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The ''North Star'' was a passenger train operated by Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) along the "Hiawatha Corridor" during the late 1970s and early- to mid-1980s. It originally operated as a Chicago, Illinois–Duluth, Minnesota, train via Saint Paul, Minnesota, but was soon converted to a Saint Paul–Duluth local. The service relied in part on funding from the state of Minnesota. == History == The ''North Star'' was introduced in the spring of 1978, when Amtrak moved Twin Cities operations from the Great Northern Depot in Minneapolis to Midway station in Saint Paul and combined the previous Chicago–Minneapolis ''Twin Cities Hiawatha'' and the Minneapolis–Duluth ''Arrowhead'' services into one train. Where the ''Arrowhead'' was a local, the ''North Star'' was a sleeper originating in Chicago departing there at 10:30 PM in the initial schedule. It took 8 hours 45 minutes to reach Saint Paul, where there was a 35-minute layover. It then took another 3:45 to reach Duluth for an overall schedule of just over 13 hours from Chicago. Three other trains shared parts of the ''North Star'' route: the quad-weekly ''Empire Builder'' (Chicago–Portland, Oregon/Seattle, Washington, via the Milwaukee Road), the thrice-weekly ''North Coast Hiawatha'' (Chicago–Portland, Oregon/Seattle, Washington, via the Northern Pacific), and the daily ''Turboliner'' (Chicago–Milwaukee). The ''Empire Builder'' became a daily train again in 1979 when the ''North Coast Hiawatha'' was eliminated. There were perennial budget battles involving the ''North Star''. In October 1981 cost-cutting measures forced the service to be converted to a Twin Cities–Duluth local, which left the daily ''Empire Builder'' as the only Chicago–Twin Cities connection. However, no effort was made to link the schedules of the two trains. At this time, the schedule was 3 hours 35 minutes from Saint Paul to Duluth. It briefly stopped service in September 1982 when Amtrak requested $27,000 () in funding to keep it operating as a weekend and peak period train. Duluth businessman Jeno Paulucci offered a $25,000 () donation, with the rest intended to be covered from some other source. U.S. Senator David Durenberger (R-MN) also requested that Amtrak run a financial audit, which uncovered an extra $100,000 () in available funds. By the end of service in 1985, the ''North Star'' was no longer planned to serve Superior, Wisconsin, and was only making intermediate stops in Cambridge and Sandstone. State funding for the train was set to run out in March 1985, and the train made its final run on April 7, 1985.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「North Star (train)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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