(The following story by Andy Greder appeared on the Duluth News Tribune website on August 9, 2009.)
DULUTH, Minn. — For the first time since Easter Sunday 1985, an Amtrak train will journey between Minneapolis and Duluth on Tuesday.
While it isn’t the first passenger train to travel between the Twin Cities and the Twin Ports in those 24 years, it could be a sign of things to come if the Northern Lights Express high-speed rail is up and running by about 2012.
“We can do this because Amtrak goes to the railroad and says, ‘We’re coming,’ ” said Ken Buehler, executive director of the Depot.
Buehler said an infrequent passenger train, the Milwaukee Road 261, has made about six visits to Duluth in the last 20 years.
On board Tuesday’s nine-car train will be about 500 members of the National Railway Historical Society to attend a convention at the Depot from Tuesday to Sunday.
The trip will take about 4 hours and 30 minutes, with one hour and 30 minutes spent creeping along at about 5 mph between Superior and Duluth.
“We’re really not very passenger friendly right now,” Buehler joked.
Members of this week’s convention, which could total 1,500 attendees, will also make a “rare mileage” trip to Grand Rapids, a jaunt that hasn’t been done in 30 to 40 years, Buehler estimated.
“These people love to ride trains,” Buehler said. “This is what they do.”