Rapid buses give Twin Cities transit a boost

It would be wonderful to report that the new A Line rapid bus service is a game-changer for Twin Cities transit. It also would be an exaggeration.

Yes, the new buses are nice, with wide aisles, comfortable seats and complimentary Wi-Fi. The new shelters located along the route, which mostly travels on Snelling Avenue in St. Paul between Rosedale Center in Roseville and the 46th Street light-rail station in Minneapolis, are an improvement, with real-time digital schedule information, heaters for cold weather and improved security features.

Passengers pay before getting on the buses — as they do with light-rail trains — making boarding more efficient. A Line buses make fewer stops and can request longer green lights at intersections. They also run every 10 minutes during peak times, and some riders can cut up to eight minutes off trips made on regular buses.

That all adds up to a marginally better transit experience. Whether it will result in significantly increased ridership remains to be seen. The challenge with developing a transit system piece by piece in already-developed urban areas is that progress comes slowly. However, despite the aforementioned caveats, the A Line is a welcome addition for transit users looking for an alternative to driving the area's increasingly crowded roads. And, clearly, Metropolitan Transit's planned network of similar rapid bus lines in busy urban corridors would represent more progress.

Millennials notwithstanding, Minnesota's car culture is resilient, even in the face of never-ending construction and the perils of sharing the roads with distracted drivers. To attract more users, transit must become a more attractive, efficient and affordable alternative. And better bus service — whether it is rapid bus lines in urban centers or bus rapid transit lines that travel along dedicated thoroughfares — must be part of the solution.

So would a built-out light-rail system, of course, but because of inaction at the State Capitol, the state is precariously close to losing federal funding for the $1.79 billion Southwest light-rail project linking Minneapolis to the southwest suburbs. The proposed $150 million bus rapid transit Orange Line line along Interstate 35W is also hung up in the bonding bill.

Republican legislators who treat light rail like the Zika virus should look more favorably at much-less-expensive rapid bus alternatives. In addition to the Orange line, there are at least a dozen rapid bus lines planned for the Twin Cities over the next 15 years.

The new A Line and the three-year-old bus rapid transit Red Line that links the Mall of America to the southern suburbs are badly needed ongoing experiments in alternative ways to more efficiently move people from Point A to Point B in the Twin Cities.

"Great regions have great transit," St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said at a news conference earlier this month celebrating the A Line opening. "Period. End of sentence." But hopefully not the end of efforts to expand and improve transit in the Twin Cities.