Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

[Tcmetro]

Beyond the stigma in recent years of the light rail, a couple other things come to mind to me:

1. Transit ridership was on the decline throughout the 2010s due to larger societal changes. Uber/Lyft has been around for 10 years and people are comfortable with it. Taxis were terrible and really I think a lot of Uber/Lyft usage was attracted from transit or new trips that people otherwise would not have taken. There's also less demand to go to shopping malls because of online shopping, and more ability to go to school remotely.

2. The idea investing in all-day service at the expense of intensive peak service has yet to be proven. Pre-pandemic something like 40% of downtown workers used the bus to go to work. Metro Transit is minimizing this peak service and emphasizing all day service. SW Transit, MVTA, Maple Grove, and Plymouth have kept robust peak-express routes and are still focused on the old model. If return to office picks up, Metro Transit may need to reevaluate their service investment strategy.

[Bakken2016]

Happy almost Pride Month!

Metro Transit now has two Pride buses wrapped. Bus 1709 is housed out of Heywood Garage and Bus 1308 is housed out of East Metro Garage. Feel free to use the Pantograph app to track where they are to find them and take photos! Use the hashtag #TCRidewithPride for posting on social media.

So you should see more even coverage of the Pride buses across the Twin Cities metro!

[phop]

My anecdotal sense is rush hour traffic ramped up in April and is now the worst it's been since pre-covid times. I'm very curious to see the Q2 transit numbers.

[angrysuburbanite]

https://www.metrotransit.org/performance

Looks like April ridership largely rebounded so it must be a seasonal thing. Still a little strange to me though.

[daveybabymsp]

It rebounded but still is below last April which isn’t ideal


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[daveybabymsp]

I downloaded the csv data you can get right below the total system ridership graph in that link, and I find it very interesting that Blue line Saturday ridership was higher than weekday ridership in April 2025, with Saturday ridership being 109% of the weekday average ridership.

Other notables include:
Green line Saturday ridership is 95% of the weekday avg
A line Saturday ridership is 94%
D line is 84%
C line is only 75%
Orange line is 67% which is honestly higher than I would expect for a downtown express service
And regular bus is only 65%

This data seems to support the push for more weekend service - glad that on June 14th the A line and some other core numbered routes are getting improved weekend frequency.


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[angrysuburbanite]

Special events ridership is something to behold on the Blue line.

Gold line already saw a ridership decrease from 1.1k to ~950 on weekdays so that’s cool.

[Bakken2016]

Special events ridership is something to behold on the Blue line.

Gold line already saw a ridership decrease from 1.1k to ~950 on weekdays so that’s cool.

Gold Line was inflated by the opening weekend, that is not surprising.

[daveybabymsp]

Special events ridership is something to behold on the Blue line.

Gold line already saw a ridership decrease from 1.1k to ~950 on weekdays so that’s cool.

Gold Line was inflated by the opening weekend, that is not surprising.

Weekdays are down too


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[Bakken2016]

Special events ridership is something to behold on the Blue line.

Gold line already saw a ridership decrease from 1.1k to ~950 on weekdays so that’s cool.

Gold Line was inflated by the opening weekend, that is not surprising.

Weekdays are down too


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Yep, there were a lot of people out trying it after the weekend as well on weekdays. I was an ambassador out and about for 2 weeks after the opening.

I would say the drop isn't awful though. But we will def see ridership increases over time especially with the extension of the Gold Line.

[BikesOnFilm]

I think the ridership on the Gold Line is exactly what I would have anticipated. Really good thing we're extending it to Minneapolis because the idea that a commuter in Woodbury was going to get on a bus and then transfer to the Green Line was just fantasy land thinking.

[Korh]

I'm actually curious if the gold line will bite into the green lines ridership because a long standing complaint I've seen is while good a connecting the people in the middle of the corridor, its not the best at people going downtown to downtown, so much that even before the rethink I94 project was put forth, some people where speculating how hard it would be to make a shuttle train between SPUD and Target Field using one of the Northstar trainsets

[BikesOnFilm]

Long term, with the Minneapolis extension, I totally agree that the Gold Line will move some trips from the Green Line, if those trips haven't already moved to the 94 bus.

It's just clear that the idea of Saint Paul being a co-equal transit destination to Minneapolis, complete with expensive guideway projects terminating there as a hub, just isn't bearing out in reality. And I think we should really think carefully about the Purple Line with this in mind.

[thespeedmccool]

It's just clear that the idea of Saint Paul being a co-equal transit destination to Minneapolis, complete with expensive guideway projects terminating there as a hub, just isn't bearing out in reality. And I think we should really think carefully about the Purple Line with this in mind.

I am presently assuming the Purple Line is dead until I hear otherwise. Maybe an extension to the future Riverview BRT?

Really amazing how completely and terribly, like, every single CTIB project has flopped.

[twincitizen]

Could Metro Transit potentially get ahead of bad press on Gold Line ridership by extending it to Minneapolis sooner, like by the end of this year? Aside from building BRT station platforms at Snelling and at US Bank Stadium (11th Ave S & 6th/7th), what exactly are we waiting until 2027 to do? Metro Transit is saying the capital cost of the extension is just $25 million and will come from "existing funding sources". With the 94 bus now running later into the evenings and on weekends, I'd think the total service hours are pretty close, so it likely isn't due to a lack of operators.

I did notice on a recent TAB agenda that Met Council is in the process of amending the 2050 TPP to include the Gold Line extension and the finalized Blue Line extension route. https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetin ... nfo-1.aspx

[wingedmolotov]

Bloomington and Blaine Metro micro zones are launching in August and September, respectively! The finalized zone maps are to be shared in the next few weeks. Also, some stop consolidation on the 18. https://www.metrotransit.org/route-18

[eowens]

Thanks for sharing the Route 18 Survey - I live on a stop that isn't being impacted - so I'm surprised this wasn't distributed more widely. My main comment is to re-route the 18 to continue on Nicollet all the way to Lake Street - so two new stops could be used on Nicollet just south of Lake street - and then the existing stops on Blaisdell and 1st Avenue could be removed. With the B Line opening, transfers would be better accommodated by staying on Nicollet all the way to Lake street.

[J. Mc]

Metro Transit is looking at changes to clean up bus destination display signage, also considering dropping the 'line' on ABRT route displays:
https://metrocouncil.org/getattachment/ ... lang=en-US (PPTX file)

"Approaching Ford at... STOP REQUESTED" "Attention Metro Transit riders, quarterly serv... STOP REQUESTED" issue has finally been addressed.
https://metrocouncil.org/getattachment/ ... lang=en-US (PPTX file)

[MNdible]

No fair stealing Bakken's thunder.

[Bakken2016]

No fair stealing Bakken's thunder.

Haha, we have decided to keep Line for ABRT based on the feedback from TAAC.


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