The Metropolitan Council released transit ridership data this week and it shows a slight drop in rides on the Northstar Commuter Rail line last year.  

In 2018, there were more than 787,000 rides on Northstar trains which is a one percent decrease from ridership figures from the previous year.  Regionally, ridership across all transit types declined 1.3 percent last year.

Metro Transit says the lower ridership figures were expected due to fare increases implemented in late 2017 along with lower gas prices.