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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
Successor	Borealis & Northern Lights Express
Former operator(s)	Amtrak
Route
Termini	Chicago, Illinois (1978–1981) Saint Paul, Minnesota (1981–1985) 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 0 mi Duluth Grassy Point Bridge over the Saint Louis Bay MN WI 4 mi 6 km Superior Closed 1984 WI MN 63 mi 101 km Sandstone 108 mi 174 km Cambridge Empire Builder to Seattle/Portland 154 mi 248 km Saint Paul–Midway 154 mi 248 km Pre-1981 route Hastings Rail Bridge over the Mississippi River 202 mi 325 km Red Wing 264 mi 425 km Winona La Crosse Rail Bridge over the Mississippi River MN WI 291 mi 468 km La Crosse Tunnel City 332 mi 534 km Tomah 378 mi 608 km Wisconsin Dells 394 mi 634 km Portage 423 mi 681 km Columbus 488 mi 785 km Milwaukee 511 mi 822 km Sturtevant WI IL 555 mi 893 km Glenview 573 mi 922 km Chicago This diagram: view talk edit

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.

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 $85,246 in 2023) in funding to keep it operating as a weekend and peak period train. Duluth businessman Jeno Paulucci offered a $25,000 (equivalent to $78,931 in 2023) 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 $315,724 in 2023) 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

References

1. Amtrak (January 8, 1978). "Amtrak National Train Timetables" (PDF). timetables.org. The Museum of Railway Timetables. p. 37. Retrieved November 6, 2014.
2. Amtrak (April 30, 1978). "Amtrak National Train Timetables" (PDF). timetables.org. The Museum of Railway Timetables. p. 37. Retrieved November 6, 2014.
3. Goldberg, Bruce (1981). Amtrak--the first decade. Silver Spring, MD: Alan Books. OCLC 7925036.
4. ^ Sanders, Craig (2006). Amtrak in the Heartland. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34705-3.
5. "Amtrak Chicago-Milwaukee Corridor Timetable Timeline". ancestry.com. October 25, 1981. Archived from the original on June 30, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2009.
6. Amtrak (October 25, 1981). "Amtrak National Train Timetables" (PDF). timetables.org. The Museum of Railway Timetables. p. 42. Retrieved November 6, 2014.
7. "Duluth North Star Amtrak's last run (9-6-1982 & 9-8-1982)". WTCN-TV and KSTP-TV. September 1982. Archived from the original on July 2, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
8. Amtrak (October 28, 1984). "Amtrak National Train Timetables" (PDF). timetables.org. The Museum of Railway Timetables. p. 49. Retrieved November 6, 2014.

External links

• 1984 timetable

• Former Amtrak routes
• Passenger rail transportation in Illinois
• Passenger rail transportation in Minnesota
• Passenger rail transportation in Wisconsin
• Night trains of the United States
• Railway services introduced in 1978
• Railway services discontinued in 1985