Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

[acs]

Route 18:

When Nicollet Mall construction begins, buses will be detoured. Northbound buses will travel on Nicollet, Grand and Marquette to 8th St., then on 3rd Ave. S. to Washington Ave. and Gateway Ramp. Southbound buses will travel from Gateway Ramp to Washington to 3rd Ave. S., then 7th St. and 2nd Ave. to Grant to Nicollet Ave. Get updates at metrotransit.org/nicolletmall.

No info on the other Nicollet Mall Routes, but it looks like 3rd it is. Really, It makes too much sense especially for the routes going over the river. I'd like to see it be permanent except for the 18/streetcar.

[EOst]

Pretty confused with the timeline on this one. There's no way they could have these buses diverted onto 3rd and then do the protected bike lane while they're running there, right? But they need to have the 3rd Ave PBL built before they close Nicollet to bikes. That's a pretty short timeline for something that is still in draft conceptual stage.

[MSPtoMKE]

It also looks like the the sections of Marquette and 2nd they will be using will be the opposite direction of the bus lanes, so they will need temporary stops. Wouldn't want the hoi polloi to mix with the express bus riders... (yes, I know 2nd and Marquette are basically at capacity for buses during peak hours). I wonder if route 11 will use Hennepin to 11th/12th and LaSalle, or if they will have it go directly up 3rd Ave (that it is already on) and then over to the Hennepin Ave Bridge.

[intercomnut]

The Transportation Advisory Board is deciding how to reallocate the CMAQ funds that were originally designated for the B-Line. They've got 2 options laid out for how to spend the money. Both options include:

*Expand service on route 62
*MVTA Highway 169 Connector
*Expand service on route 2
*Transit On Board Survey (for surveying where people are taking the bus to)

The options differ in how to give the funds to pedestrian/bike projects:

Option 1
*Burnsville Lake Marion Greenway CR 42 Underpass (Info on the project: https://www.co.dakota.mn.us/parks/Plann ... arion.aspx and the location of the underpass, which is an already existing railroad underpass: https://goo.gl/ePelwo)
*Bloomington Sidewalk Infill project (less funding in this option)

Option 2
*Bloomington Sidewalk Infill project (more funding in this option)
*West St. Paul Oakdale and Marie Streetscaping

I've emailed Metro Transit and the MVTA asking for more info about their items. Will post an update soon.

[Silophant]

Why is "Accelerate C-Line so the schedule can actually be closer to one line per year like originally planned" not an option? Or at least moving them to the D-Line, whatever it ends up being?

[mattaudio]

Wow, thanks for linking to that Lake Marion Greenway proposal. They seriously list an industrial park in west Burnsville as an "activity center" to connect, on par with DT Lakeville? It makes me sad that we're considering funding a Dakota County park with transit dollars instead of an aBRT line. Not that recreational space in the suburbs isn't important. But some hypothetical amalgomation of nature trails from Farmington to Savage is not transportation. Especially not compared to the gold-standard in value-creating transit investments, Arterial BRT.

[froggie]

I wouldn't exactly call CMAQ "transit dollars". Yes, they can be used for transit projects, but are not limited to such. Bike/ped paths (as the Dakota County project basically is) are a valid use of CMAQ funding.

[mattaudio]

Transportation, not transit. How will a nature trail in Dakota County reduce congestion or improve air quality? Or have anything to do with transportation? This isn't a transportation bike/ped corridor.

[Nick]

What up new signs

https://streets.mn/2015/06/01/metro-tran ... p-signage/

[FISHMANPET]

So Metro Transit did their quarterly route changes this past weekend. It's kind of weird, when I was riding the bus every day I was pretty aware of these and checked them out way in advance for the heck of it. Now that I ride the train to work rather than the bus, I'm pretty disconnected from the bus and so I was basically unaware of the changes.

Kind of interesting that even though the bus and rail are run by the same agency in the same system, they're also very much a separate things. I wonder if there's a disconnect like that between Express and Local routes?

[intercomnut]

Regarding the MVTA Project I mentioned in my post about redistributing the B-Line's CMAQ funds:

The MVTA got back to me and said that they are planning to run service between Shakopee and SWLRT when it opens. This would be a sort of interim/starter bus service to run before that happens. They don't have any further details at this point.

Still waiting to hear back from Metro Transit about Routes 2 and 62.

[Tom H.]

I hope a SWLRT-Shakopee route could support reverse-commuters as well. Shakopee has a lot of well-paying industrial jobs, and making those accessible to SWLRT would be a big positive.

[mulad]

I'll just mention that the June 6 schedule change now has some route 3 and route 16 buses starting/ending at Union Depot. I think these routes still typically lay over at Kellogg & Minnesota.

Here's a Rider's Almanac post about how the old Bombardier trains get repainted, along with a video:
http://www.metrotransit.org/new-paint-b ... ail-trains

[intercomnut]

I didn't realize how much work had to be done to refurbish them and how much of a beating they had taken over the years.

[Tcmetro]

SW Transit Prime, the new dial-a-ride in Chanhassen, Chaska, and Eden Prairie that can be requested via phone app is starting June 29th.

http://swtransit.org/sw-prime/
https://swtransit.ridecell.com/
http://swtransit.org/wp-content/uploads ... -Guide.pdf

[HuskyGrad]

SW Transit Prime, the new dial-a-ride in Chanhassen, Chaska, and Eden Prairie that can be requested via phone app is starting June 29th.

http://swtransit.org/sw-prime/
https://swtransit.ridecell.com/
http://swtransit.org/wp-content/uploads ... -Guide.pdf

Any bets on what the farebox recovery on this service will be?

[Tcmetro]

Probably awful, but I'd like to see this technology rolled out on the regional dial-a-ride system. Unfortunately, demand is probably much higher than Met Council can afford, so they probably aren't interested in making it easier to use the service.

[mulad]

I had to do a quick web search to remind myself that the region's main (non-paratransit) dial-a-ride service is Transit Link, with prices ranging from $2.25 (up to 5 miles) to $6.75 (for 20+ miles) each direction. It's good to see someone trying out a phone app for hailing the service.

I'm never quite sure what to think of dial-a-ride services, since they're more obviously in competition with taxis and shuttle vans. I suppose someday we'll have a magic app that lets you choose from a menu of services ranging from short-term car rental up through local buses and on to intercity services (buses, trains, maybe planes).

Anyway, I wanted to mention that Metro Transit put up a blog post about the new signage they're rolling out. 2,000 stops are going to get the new signs this fall. Getting through the 12,000 stops in the system will take until 2017.

[Silophant]

Sounds like a good reason to get rid of a whole bunch of the closely-spaced stops.

[mattaudio]

http://www.startribune.com/person-hit-a ... 312641651/