Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

[angrysuburbanite]

https://pantographapp.com/minneapolis/r ... 2025-07-05

Route 134 was added to Pantograph. No schedule info is available but it's interesting it was added now.

edit: route 765 too: https://pantographapp.com/minneapolis/r ... 2025-07-05

[blo442]

Feels like a hint at what the August pick service changes will be. Given the amount of rumors floating around about impending Target RTO, it would make a lot of sense to focus on setting up Network Now's Key Express system in the next quarter or two. Not surprised that the 765 would be a priority.

134 is one I'm happy to see back, in the pre-covid days I had some coworkers who swore by that route. Wonder if they will ever add a jog in the route over to Cretin Ave to serve Highland Bridge. I suspect a one seat ride to downtown Mpls would attract some ridership.

[uptownbro]

Target did confirm a RTO they just didn't do it company wide but rather by "department" but the vast majority of there job openings are in office

[angrysuburbanite]

https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetin ... -Fair.aspx
An early look at the August service changes on the Transportation Committee agenda! Network now continues to get rolled out. By August, local bus and BRT service levels will be 101% of 2019, and commuter express service increases by 4% from June. 30% of Network Now will be implemented. These are the major changes:
- Routes 250, 768, and 850 will now have hourly bidirectional midday service
- Route 645 will run every 30 minutes during the midday
- Routes 250, 673, and 768 will run every 15 minutes during rush hour
- Routes 134 and 765 (reverse commute) will be restored
- Route 761 and segments of 760, 763, and 766 discontinued
- Route 6 extended to Westgate
- Route 18 improves to every 10 minutes during the midday on weekends and bus stops are consolidated
- Route 61 better bus route improvements begin; 30 minute service on Saturdays and 30-60 minute service on Sunday
- Route 68 segment on Robert Street improved to every 15 minutes
- Route 80 has a widened service span and 30 minute frequencies on Sunday
- Route 223 has Saturday service added every 30-60 minutes
- Route 716 sees new hourly service on Sunday
- the Bloomington/Edina 5xx route restructure from network now is implemented, and routes 534, 538, 539, and 546 get 30 minute weekday service, and 537 improves to hourly. (there's a map in the link above so you can see the changes)
- LRT frequencies improved to every 12 minutes earlier in the morning starting in October
- Metro Micro launches in Bloomington on August 16th, and Blaine on September 15th
- Saturday route 33 service discontinued and route 501 is eliminated

I really hope that the new express service is advertised by employers because traffic has increased far more than transit ridership has increased this year.

[wingedmolotov]

https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetin ... -Fair.aspx
An early look at the August service changes on the Transportation Committee agenda! Network now continues to get rolled out. By August, local bus and BRT service levels will be 101% of 2019, and commuter express service increases by 4% from June. 30% of Network Now will be implemented. These are the major changes:
- Routes 250, 768, and 850 will now have hourly bidirectional midday service
- Route 645 will run every 30 minutes during the midday
- Routes 250, 673, and 768 will run every 15 minutes during rush hour
- Routes 134 and 765 (reverse commute) will be restored
- Route 761 and segments of 760, 763, and 766 discontinued
- Route 6 extended to Westgate
- Route 18 improves to every 10 minutes during the midday on weekends and bus stops are consolidated
- Route 61 better bus route improvements begin; 30 minute service on Saturdays and 30-60 minute service on Sunday
- Route 68 segment on Robert Street improved to every 15 minutes
- Route 80 has a widened service span and 30 minute frequencies on Sunday
- Route 223 has Saturday service added every 30-60 minutes
- Route 716 sees new hourly service on Sunday
- the Bloomington/Edina 5xx route restructure from network now is implemented, and routes 534, 538, 539, and 546 get 30 minute weekday service, and 537 improves to hourly. (there's a map in the link above so you can see the changes)
- LRT frequencies improved to every 12 minutes earlier in the morning starting in October
- Metro Micro launches in Bloomington on August 16th, and Blaine on September 15th
- Saturday route 33 service discontinued and route 501 is eliminated

I really hope that the new express service is advertised by employers because traffic has increased far more than transit ridership has increased this year.

Bloomingtonites rejoice! I think this along with Metro micro will be a pretty big upgrade, especially from some routes that previously had 2 hr headways.

Edit: Also, I just noticed that the changes deviate from Network Now a bit by not extending the 538 to Normandale Village and having the 546 wrap around instead. And the 534 won’t be truncated at 90th and Penn but instead take Penn and 98th instead to get to Normandale College. The weekend frequency, span of service, and Sunday parity updates weren’t mentioned in the presentation either.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DanPatchToget]

Glad Metro Micro will include areas west of Normandale Boulevard. I do wonder however if the 546 can last with the proposed routing, and if there's going to be any bus stops along Normandale besides I assume at 102nd and Old Shakopee. Not an easy street to cross where there's no traffic signals (although even with traffic signals it can be difficult).

[J. Mc]

Okay, this is on the Metro Transit page regarding the current Green Line bustitution between SPUD and Raymond Ave:

While replacement bus service is available during this closure, please note alternate bus routes below:
– To downtown Minneapolis/St. Paul: Route 94
– To MSP Airport: Route 54
– To Mall of America: Route 54
– To Snelling/University (for transfer to
METRO A Line): Route 94 or METRO B Line

Are there seriously that many people riding the Green line all the way from DTSP to DTMPLS, transferring to the Blue, and then riding to the Airport or MOA?? I guess if you really really don't like being on a city bus... To be fair I guess if you were starting on University outside of the DTSP area and heading to T2 then it might be more practical riding all the way around.

[Bakken2016]

https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetin ... -Fair.aspx
An early look at the August service changes on the Transportation Committee agenda! Network now continues to get rolled out. By August, local bus and BRT service levels will be 101% of 2019, and commuter express service increases by 4% from June. 30% of Network Now will be implemented. These are the major changes:
- Routes 250, 768, and 850 will now have hourly bidirectional midday service
- Route 645 will run every 30 minutes during the midday
- Routes 250, 673, and 768 will run every 15 minutes during rush hour
- Routes 134 and 765 (reverse commute) will be restored
- Route 761 and segments of 760, 763, and 766 discontinued
- Route 6 extended to Westgate
- Route 18 improves to every 10 minutes during the midday on weekends and bus stops are consolidated
- Route 61 better bus route improvements begin; 30 minute service on Saturdays and 30-60 minute service on Sunday
- Route 68 segment on Robert Street improved to every 15 minutes
- Route 80 has a widened service span and 30 minute frequencies on Sunday
- Route 223 has Saturday service added every 30-60 minutes
- Route 716 sees new hourly service on Sunday
- the Bloomington/Edina 5xx route restructure from network now is implemented, and routes 534, 538, 539, and 546 get 30 minute weekday service, and 537 improves to hourly. (there's a map in the link above so you can see the changes)
- LRT frequencies improved to every 12 minutes earlier in the morning starting in October
- Metro Micro launches in Bloomington on August 16th, and Blaine on September 15th
- Saturday route 33 service discontinued and route 501 is eliminated

I really hope that the new express service is advertised by employers because traffic has increased far more than transit ridership has increased this year.

https://www.metrotransit.org/quarterly- ... day-aug-16

More detailed news story live.

[angrysuburbanite]

Thanks!

Do they still do the "pay exit" thing on express buses? I've taken the SouthWest Transit 698 a handful of times over the last few years and you had to pay just like on a local bus.

Also kind of weird that several routes aren't getting new pocket schedules despite changes, but there must be a reason for that. (?)

[Bakken2016]

Thanks!

Do they still do the "pay exit" thing on express buses? I've taken the SouthWest Transit 698 a handful of times over the last few years and you had to pay just like on a local bus.

Also kind of weird that several routes aren't getting new pocket schedules despite changes, but there must be a reason for that. (?)

Yes, Metro Transit still does pay exit.

Those routes were added last minute based on additional operator availability, so there wasn’t enough time to print the pocket schedules. They will be done with the December changes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DanPatchToget]

This was pre-pandemic, but in my experience every suburban express route was Pay Exit except for SouthWest's for some reason, which always threw me off the occasional times I'd try out SouthWest from the U of M. Normally I took the 465, 589, or 597, but with the U Pass I would sometimes be adventurous and try different express routes as long as it was feasible to return to downtown or make my way to Bloomington by transit (or bike if I was dropped off close enough to Bloomington, since I always brought my bike with me).

[wingedmolotov]

Loving the Bloomington night and weekend service. Interesting thru-routing of the 539 and 546.

[HuskyGrad]

I’ve noticed the last few days Metro Transit has been running three-car trains again on both the Blue and Green Lines. I’m guessing this is just for Aquatennial.

[COLSLAW5]

I was looking at the new route 18 schedule and the bus is actually now scheduled to stop for 2-3 minutes at lake street in its northbound trips. It also does the same 2-3 minute wait at the 35W and 98th street station going south.

I assume it to attempt to line them up with b line and orange line schedules but has this been something they have done on other routes before?

[Tcmetro]

Yes it's common especially in downtown, and used to happen on the 5 at Chicago-Lake transit center.

My guess is that the 18 holds are for two different reasons - Lake St could be for operator changes from the nearby Nicollet garage, and 98th St could be for the operator restroom which doesn't exist at the 104th St loop.

[angrysuburbanite]

June ridership update! Despite significant service increases in June, overall ridership fell again from May from 136,758 to 132,071 daily rides systemwide. This is above June 2022 (119,578) but below 2023 (135,233). The numbers by route are a bit more interesting this time around though:
- A Line is stable at 3,745 daily rides, up from May and exactly the same as in June 2024
- B Line debuts with 7,783 daily rides, which is notably below numbers reported for route 21 in 2023 and 2024 which pegged it at around 8,000-9,000
- C Line saw a decrease to 5,296 daily rides from 5,544 in May. This is a decrease of about 5% from June 2024 (5,584)
- D Line falls below 13,000 daily rides again to 12,859. This represents a decrease of about 3% from June 2024
- Blue Line finally starts to see improvement, exceeding 16,000 daily rides for the first time since September 2024 with an average of 17,496 in June. This is still an 11% decrease from 2024 (19,743)
- Green Line sees its worst ridership month since July 2023, with ridership at 20,671. Notably, Saturday ridership has exceeded weekday ridership at 22,308. The last time this happened was in August 2024. Weekday ridership is 14.6% lower than in 2024
-Gold Line is quickly growing, with an increase of 8% between May and June to 1,275 daily rides. I hope this continues to grow!
- Orange Line finally breaks 2,000 daily rides at 2,081 this June. This is the only line to see an increase from its 2024 number--by 14.6%! Weekend ridership is also getting much stronger with 1,438 saturday rides and 1,279 rides.
- Regular bus drops from 72,924 in May to 64,143 in June, likely due to route 21's discontinuation. Interestingly, if you include the B Line, regular bus ridership is up 2.4% from June 2024. True regular bus growth has been masked by the aBRT roll out post-COVID

Here's how the overall YTD ridership stacks up to 2024 numbers. I'm including the B Line in the regular bus numbers for 2025.
- A Line - down 4.21%
- C Line - down 8.83%
- D Line - down 0.78%
- Blue Line - down 15.13%
- Green Line - down 14.39%
- Orange Line - up 17.46%
- Regular Bus - down 4.55%
- Total Metro Transit ridership - down 6.96%
YTD ridership is 21,857,120; in order to match 2024, the system would need to make up for the 1.6 million less trips taken by transit so far in 2025.

[Wezle]

Really disappointing and confusing for me to see the continuing drop in ridership this year. With the RTO mandates and gridlock traffic from Summer road construction, I really expected a ridership boost if anything, especially on the B line and the Green Line now that it's reputation is slowly on the mend.

At least I'm glad that Metro Transit is in a good spot financially unlike some of the other transit agencies in the US that are struggling with both ridership and funding like Chicago and Philadelphia.

[COLSLAW5]

One idea I heard for the drop in ridership is due the increase in the fear of deportation or loss of employment for our immigrant population. Those communities tend to ride the system more than others and if they are staying home more that would explain some of the drop in the ridership.

[daveybabymsp]

I also saw some speculation on Reddit that some of the drop in light rail ridership could be attributed to increased fare enforcement. Ultimately this is all speculation but the public doesn’t have enough data to know why ridership is dropping. I hope Metro Transit has an internal theory as to why and can take steps to reverse the trend. I’m guessing they won’t comment on it publicly until it makes the news

[twincitizen]

While likely true, I doubt Metro Transit will outright confirm that stepped up fare enforcement has led to fewer rides taken. That's too much of a juicy talking point for the people that hate transit regardless. In the long run, attracting former riders back along with new riders should more than make up for freeloaders no longer riding due to fare enforcement.

For the B Line / 21 ridership picture, I assume the corridor has lost some riders to walking. I recall there being riders who would take the 21 a very short distance, maybe the equivalent of just one stop on the B Line. For a shorter distance trip, if your new walk to a B Line stop involves either backtracking a couple blocks or a much longer walk in the direction of your destination, maybe you just walk instead. That's probably not a significant share of riders, but likely true for some amount of trips. In the long run, the B Line will attract more medium and longer distance riders that never would have considered the 21 due to how slow it was.

I'm not the first to say this on here or on Reddit, but Metro Transit should roll out a whole new marketing push to get the word out about both the route changes and safety improvements. It's going to take time and effort to build back rider trust. Spending money on a big ad campaign would be money well spent, especially with road construction and RTO, I'm sure there are people looking for alternatives to driving.