North Star (train)

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)	MILW, BN
Route map Legend Dist. Station 0 mi Chicago 17 mi  27 km  Glenview 62 mi  100 km  Sturtevant Illinois/Wisconsin border 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 Wisconsin/Minnesota border 306 mi  492 km  Winona 371 mi  597 km  Red Wing 418 mi  673 km  St. Paul-Minneapolis 464 mi  747 km  Cambridge 509 mi  819 km  Sandstone Minnesota/Wisconsin border 568 mi  914 km  Superior Wisconsin/Minnesota border 573 mi  922 km  Duluth

The North Star was a passenger train operated by Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) along the "Hiawatha Corridor" during the late 1970s and early- to mid-1980s. It originally operated as a Chicago, Illinois–Duluth, Minnesota, train via Saint Paul, Minnesota, but was soon converted to a Saint Paul–Duluth local. 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 was a 148-mile (238 km) local,^[1] the North Star was a 573-mile (922 km) sleeper originating in Chicago departing there 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.^[2]

Three other trains shared parts of the North Star route: the quad-weekly Empire Builder (Chicago–Portland, Oregon/Seattle, Washington, via the Milwaukee Road), the thrice-weekly North Coast Hiawatha (Chicago–Portland, Oregon/Seattle, Washington, via the Northern Pacific), and the daily Turboliner (Chicago–Milwaukee).^[3]:31 The Empire Builder became a daily train again in 1979 when the North Coast Hiawatha was eliminated.^[4]:166

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. However, 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.^[5][6] It briefly stopped service in September 1982 when Amtrak requested $27,000 (equivalent to $65,982 in 2015) in funding to keep it operating as a weekend and peak period train. Duluth businessman Jeno Paulucci offered a $25,000 (equivalent to $61,095 in 2015) 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 $244,379 in 2015) in available funds.^[7]

By the end of service in 1985, the North Star was no longer planned to serve Superior, Wisconsin, and was only making intermediate stops in Cambridge and Sandstone.^[8] State funding for the train was set to run out in March 1985, and the train made its final run on April 7, 1985.^[4]:191

See also

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

References

External links

• 1984 timetable