially designed to run the full distance between Minneapolis and St. Cloud, but the plan was not well received by Minnesota politicians . Also, projected ridership and costs for the planned Minneapolis – St. Cloud portion were not good enough to qualify for Federal funding. Governor Jesse Ventura was an early advocate of the Northstar commuter rail line, and convinced some people to come around to his point of view. However, former Governor Tim Pawlenty did not initially support the idea, and said he would not support it when he campaigned for the governorship. He changed his mind after the Federal Transit Administration determined that a scaled-back version of the line would cost less to initially build and would have lower maintenance costs after going into operation compared to other options.

Many hoped that funds would be approved for the project during Minnesota's 2004 legislative session, but the representatives at the capitol were unable to find common ground on a number of issues, the issuing of bonds among them. The project appeared stalled and many requested the governor to call a special session of the legislature, but some counties in the area and the Metropolitan Council came up with matching funds to allow funding from the United States federal government to continue.

During the 2005 legislative session, a bonding bill very similar to the proposed 2004 bonding bill was passed, including $37.5 million of funding for the corridor. The issue was believed to have changed the composition of the Minnesota House as the election in 2004 saw at least two non-supporters in direct vicinity of the Corridor ousted by opposition candidates. The bill was signed on April 11, 2005, by Governor Tim Pawlenty at the site of the Riverdale station in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. This funding along with a total of $55 million in local funding was matched with Federal funds and allowed the NCDA to enter Final Design. A nearly $1 billion budget bill passed by the legislature in May 2006 provided funding to complete the corridor to Big Lake.

Construction began on the maintenance facility near Big Lake station and on the Hiawatha light rail extension in September 2007, before full funding for the line had been secured. On December 11, 2007, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation Thomas Barrett met with Governor Pawlenty in Anoka County and officially signed a Full Funding Grant Agreement of $156.8 million, nearly half of the funding for the $317 million, 40-mile (64 km) line from Minneapolis to Big Lake. The money enabled the release of an additional $97.5 million in state bonding money set aside for the project.

The federal government paid $156.8 million, the state paid $98.6 million, and the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority pledged $34.8 million. The remaining partners were Sherburne County Regional Rail Authority ($8.2 million), Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority ($8 million), the Metropolitan Council ($5.9 million) and the Minnesota Twins ($2.6 million, for the station improvements under the new Target Field where the Minneapolis station was constructed). $107.5 million of the $317 million total went to paying BNSF for a perpetual easement for track rights and facilities along the line, and to pay the BNSF employees that operate the trains. Another significant chunk of the cost went into the Hiawatha light rail extension. The operating budget for the first full year of service, 2010, is $16.8 million.