Northstar Trains in Texas

After the suspension of service in Minnesota due to low ridership in 2026, two of Northstar's four car trainsets were leased by DART for use on the TRE to add capacity during the FIFA World Cup. They arrived in March and were very quickly put to use allowing crews to become familiar with them before the games began in June. This added some well received variety to the daily TRE lineup of trains as well as another lease on life for these consist, albeit even if it was only for 4 months. Immediately following the final FIFA game both sets would be pulled from service once more and kept as spare trains until the end of their lease in August.