The Western Star did not go to Great Falls as far as I can remember. There was a connecting train to and from Havre and Great Falls(#3 & 4) to the Western Star. It also did not have a Portland section and only ran to Seattle on the GN route. There was a SP&S connection in Spokane but required a 5 hour layover at least in 1966. The only other variation from the Empire Builder route was the eastbound Star ran via St.Cloud and Alexandria while the westbound train ran the EB route via Wilmer and Morris in Minnesota. That routing did change as GN & then BN discontinued trains.
I've only seen discussion of a second Twin Cities to Chicago on the same routing as the EB.
Twin Cities to St. Cloud is supposed to be served by Northstar commuter service, but the existing ridership has so underperformed projections that the State can't get FTA grants to fund the extension beyond Big Lake, and it's unlikely that the MN legislature would agree to fund it without FTA grants.