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<br />COMMUTER RAIL SYSTEM <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Corridor Description <br /> <br />The Northstar Corridor's rail component consists of approximately 70 miles of track <br />connecting downtown Minneapolis with the cities of St. Cloud and Rice. It includes all <br />of the communities and townships along the east and west banks of the Mississippi River <br />between Minneapolis and St. Cloud. These include: Anoka, Becker, Big Lake, Blaine, <br />Clear Lake, Columbia Heights, Coon Rapids, Fridley, Elk River, Ramsey, Spring Lake <br />Park, Becker Township, Big Lake Township, Clear Lake Township, and Haven <br />Township. The line serves parts of the counties of Stearns, Benton, Sherburne, Anoka, <br />and Hennepin. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />The main rail line serving the corridor, and the only line linking the core of the Twin <br />Cities Metropolitan Area with St. Cloud, is a transcontinental mainline of the Burlington <br />Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF). The BNSF mainline is built and maintained to high <br />standards. The line is equipped with modem Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) signaling <br />between the Northtown Yard (north of Minneapolis) and Coon Creek Junction, in the <br />City of Coon Rapids, and between Big Lake and the west. The intermediate section has <br />Automatic Block Signals (ABS), normally used for single direction operation on each of <br />the two tracks. Just north of the Northtown Yard, the line is double-tracked, except for a <br />ten-mile section between Big Lake and Becker. The line has heavy Class 4 track and for <br />the most has continuous welded rail. Between Coon Creek Junction and St. Cloud, <br />passenger train speeds are 75 miles per hour or greater, with the exception of some <br />crossovers and a few other restrictions. Overall, freight service is heavy on this line, with <br />35 to 50 trains per day. <br /> <br />Commuter Rail System Concept <br /> <br />Several service concepts have been proposed for this corridor. The version presented in <br />this Commuter Rail Feasibility Report is being referred to as Concept B. Two additional <br />concepts, A and C, have also been given some consideration, but they provide less <br />service than currently desired. They may however be reconsidered as introductory <br />phases of a complete service. <br /> <br />Concept B has been used as the common basis for service evaluation, demand forecasting <br />(patronage estimation), operations costing, capital costing and operations simulation. <br />Concept B provides for nine daily round trips in the Northstar Corridor: five between <br />Minneapolis and St. CloudlRice, two between Minneapolis and Anoka/Ramsey, and two <br />between Minneapolis and Elk River. The higher level of service proposed for the <br />southern end of the line (Minneapolis to Anoka/Ramsey to Elk River) reflects the greater <br />contiguous population found there at the present time, and the higher "commute" demand. <br />However, it is entirely possible that, in future phases, some of these shorter trips could be <br />considered for extension to St. CloudlRice. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Concept B provides for five weekday peak period arrivals in downtown Minneapolis at <br />30-minute intervals between 6:30 AM and 8:30 AM, and, similarly, five departures at 30- <br /> <br />Draft Commuter Technical Feasibility Study <br />December 1998 <br /> <br />2-1 <br />Commuter Rail System <br />