It's not just happening here, folks!

The severe winter weather which has become December, 2010, has not just affected transportation in the USA & Canada. While during the first two recent 'Snow-namis' both the Northstar and Hiawatha Light Rail lines ran nearly normally (Northstar ran on time throughout, thanks to BNSF Railway) the MSP Airport closed, buses (transit and intercity) stopped, and Amtrak's Empire Builder ran late, but it was still running, although once passengers arrived in St. Paul, they were stranded if they did not have a ride already, as the taxi companies pulled their taxis off the streets due to too much snow.

Europe has been affected as well. The system that hit Minnesota last weekend hit Europe this weekend, with equally devastating results. Eurostar services between London and Paris/Brussels as well as all high-speed services in France have had a 170-KPH (105 MPH)
speed restriction slapped on them, adding as much as two hours on London-Paris Eurostar runs. Trains are being turned back at their endpoints and are being sent out immediately, with lines of holiday travellers at London's St. Pancras International Terminal, supposedly out the doors and into the streets of London. Eurostar has requested that passengers who do not need to travel between Britain and the Continent, postpone their trip until after the Christmas holiday.

Eurostar is not scheduled to operate any trains on Christmas day.

Northstar Changes; Route 889 dropped

Metro Transit quietly dropped the Route 889 mid-day Northstar substitute bus on October 28th. The next day, a Friday-only thru bus (operating between St. Cloud and Downtown Minneapolis, stopping at all Northstar and Northstar Link stations) began operation. Dubbed Route 887F, the bus (operated by St. Cloud MetroBus) operates Fridays ONLY, allowing for mid-day service to all stations on the last day of most people's workweeks.

In other Northstar news, Nov. 16th and 17th (Tuesday and Wednesday) Northstar is FREE for all passengers, as Metro Transit celebrates Northstar's first anniversary and tries to attract more riders just ahead of the winter road aggravation season. Now, if there's snow either of those days, those free rides to and from Downtown Minneapolis, without the plethora of traffic accidents, are going to look mighty good...

Skol Northstar! Vikings game trains schedule announced

OK, Vikings faithful. Your team is playing 'exhibition' football. Soon, you all will begin your annual treks to the 'Dome, and you'll wait for-ever to get out of the parking lots/ramps after the game...

...unless you ride Northstar, in which case, the train will wait for YOU. For one hour after the final gun.

Metro Transit has released the train schedule for the first full season of Vikings' football, available at: http://www.metrotransit.org/ride-northstar-to-the-metrodome.aspx .

Soon, your pre-game parking worries will be over. Now remember, there is NO TAILGATING in Northstar parking lots. No liquor may be consumed (or, for that matter, poured) in them, either, nor on the trains (or any Metro Transit property) themselves.

You've been told. And, warned. So behave yourselves, folks.

Oh, and for those of you who are Gopher football fans: This service will NOT be available for Gopher football games.

Our condolences on your team's predicted fortune, this upcoming college football season.

Northstar catches 'Twins' fever', Becker added as commuter bus stop

Just briefly: Northstar commuter buses from St. Cloud to Big Lake will operate for designated Minnesota Twins home games, primarily on Saturdays, the rest of the 2010 MLB season. Catch the details at metrotransit.org. Look for Route 887 or go to the 'Northstar' tab.

In addition, St. Cloud-Big Lake buses now also stop at Becker en route, both directions, for all trips.

WRT

Aboard the Northstar Twins Special

Sunday evening, I happened to be coming back from a family function, where earlier in the day I used Northstar to go between Coon Rapids and Big Lake, where my wife met me for the rest of the afternoon. I had to get back to my car, so I availed myself of the Northstar Twins' special train from Big Lake back to Riverdale (and my car).

What I saw was what Metro Transit (and the naysayers about Northstar) would want to see: an eight-car, two-locomotive behemoth -- the largest train I've seen in person from Northstar -- and hundreds of Twins fans (if there were any Texas Rangers' fans on this train, they were in hiding) boarding at each of the five Northstar stations, happy not to have to hassle with I-94, the atrocious (and expensive) parking around Target Field (despite it being a Sunday night) and the fact there was actually a train that would wait for them, even after the completion of the Twins' 6-3 win and a three-game sweep of the bankrupt Rangers.

In fact, the train was standing room only as it departed Coon Rapids -- Riverdale. Which meant over 1200 passengers were aboard, as the train roared off into the late afternoon gloom towards Target Field.

There will be trains after every game from now until the end of August. Trainloads of happy fans, safely, efficiently traveling to and from what everyone said would be a 'boondoggle' -- Target Field -- as Minnesota finally joins the 'big leagues' 0f transportation, shortly after they finally joined the 'big leagues' of baseball stadia.

There was only one passenger wanting not to go to Target Field last night. One passenger willing to trade the comforts of the new stadium for the comfort of his own recliner. One passenger who didn't want to go all the way Downtown last night.

Meet that one passenger. Me.

Metro Transit 1, Northstar-riding Twins fans 0, Final

Well, the apocalypse happened Saturday night. And it only took less than six weeks of baseball for that to happen.

Northstar commuter train-riding Twins fans who attended Saturday's 12-inning marathon of bad pitching vs. the Milwaukee Brewers were faced with this situation as the 11th inning approached:

Either they had to:

a) Stay to the end of the game and be stranded in Downtown Minneapolis, or:

b) Run like hell to catch the train (it's just outside Gate 6) and make the 7:00 PM departure, missing the last two innings of the ball game.

Metro Transit's dogged insistence on one operating crew (only) on weekend days is not making friends of Twins baseball fans. The unbelieveable short-sightedness of Metro Transit underestimating the popularity of Northstar for Twins baseball games is yet another reason the schedule for Northstar needs to be expanded.

Now.

New Schedule for Northstar, Route 889 Blues

Northstar commuter trains are on a new, more 'Twins-friendly' schedule, as the baseball season plods on, and the trains arrive Target Field standing-room-only, for nearly every game they run for. The ridership figures for days when there are Twins home games, as opposed to days when they do not run are way, way up. Now if they would only do something to encourage more off-peak, non-game-day ridership?

They have, in part. No longer are some (not all) Northstar riders stranded all day weekdays downtown, as the No. 889 'Northstar replacement' bus has changed its' schedule to a much more useful 1:05PM departure from Downtown Minneapolis, as the public had spoken -- LOUDLY -- about operating a mid-day trip to Coon Rapids (Riverdale) and Anoka stations.

Now, could we get this same 889 bus to continue to Elk River and Big Lake, in order to serve ALL Northstar patrons? (Fridley station is already also served by Metro Transit bus route No. 852). As long as the bus is deadheading back anyhow (another mistake,) you might as well make it available for all potential Northstar patrons to use.

If you make the train service at least palatable to use one direction, you would draw more passengers to the afternoon trains outbound from Downtown (and the 5 PM 'turnback' inbound) if you had another way to get there at times outside of the rush hours.

But what do we consumers, who use the service (and want to use it more) know?