The Red Rock Corridor Commission last month voted overwhelmingly to back a controversial plan to introduce bus rapid transit service along a 30-mile transitway connecting downtown Minneapolis with Hastings while leaving the door open for future commuter rail expansion as far south as Red Wing.
The board followed the recommendations of a recent report that asserts that the project would provide much-needed commuter service and congestion relief for fast-growing bedroom communities in Washington and Dakota counties.
"The Metropolitan Council has projected that the southeast quadrant of the metro area will grow by another 100,000 people over the next 20 years," Red Rock officials said on the project's website. "Despite the growth in some of the outlying areas, 94 percent of the jobs in the study area are within Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the primary commute pattern is to these two downtowns."
Red Rock officials say they will now turn their attention to crafting a funding plan for the project, while building ridership on the existing express bus service along Hwy. 61, which had 234,881 riders last year, according to Metro Transit ridership reports.
The 11-member Red Rock board, minus several members, voted at its March 24 meeting to adopt bus rapid transit, but didn't rule out the possibility of adding commuter rail service at some point in the future, said Commissioner Jen Peterson.
"That may be 20 years down the road. That may be 10 years down the road. That depends on how the population shift may be happening in the suburbs," Peterson, who also serves on the Cottage Grove City Council, said in a telephone interview.
Another commissioner, St. Paul Park Mayor Keith Franke, said last week that he didn't know whether BRT was "the answer."
"Do I worry that there won't be enough ridership? I would say yes. But, I would've had that worry even with the transit rail," he said.
