Want a faster bus in your city? Metro Transit wants your input on next rapid bus routes.

Want a fast bus line in your city? Now’s your chance to weigh in. After opening three rapid bus lines this year, Metro Transit is asking the public for help planning where future routes should go.

Bus rapid transit (BRT) lines are often thought of as a hybrid between rail and traditional buses. They have upgraded stations and higher frequency service, and riders pay before boarding.

Metro Transit currently has six BRT lines running, after the opening of the Gold Line in the east metro last month. In June, it will open the B Line, from downtown St. Paul to the Minneapolis-St. Louis Park border, and later this year, the E line, from Westgate in St. Paul to Edina’s Southdale. Four other lines are in the planning stages.

The next three routes, which will be named the J, K and L lines, aren’t expected to open until 2030-35, but the public should weigh in now, said Katie Roth, Metro Transit’s director of arterial bus rapid transit.

The 17 potential routes crisscross the metro and stretch into suburbs including Blaine, Bloomington, Hopkins, Maplewood, Richfield and Robbinsdale.

“Our end goal is, by the end of this year, to have the J, K and L lines identified, and we’re at the beginning of that process,” she said.

Metro Transit ridership has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels, but the number of trips on established BRT lines has recovered more than on light rail or regular buses, and new lines are gaining ridership.

“How can we build a network that connects a lot of different places that have all-day, all-purpose travel demand?” she said.

Roth said Metro Transit is seeking comments through April 25 on the 17 proposed routes. After that, the agency will narrow the list to eight to 10 routes for further study. That list is expected to be narrowed to three based on more technical study.

While the timeline for these routes might feel far off — especially amid the uncertainty of federal funding for transit — Roth said the time to start planning is now.

“It allows us to work really closely with our city and county partners and with MnDOT to try to align the various construction projects planned in all these corridors,” she said. “That’s something that can’t happen overnight.”