Ramsey, MN

Ramsey’s regional commute changed on January 5, 2026: Metro Transit Route 888 replaced Northstar trains after the commuter-rail line made its final trips the previous day. The bus serves the former Ramsey rail stop and runs directly through Anoka and Coon Rapids to downtown Minneapolis. It operates every 30 minutes during weekday peak periods, hourly during midday and reverse-commute periods, and three times in each direction on Saturdays and Sundays. That schedule offers many more weekly trips than the rail timetable did, although riders now travel by bus. The station area remains part of The COR, Ramsey’s planned downtown district, where recent development has added housing, services, restaurants, event space, and a hotel along Ramsey Parkway.

Most of Ramsey is much less concentrated. Its 28.85 square miles held 27,646 people in 2020, and the 2025 estimate of 29,624 was 7.2 percent above the 2020 estimates base. For 2020–2024, 85.0 percent of occupied homes were owner-occupied, and workers’ mean travel time was 28.2 minutes. Parks and trails spread recreation across that broad area. Rum River Central Regional Park provides a boat launch, canoe and kayak access, fishing, walking and cycling routes, horseback riding, cross-country ski trails, and canoe-in campsites. At city-run Sunfish Lake Park, Anoka County adults can register to borrow canoes and kayaks without a rental charge; the park also has a fishing dock, short trail, and shelter.

River’s Bend Park combines fields and courts with a playground, fishing pier, and water mister, while Alpine Park adds a dog park, skate park, sledding hill, and more than a mile of trail. Ramsey Parks and Recreation schedules movies, concerts, starwatching, youth camps, adult activities, and programs for people 55 and older across the year. Thus present-day Ramsey operates at two scales: a growing transit-and-service district at The COR and widely spaced neighborhoods tied together by roads, waterways, and recreation sites.