Rail traffic has fluctuated on the line. Around 2012 and 2013, about 14 trains per day used the route.[4][5] Data from 2019 indicates the line is down to six trains per day.[6] As of January 2023, this line sees around 2 to 5 daily trains. The Hinckley sub mostly sees manifest, grain, coke & taconite trains. It occasionally sees potash and coal trains. The Hinckley Local runs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays. It serves industries in Cedar, Cambridge, and Hinckley.[citation needed]
As of 2009, the Hinckley Subdivision used a combination of track warrant control (TWC) and automatic block signaling (ABS) for managing train movement authorization,[8] which prevents trains from being visible on applications such as ATCS Monitor, although communications can be overheard with radio scanners.
Distances along the line are measured north to south, with Boylston at milepost 11.8 and Coon Creek at milepost 136.9.
Passenger service
There is currently no passenger service on this line. Passenger trains used this route until 1985 when Amtrak's North Star stopped operating.[9] The Northern Lights Express (NLX) between Minneapolis and Duluth is in planning stages, with $195 million appropriated by the Minnesota Legislature in 2023, expected to be the local match for an 20%/80% split between state and federal funding for the service.[10] While the previous train was limited to between 50 and 79 miles per hour (80 and 127 km/h), the Northern Lights Express would run at up to 90 mph (140 km/h). The North Star stopped in Cambridge and Sandstone,[11] and the NLX is expected to stop in Cambridge and Hinckley.[10]
Since the end of regular passenger service in 1985, excursion trains have occasionally run on the Hinckley Subdivision. The Milwaukee Road 261 has operated several times from the late 1990s into the 2010s. A planned excursion in 2018 to raise funds for positive train control support for the locomotive was canceled due to changes in Amtrak policies regarding excursion trains.[12] The Union Pacific Big Boy #4014 also hosted a steam excursion in 2019 that ran on the Hinckley Subdivision up to the Union Depot in Duluth, Minnesota.
^Office of Freight and Commercial Vehicle Operations (May 2013). "MINNESOTA FREIGHT RAILROAD MAP"(PDF). Minnesota Department of Transportation. Archived from the original(PDF) on February 7, 2014. Retrieved February 16, 2014.
