Yes. You can arrive in the Twin Cities by train, ride into downtown Minneapolis without renting a car, and let yourself into a furnished studio with a keycode that was sent to you before you left home. People do it every week at Oakland’s on 9th, and it is one of the least stressful ways to start a stay of a night, a week or a month. Here is how the pieces fit together, from the platform in St. Paul to the front door at 215 South 9th Street.
Which trains come to Minneapolis–St. Paul?
Amtrak’s Twin Cities station is St. Paul Union Depot, at 240 Kellogg Boulevard East in St. Paul’s Lowertown, a neoclassical station completed in 1926 and restored as a working transit hub. Two Amtrak services stop there. The Borealis is the daytime train between Chicago and St. Paul, running once a day in each direction with stops that include Milwaukee, Wisconsin Dells, La Crosse, Winona and Red Wing; Amtrak lists the trip at about seven and a half hours, with a café car and coach seating. The long-distance Empire Builder, which runs between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest, also calls at Union Depot. Amtrak’s pet program lets small dogs and cats ride on the Borealis in a carrier, which pairs well with the fact that Oakland’s has designated pet-friendly studios; request one when you book.
One thing to know before you book the ticket: the station is in St. Paul, not Minneapolis. The two downtowns are about ten miles apart, and Amtrak’s own station page describes Union Depot as an intermodal center served by Amtrak, intercity and local buses, and light rail. That last part is what makes a car-free arrival easy.
How do you get from Union Depot to downtown Minneapolis?
The METRO Green Line light rail has its eastern end at Union Depot and its downtown Minneapolis stops along 5th Street, so the simplest route is to walk out of the station, board the Green Line, and ride it west. The Government Plaza and Nicollet Mall stations are both a few blocks north of Oakland’s, and from either one it is a short walk south to 9th Street. Use Metro Transit’s trip planner for the fare, the next departure and any detours in effect on the day you travel, and check it the morning you arrive rather than the week before. Rideshare and taxis also pick up at the depot if you are carrying more luggage than you want to roll onto a train.
If you would rather see the city on the way in, Union Depot’s site covers what is inside the station itself, from the waiting room to the restaurants, and the light-rail ride passes the University of Minnesota campus and crosses the Mississippi before it reaches downtown.
What happens when you reach the building?
This is where arriving by train pays off. Check-in at Oakland’s is contactless: you receive a personal keycode for the building and for your studio before you arrive, so a late train does not mean a closed front desk. Staff are on site day and night and reachable by phone or message if anything is off, but there is no counter to queue at. The building is an 1889 brownstone and access to the studios is by stairs, with no guest elevator, so pack the kind of bag you are happy to carry up a flight; the earlier post on how check-in works walks through the arrival step by step.
Inside, every studio is furnished with a full kitchen, and the rate includes all utilities, high-speed WiFi and ethernet, free 24-hour on-site laundry, and coffee and tea for the coffee maker. In practice that means you can arrive off a seven-hour train with a bag of groceries from the Target two blocks away and be cooking dinner in your own kitchen an hour after the platform.
Do you need a car once you are here?
For most stays, no. Oakland’s sits in the exact center of downtown, and the skyway system is a block’s walk away (the building is not connected to it, so you will step outside to reach it). U.S. Bank Stadium, Target Field, Target Center, the Armory, Orchestra Hall, the Convention Center and Nicollet Mall are all on foot, and Hennepin Healthcare (HCMC) is a few blocks away for travel nurses on assignment. The longer guide to getting around downtown without a car covers the details, and if you fly instead of ride, there is a companion post on getting from MSP Airport to downtown. If you do bring a car later in a long stay, parking is available right at the door in Lot 215.
A few train-day tips from a downtown host
Book the studio first and the train second, especially for a monthly stay, and screenshot your keycode email before you are out of signal on the ride up. Check-out is at 10 AM, and a late check-out can be arranged for a fee if your departing train is later in the day, which is worth asking about in advance. And if your train gets in after dark, the walk from the downtown stations is through the centre of downtown; the neighborhood is one of downtown’s safest, and the building has keycode entry, monitored cameras and staff on site day and night.
Ready to arrive by rail?
Pick a Good, Better or Best studio, tell us if you are bringing a pet, and your keycode will be waiting before the train leaves Chicago. Book your studio at Oakland’s on 9th online, or call (612) 314-5124 with any question about arriving without a car. We are a few blocks from the downtown light-rail stations, and we are happy to help you plan the walk.