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Northwest metro bus routes changing June 2

Service will better match where people live and work today

Starting on June 2, Metro Transit customers will see improved service—intended to better match where people live and work today— in the northwest metro area.

Metro Transit will roll out the changes to routes restructured to meet growing residential and employment needs, changing travel patterns and new demographics in an area west of the Mississippi River and north of Highway 55.

The area with restructured service has:

• 13 percent of the metro population
• 20 percent of the region’s jobs

… and it generates:

• 10.3 million rides, or
• 13 percent of Metro Transit ridership

The route revisions mark the implementation of the first phase of the agency’s Northwest Metro Transit Restructuring Plan. About 90 percent of all planned changes will happen in the first phase. A second phase of changes is expected in 2008, after the Starlite Transit Center expansion is complete.

“The goal of the project is to make transit service more effective and meaningful for this area, while using existing resources to meet that goal,” said Metro Transit General Manager Brian Lamb.

Project involved public input and outreach

This is the fifth sector in the region where Metro Transit has evaluated existing service and recommended improvements to routes and facilities. In 1998, the agency divided the Twin Cities region into nine geographic sectors, and has been restructuring service one sector at a time.

As they have done in previous efforts to improve service, Metro Transit officials — after consulting with residents, business owners and other stakeholders — took a fresh look at where and how often buses operated in the project area, then proposed a plan to update service. A draft plan was revised after the agency received feedback from public meetings and more than 1,100 comments collected from printed cards, e-mails, faxes and letters.

Highlights of the northwest metro service changes:

• Faster and more direct service to major destinations, such as downtown Minneapolis, North Memorial Medical Center and Brookdale Center
• Simplified routes to help customers get to their destinations more quickly
• A new route to serve Starlite Transit Center, Hennepin Technical College and Maple Grove’s Elm Creek Boulevard retail corridor
• More suburb-to-suburb connections, without having to transfer downtown
• Better links between neighborhoods, other routes and suburban transit centers

To ease transition to restructured service, agency staff will be posted at key boarding locations to help customers several days prior to, during and after the changes start. Outreach efforts also will include customer brochures, bus and newspaper advertising, news releases and more.

For route and schedule information, customers can call transit information representatives at 612-373-3333 or visit Metro Transit's website.