BY JOHN CHARLES WILSON
President Trump plans to have a military parade in Washington, DC on his birthday, June 14, which also is Flag Day. While he is giving himself this grandiose present, Metro Transit is giving the Twin Cities, especially South Minneapolis, the present of better bus service starting the same day.
This most important improvement is replacing the slow Route 21 on Lake Street with a new, faster METRO B Line, a Bus Rapid Transit line similar to the D Line on Chicago Avenue. Speed improvements come from several differences between Bus Rapid Transit and a local bus route. For example, you will never again have to wait in a long line at the front of the bus while people fish out change from their pockets to pay the fare. Instead, vending machines at the stops sell tickets, like they do for the Light Rail. You buy your ticket or tap your Go-To Card before you get on the bus. The B Line will stop less often than Route 21, only at major intersections. There is a bus-only lane for westbound buses. While it would probably have been better to put bus-only lanes on both sides of the street, there was only room for one, and traffic congestion was worse in the westbound direction, so that’s where they put it. Transit Signal Priority ensures that B Line buses don’t get stuck at red lights as often. Combined, these changes should make riding the bus on Lake Street a less tedious experience.
Routes 23 (38th Street) and 612 (Hopkins) are being combined as new Route 38. This means people from the 38th Street area can now go to and from Excelsior Boulevard, Hopkins, and the Opus 2 area of Minnetonka on one bus without transferring.
Route 7 (Minnehaha Avenue) is being streamlined to run faster, and frequency is being improved on weekends to once every half hour.
Route 27 (26th/28th Streets) is coming back after being suspended for COVID-19, but will be slightly different. It will run on Lake Street between 4th Avenue South and Uptown, and between Cedar Avenue and 27th Avenue South by the Wendy’s and Aldi, while providing service to 26th and 28th Streets between Portland and Cedar Avenue. The purpose of this is to make up for the Lake Street stops that the B Line will skip. I’m not sure how useful it will be, though, considering that it will run only once an hour.
Other routes which will have frequency improvements include the A Line (46th Street Light Rail station to Snelling Avenue in Saint Paul), Route 2 (Franklin Avenue), Route 10 (Central Avenue Northeast), and Route 11 (4th Avenue South).
Frustrated by the Green Line’s slow service to Saint Paul? Good news: Route 94 is restoring its night and weekend service!
So, who gets the better deal? Washington, DC with its military parade, or the Twin Cities with better mobility for its residents? You decide.
