Why did Minneapolis tear down its biggest train station?

My first job, as a 16 year old, was being a 'soda jerk' at the counter stool stop in this vast building. It was 1966 and was attending De La Salle as a freshman in high school, across the Hennepin Avenue bridge from this train station. I did get a train pass from Burlington Northern railroad who ran this station.

Heck, in NYC they tore down Penn Station. Now everybody wishes we still had it…

Thanks for the report on the station. I did get to go through that station in the 1970’s. I was visiting Minneapolis to interview for a job and preferred train travel to flying. It was a grand station and was a big loss to the city but with only one Amtrak train a day was way too big for their needs. I have visited on other trips but then used Amtraks new station. It was adequate but not impressive in any way. I was glad to hear they rebuilt the St. Paul station and Amtrak now uses that station to serve the twin city area. I also got to see the old Milwaukee Road station on one ltrip to Minneapolis. It was winter and the hotel had installed an ice rink under the old train shed. Since I was a figure skater I got to skate there and could imagine what it was like to arrive there by train. It was great that at least that station found a good reuse and was saved.

One interesting feature of old MSP was that the Great Northern station and St Paul Union Depot were only 25 minutes apart and both Northern Pacific and Great Northern ran hourly trains all day, at speeds up to 70 MPH. These trains could be very competitive to the hour long streetcar ride. This was before I-94 and the 94 express bus.

And, the Stone Arch Bridge survives today. It is currently undergoing a major renovation. In a sense the Great Northern Station survives in the form of a model at the Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum. Ironically, the TCMRRM is just south of the St. Paul Midway Amtrak Station, which is now derelict.

Amtrak moved out in 1978 to a new station in the Midway section of St Paul.

I remember the Great Northern station in 1973. The station still listed a host of trains that had been canceled years before. Then Amtrak ran only two trains, so it was used four times daily. The escalators were the most impressive part of the station to me.

Very good article! It's always nice to see or hear train histories from other parts of the country. In my "neck of the woods" (southwest central Ohio), train stations met similar fates. Cincinnati's was turned into a museum while Dayton's was demolished to be replaced by nothing. Neighboring Springfiled leveled theirs for a state highway overpass. Columbus leveled theirs for a convention and hotels. On the other hand, Urbana, Ohio, still has here two stations (one is a coffee shop while the other is private businrees). Just up the road in West Liberty, their station was moved and incorporated into a store selling locally famous chocolate. Marion, Ohio has a beautiful station. It is part of historical museum. It looks as though the smaller municpalties tried preserving their stations while the larger ones said, "It's got to go."

The whole system finally went bankrupt as the last mail and packages were put on trucks of GM! In Oct 1967 yes they traveled overnight! All tickets were taxed until 1962 to help build and expand air and road travel! it took 4 years to form Amtrak. A underfunded cut back Amtrak that was to disappear, gas was 20 cents a gallon. The mail today goes on the biggest donor to Trump's , De Joy his trucks. XPO Trucks! In no way, does Amtrak meet the demand for rail today. Then there is North Star that doesn't go to Saint Paul! And Amtrak that doesn't go to Minneapolis! What kind of crap is that? The light rail is a streetcar line. At one time there was at least 4 railroads between the cities.

I love this concept.. but come on it’s YouTube . How about some imagery to go with the story? Keep it up it’s a good idea

Chicago had great stations that no longer exist as had most cities. Those that survived are now preserved or repurposed and that is a real positive.

The mass transportation system in the Minneapolis/St Paul area was gutted by certain wealthy bankers in favor of the automobile. Rip up the rails and build freeways. And stadiums too!

More pictures of the building would be appreciated...and get rid of the green crap!!

Very poor management, is why Minneapolis does everything backwards.

WTF? A podcast on a video with no video? LAME.

Do you really, REALLY feel an obsessive need to have to have that ridiculous audio display splattering over half the damn screen? Or are you just trying to make it easier for the FBI or CIA to monitor you? Won't open your channel again.