Why the Northstar was not our North Star: A Tale of a Rail Line Doomed to Fail

Minnesota’s Northstar is officially dead. While advocates mourn the loss, we have to face the hard truth: we built a park and ride train for a 9-to-5 world that no longer exists.

Building good transit is an almost foolproof science. It’s surprisingly hard to do execute well, while building bad transit is remarkably easy.

The Northstar Commuter Rail Line, connecting Minneapolis to Big Lake, was a masterclass in the latter. As of last week, its life as a rail service has officially come to an end after the Metropolitan Council defu…