The Northstar Line (reporting mark MNRX) is a commuter rail route in the US state of Minnesota.

Northstar runs 40 miles (64 km) from Big Lake to downtown Minneapolis at Target Field using existing track and right-of-way owned by the BNSF Railway.

The route was initially designed to run the full distance between Minneapolis and Rice, Minnesota, northwest of St.

[6] When the line was first proposed, then-Governor Jesse Ventura was an early advocate and convinced some people to come around to his point of view.

The 2004 Minnesota Legislative session did not pass a bonding bill, which meant a lack of funds for initial project work.

During the 2005 state legislative session, a bonding bill including $37.5 million of funding for the proposed project was passed.

The bill was signed on April 11, 2005, by Governor Tim Pawlenty at the site of the Riverdale station in Coon Rapids.

[8] The 2006 state legislature, along with city, county and federal governments, provided funding to complete the corridor to Big Lake.

[5] 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.

[12] Because almost all of the route being used already existed, the investment mostly went into building new stations, upgrading track, enhancing the safety of crossings, and updating signals.

A significant portion of the funds were to extend the METRO Blue Line to the Target Field station on the west side of Interstate 394 and 5th Street in downtown Minneapolis.

During normal operation, the line had six trains running in the morning and evening rush hour periods, and limited service on weekends and holidays.

Once in downtown, commuters can walk upstairs to the METRO Blue and Green Lines, take a bus into other areas of the city, or go into one of the nearby buildings integrated into the Minneapolis skyway system.

Metro Transit has a goal for of 5,900 by 2030[16] intending to save those commuters 900,000 hours over the course of a year when compared to taking a dedicated bus line.

[13] From its opening until January 2014, Northstar trains arrived on time for 96 percent of trips making it one of the most reliable services from Metro Transit.

Starting in the winter of 2014, on-time performance suffered due to heavy freight traffic and severe cold weather.

Metro Transit offered refunds to customers whose trains were more than 10 minutes late in January and February 2015 in an effort to draw back ridership.

[33] It was projected to be 5,590 in 2025 and 6,200 in 2030, according to a 2009 study by Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc.[34] At Target Field Station, the parallel rail lines of the old Great Northern Railway (north side track now BNSF) and the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway (south side track now Union Pacific) travel eastbound past the Federal Reserve Bank, the site of the old Minneapolis Great Northern Depot, across the Mississippi River on the Minneapolis BNSF Rail Bridge and then across Nicollet Island.

The double track line continues past the current Foley Boulevard park-and-ride bus station, which is planned to be a future Northstar station and turns northwest at Coon Creek Junction, where the old GN route to Duluth (now BNSF's Hinckley Subdivision) splits off and heads straight north.

A $113.4 million project to add a third main line and a new station at Foley Boulevard in Coon Rapids is planned.

Despite the fact the 3,200-stall parking facility already existed (sans boarding platforms), riders would not save enough time by switching from existing bus service to rail to make the stop fit within the guidelines enforced by Federal Transit Administration's cost-effectiveness index.

[45] The Minnesota Department of Transportation says that extending Northstar would result in 1 to 1.5 million annual trips on the line[citation needed].

Cloud in 2017 but the demonstration would have only included 1 round trip a day and not have trains stopping at stations between Minneapolis and St.

The bill includes funding for a study that would consider different possible rail service to the St Cloud and Fargo-Moorhead regions.

[54] Lakeville's state representative, Jon Koznick, proposed shuttering Northstar operations in 2021 but that would require the repayment of $85 million in federal funds used to construct the project.

Metro Transit did begin experimenting in April 2010 with six-car trains for taking riders to and from weekend Twins games at Target Field.