North Star (Amtrak train)

This article is about the former Amtrak train service. For the Metro Transit commuter rail service, see Northstar Line.

North Star

The North Star at the Superior Depot
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Midwestern United States
Predecessor	Arrowhead & Twin Cities Hiawatha
First service	April 30, 1978
Last service	April 7, 1985
Former operator(s)	Amtrak
Route
Start	Chicago, Illinois (1978–1981) Saint Paul, Minnesota (1981–1985)
End	Duluth, Minnesota
Distance travelled	573 mi (922 km) (1978–1981) 153 mi (246 km) (1981–1985)
Train number(s)	9, 10
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Track owner(s)	Milwaukee Road BN Railroad
Route map Legend Dist. Station 0 mi Chicago 17 mi 27 km Glenview 62 mi 100 km Sturtevant IL WI 85 mi 137 km Milwaukee 150 mi 241 km Columbus 178 mi 286 km Portage 195 mi 314 km Wisconsin Dells 240 mi 386 km Tomah 281 mi 452 km La Crosse WI MN 306 mi 492 km Winona 371 mi 597 km Red Wing 418 mi 673 km Saint Paul–Midway 464 mi 747 km Cambridge 509 mi 819 km Sandstone MN WI 568 mi 914 km Superior WI MN 573 mi 922 km Duluth

The North Star was a passenger train operated by Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) between Duluth, Minnesota and Saint Paul, Minnesota. It originally operated from Chicago, Illinois via St. Paul to Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, but was soon cut back to a Saint Paul–Duluth train. The service relied in part on funding from the state of Minnesota.

History

The North Star was introduced in the spring of 1978, when Amtrak moved Twin Cities operations from the Great Northern Depot in Minneapolis to Midway station in Saint Paul and combined the previous Chicago–Minneapolis Twin Cities Hiawatha and the Minneapolis–Duluth Arrowhead services into one train. Where the Arrowhead's route was 148 miles (238 km) long, the North Star was a 573-mile (922 km) sleeper originating in Chicago at 10:30 PM in the initial schedule. It took 8 hours 45 minutes to reach Saint Paul, where there was a 35-minute layover. It then took another 3:45 to reach Duluth for an overall schedule of just over 13 hours from Chicago.

Three other trains shared parts of the North Star route: the quad-weekly Empire Builder from Chicago to Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington, via the Milwaukee Road to St. Paul and the former Great Northern beyond; the thrice-weekly North Coast Hiawatha, also from Chicago to Portland and Seattle, on the Milwaukee to St. Paul and the former Northern Pacific beyond; and the daily Turboliner between Chicago and Milwaukee. The Empire Builder became a daily train again in 1979 when the North Coast Hiawatha was eliminated.

The North Star at the Duluth Depot

There were perennial budget battles involving the North Star. In October 1981 cost-cutting measures forced the service to be converted to a Twin Cities–Duluth local, which left the daily Empire Builder as the only Chicago–Twin Cities connection. No effort was made to link the schedules of the two trains. At this time, the schedule was 3 hours 35 minutes from Saint Paul to Duluth. It briefly stopped service in September 1982 when Amtrak requested $27,000 (equivalent to $70,098 in 2018) in funding to keep it operating as a weekend and peak period train. Duluth businessman Jeno Paulucci offered a $25,000 (equivalent to $64,905 in 2018) donation, with the rest intended to be covered from some other source. U.S. Senator David Durenberger (R-MN) also requested that Amtrak run a financial audit, which uncovered an extra $100,000 (equivalent to $259,621 in 2018) in available funds.

By the end of service in 1985, the North Star no longer served Superior and made intermediate stops only in Cambridge and Sandstone. State funding ran out in March 1985, and the train made its final run on April 7 of that year.

See also

• North Shore Scenic Railroad
• Northern Lights Express, a proposed restoration of passenger rail service between the Twin Cities and Duluth

External links

• 1984 timetable