Ramsey's hopes of becoming a new stop along the Northstar commuter rail line got a boost this week when Metropolitan Council officials tentatively endorsed a proposed train station near City Hall.

The Met Council's Tom Weaver told the Ramsey City Council on Tuesday night that the proposal was the first to be rated with a new system for evaluating transit-system station requests. Several other transit funding agencies will review the system and offer input on the Ramsey station, he said. But unless major objections surface, the Met Council board is expected to endorse the proposal, said Weaver, the council's regional administrator.

"We support the operation, but you guys will have to figure out how to [build] it," he said. He pledged to expedite the rating system review to get a formal Met Council endorsement so that Ramsey can use that support in seeking federal and other funding. The station would cost an estimated $14 million.

Met Council support is "extremely important," said Dennis Berg, chairman of the Anoka County Board and a member of two transit boards that help fund the Northstar and other transit projects.

"It was a critical hurdle," he said after Tuesday's meeting, which he attended. "Now it is safe to say it will happen. ... It gives a green light to a lot of us to go full speed ahead in trying to find funding to build the station."

Berg said the endorsement means the Met Council would pay half of annual operating expenses, estimated at $100,000, and the rest would be paid by the Counties Transit Improvement Board, which levies a small tax in five metro-area counties for transit. Berg sits on that board as well as the Northstar Corridor Development Authority, both of which will review the new rating system.

Once the new rating system has been vetted by various other agencies, including the state Transportation Department, it will be used for future transit station requests, officials said. The rating factors include service reliability, the impact on existing riders (a Ramsey stop would take three minutes) and new rail customers added.

Berg said that if Ramsey is chosen for a proposed Veterans Affairs clinic in the northern suburbs, that would also boost its chances of getting federal funds.

Ramsey has hired lobbyist Elwyn Tinklenberg to seek federal funds for the station. Tinklenberg said Tuesday that he just learned that Feb. 17 is the deadline for funding requests in congressional appropriation bills. He said having a Met Council endorsement would help get the station included in such requests.

Weaver said he would seek a formal council endorsement by the congressional deadline.

"I was extremely encouraged that Met Council is willing to support the idea of a station at Ramsey," said city public works director Brian Olson. "We were always in the plan for a future station, but ... now they are looking at the station as a positive addition to Northstar rail."

Mayor Bob Ramsey said the city believes that the daily average of 241 commuters now riding the Ramsey Star Express bus downtown would switch to the Northstar.

Besides federal funds, city officials are seeking state bonding funds. Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, has introduced a bill seeking $4.3 million in bonds for the station.

Ramsey also expects to receive more than $3 million set aside for its station by the Counties Transit Improvement Board, Olson said.

Jim Adams • 612-673-7658