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Amtrak’s Borealis route sees strong ridership, turns early profit

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Amtrak’s new route running between St. Paul and Chicago is right on track to meet ridership expectations, and in its early days turned a profit, a rarity for the company providing intercity passenger rail service.

More than 18,500 passengers have hopped on the Borealis since its maiden voyage May 21, a monthly figure on par with the projected 232,000 riders expected to use the service in its first year.

“The number of rides in the first month clearly demonstrates the need for this route,” said Minnesota Department of Transportation Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger. “We are optimistic numbers will remain strong and the Borealis service will continue to provide a safe, sustainable and accessible transportation option.”

Borealis trains depart Union Depot at 11:50 a.m. seven days a week and stop in Red Wing and Winona in Minnesota before making multiple stops in Wisconsin on its way to Chicago’s Union Station. Trips take about 7½ hours. Return trips depart the Windy City at 11:05 a.m. and arrive in St. Paul at 6:29 p.m.

Westbound trips out of Chicago saw slightly higher ridership with an average of 330 riders while eastbound trips carried about 288 passengers, according to Amtrak.

Officials say the Twin Cities-to-Milwaukee-to-Chicago route has high potential and could see even more passengers as the service matures. The line also serves several markets with colleges and universities, which could also attract students this fall, said Ray Lang, Amtrak’s vice president of state-supported service

“The ridership numbers we have seen so far confirm our belief and we expect this trend to continue as the service matures and we head into the peak summer travel season,” he said.

Amtrak is enjoying a new wave of popularity after suffering a severe downturn during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The rail service experienced record ridership in May and is on pace to see record yearly ridership, which was 32.3 million in 2019, Amtrak’s CEO Stephen Gardner told the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation Committee last month.

The Empire Builder, the other Amtrak route serving the Twin Cities, saw a 15% ridership growth from fiscal year 2022 to 2023. The train running from Chicago to the Twin Cities to Fargo-Moorhead and then to the Pacific Northwest cities of Portland and Seattle saw ridership rise from 303,500 to nearly 349,000 from October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023, Amtrak figures show.

Borealis operates under a contract Amtrak has with the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. In its first 11 days, more than 6,600 travelers rode the line, according to the railroad’s May Monthly Performance report. The document also showed Borealis took in $600,000 in revenue and spent $500,000 on operations. The $100,000 profit made Borealis one of only two state-sponsored lines to operate in the black the report showed. Amtrak has 30 state-sponsored lines.



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Two killed in second Minneapolis encampment shooting of weekend

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Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.

At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.

A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.

Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.

“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”

Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.

“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.



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Walz plays Madden video game with AOC on Twitch

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During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.

After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.

Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.

Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.

Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”

Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.



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Trump’s Madison Square Garden event turns into a rally with crude and racist insults

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”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”

Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”

Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”

The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.

In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”

”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.



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