Today the Minnesota Department of Transportation released a report showing the “analysis and evaluation of options for development of transit and rail service improvements in the corridor between the Minnesota Cities of St. Paul, Minneapolis, Coon Rapids, St. Cloud and Moorhead, and Fargo, North Dakota.”

“The report today is a clear validation that the billions spent on rail service represent one of the biggest wastes of taxpayers’ dollars in state government. What stands out to me is that less than 3% of rail costs are covered by ticket sales. That puts every single Minnesotan on the hook for the $15 million it costs to run every year, whether they use it or not. It’s fundamentally unfair to taxpayers to continue with the Northstar commuter line,” Senate Republican Transportation Committee Lead John Jasinski (Faribault) said.

The report showed that infrastructure costs for a full rail line extension to Fargo could reach almost $3 billion, while using buses would cost less than $200 million. The cost to subsidize rail tickets could be as high as $187 million per year, compared to $72 million for bus service.

The report also documents a clear trend of declining ridership since the COVID-19 pandemic. In its first year, 2017, Northstar recorded approximately 790,000 rides, but by 2020, ridership had plummeted to around 150,000, and by 2024, it had declined further to fewer than 100,000.

“On top of the costs, I remain concerned about the safety of passengers on all rail lines. The folly of continuing to support rail options for commuters—to the tune of billions of dollars—should end with this report. We can support commuters with much more affordable, flexible, and safer busing options,” Jasinski concluded.