Maplewood City Council pushback imperils Purple Line bus rapid transit project

A long-planned commuter bus route between St. Paul and White Bear Lake may be in peril after a majority of the Maplewood City Council on Monday night said they no longer support it.

The Metro Transit “Purple Line” using a bus rapid transit route would cause too much disruption as it passes through Maplewood, cost too much, and benefit too few, said Mayor Marylee Abrams.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” she said.

The council had previously voted to support the plan, but after viewing fresh data last month that showed the number of businesses that would lose driveways along White Bear Avenue and the number of people expected to ride the route, Abrams and two others on the five-person council said they changed their mind.

Abrams instead asked city staff to prepare a resolution for the next City Council meeting that would say three things: The council does not support the Bruce Vento trail route option, the White Bear Avenue route option, and the council would like to see other forms of transit explored, including so-called “Letter Buses” that would use city streets but with fewer stops, micro buses that would offer door-to-door and on-demand transit options, or autonomous cars.

It’s not clear what response the Maplewood City Council’s decision would prompt from other agencies involved in the Purple Line planning, but Ramsey County Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt said Monday afternoon that it could be a significant problem for the project.

“If you don’t have the support of the community, then I don’t see how you get the federal funding,” she said, speaking before the Maplewood City Council meeting.

The Metropolitan Council, which provides a network of buses, light rail and commuter train routes, said Tuesday evening that it would continue the project. .

“The Purple Line is a strong transit project that would bring significant investments to the east metro, and we are committed to continued engagement with our local partners,” said Terri Dresen, a spokesperson for the Met Council. “We look forward to advancing a regional transit vision that will connect our communities and ensure future prosperity, and we remain steadfast in our vision and commitment to a future with more transportation options for everyone.

The Purple Line route has been in the works since the late 1990s after Ramsey County acquired an abandoned rail corridor. The Maplewood City Council in 2017 voted to support the extension of the Purple Line bus commuter route along the Bruce Vento trail, but that alternative fell out of favor and the council asked for an alternative.

In March 2023, Reinhardt met with the council and delivered the news that a route along White Bear Avenue could be studied instead.

An analysis took place over the past year and a half, and city council members were given a presentation in August as an update on the plan.

Abrams said she looked through the data and came to the conclusion that the Purple Line was not the right transit solution for Maplewood. Using White Bear Avenue for the bus rapid transit line would mean reducing it to one lane for car traffic, she continued, and that’s not enough for the 23,000 daily users of the main artery through Maplewood.

Abrams said she’s not anti-transit, but said the Purple Line plan was outdated. People don’t commute the way they did before the pandemic, she said, and newer forms of transit including micro-buses, transit buses with fewer stops, and even autonomous cars should be explored as a path forward. She compared the Purple Line to an 8-track music player.

“We’ve been tied to the Purple Line for 28 years but it doesn’t make any sense,” she said.

City Council Members Rebecca Cave and Kathleen Juenemann agreed with Abrams for many of the same reasons, giving the group a three-person majority for rejecting the Metro Transit plan.

Two Maplewood City Council members disagreed, including Nikki Villavicencio, who pointed out that she’s the only member of the council who is dependent on public transit.

“I’m still in favor of the purple line; that’s all I’m going to say for now,” she said.

Council Member Chonburi Lee said he’s not 100% sold on the Purple Line, but that it would be premature to vote against it at this point, and urged the other council members to have patience.

“I think we owe it to the Met Council to hear them out before we make any kind of resolution or decision,” he said.