Regional Transportation

What’s next? Improving our transit system

The Metropolitan Council’s 2030 Transportation Policy Plan is intended to double transit ridership by 2030, slow the growth in traffic congestion and improve mobility for everyone.

The strategies for growing transit ridership include:

adding new express bus routes, limited-stop routes and park-and-ride lots;
funding enhancements such as bus-only shoulders, ramp meter bypasses and signal priority that give buses travel-time advantages in mixed traffic; and
developing a network of rail and bus “transitways, ” with mode choices based on a careful cost-benefit analysis.

The region now has two such transitways: bus rapid transit on I-394 and light rail transit in the Hiawatha corridor linking downtown Minneapolis, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America. Under the Council’s plan, five additional transitways will be added between 2005 and 2020. (See transitways story and map.)

Over the last several years, state and federal funding has been provided to begin work on:

A commuter rail line in the Northstar corridor between Minneapolis and Big Lake.
Bus rapid transit on I-35W between Lakeville and downtown Minneapolis.
Bus rapid transit on Bottineau Boulevard (County Road 81) from Minneapolis to Osseo, Dayton and Rogers.
Bus rapid transit on Cedar Avenue from Lakeville to the Mall of America.
Light rail or bus rapid transit in the Central Corridor on University Avenue between downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis.