Amtrak to Anoka? Suburbs look to reinvent stations and land around defunct Northstar line

A little more than a month after the last Northstar commuter train carried passengers from Minneapolis through the northern suburbs, property that served the defunct rail line is already slated for reinvention.

In Anoka, that could include potentially repurposing the suburb’s Northstar station into a new Amtrak stop.

The city is also selling a plot of land that had been a Northstar station parking lot to a developer for more than $1 million to build a four-story apartment building. It’s the first sale of property that’s no longer needed for the rail line, and an early sign of how the northern suburbs will develop without the Northstar Commuter Rail running through their cities.

“It shows there’s still momentum up there, even post-Northstar,” Anoka Mayor Erik Skogquist said.

Since the closure of the long-underperforming Northstar, cities along the route have been scrambling to re-envision their stations. In some cities, officials say they are feeling pressure to quickly decide whether to take over ownership of pedestrian walkways and other structures, otherwise station infrastructure could be ripped out.

Anoka officials are hopeful they can keep advancing a yearslong effort to redevelop the area around its train stop as an extension of its bustling downtown. Other cities, from Fridley to Ramsey and Coon Rapids, are also continuing to pursue development around their stations, noting that their suburbs are now being served by a more frequent bus route.

Express bus service started Jan. 5 from downtown Minneapolis to Big Lake and Elk River.

A spokesperson with BNSF Railway did not immediately respond to requests from the Minnesota Star Tribune.

BNSF Railway has said it wants to remove any unused station platforms and structures, citing safety risks along active rail lines.

Anoka officials have worried that could leave the city with an unusable parking ramp and the risk of having to pay back federal money. But Skogquist said city officials are excited by the prospect that their station could be used by Amtrak.

Amtrak spokesperson Marc Magliari wrote in an email that the company has interest in adding Anoka as a stop on its daily Empire Builder train westbound to Seattle and Portland and eastbound to Chicago via St. Paul.

“However, we do not yet have an agreement to use the former Northstar station or approval from BNSF Railway, which owns the tracks that host our train," he said. “Conversations are underway with several parties.”

Anoka’s station includes a parking ramp and pedestrian overpass. An elevator to the overpass sits in BNSF right-of-way and provides access to the $10 million parking ramp, which makes the structure ADA compliant.

If that’s removed, Skogquist said, it would cost the city up to $2 million to remedy the accessibility issue to make the parking ramp functional.

Other cities are rushing to determine whether they can preserve pieces of their train stations.

In Fridley, Community Development Director Paul Bolin said city officials are trying to decide whether to take over ownership of the station’s pedestrian underpass, one of a limited number of ways to cross the train tracks. He said the city would reconstruct the tunnel so that it can be accessed by bikers and walkers without taking stairs or an elevator.

But Bolin said the city is struggling with scant information about potential insurance and maintenance costs of owning the tunnel, which is now Metro Transit property and part of an agreement with BNSF.

He said city officials also are interested in acquiring a large parking lot by the tracks owned by Metro Transit. Bolin said the city’s long-term plans call for that site to be redeveloped into townhomes, but plans are still up in the air as Metro Transit gets appraisals on their property along the line.

“It’s a bit frustrating,” Bolin said. “All of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Hey, we’re going to shut down Northstar.’ Now we’re working through all of the details as we shut things down.”

The city of Ramsey is facing similar pressure to act quickly. Since 2018, the city has been planning a pedestrian bridge from the Northstar station’s parking ramp to cross over U.S. Highway 10.

The city was awarded $3.8 million in state funding for the crossing, which City Administrator Brian Hagen said would cover about half of the construction costs. He said officials still see a benefit in pursuing the bridge, even without Northstar, because of potential development on the south side of Hwy 10.

But like in Fridley, officials are working with little information on the costs of owning and maintaining the bridge, as they decide whether to preserve the station now that it won’t be a part of the Northstar service.