Alma Montgomery, of Bloomington, doesn't own a car and relies on public transportation to get around. She often takes the Orange Line, which began bus rapid transit (BRT) service along Interstate 35W between downtown Minneapolis and Burnsville in December 2021.
"I like it," she said one recent afternoon. "But I wish it was more frequent, especially on the weekends."
Metro Transit officials would like more bus service, too. Not just on the $150 million Orange Line, which serves one of the busiest transportation corridors in the state, but throughout the metro area — where at least a dozen more BRT lines are planned or under construction, through 2035.
That goal was highlighted last week when federal officials announced $239 million in funding for the Gold Line — the Twin Cities' first BRT line that will mostly operate on a dedicated lane between downtown St. Paul and Woodbury.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has waned, public transportation has slowly returned, but not to levels seen before the outbreak. Ridership on Metro Transit buses and trains remains a little more than half of what it was before 2020.
Overall BRT ridership in the Twin Cities has proven to be fairly resilient, increasing 43% from 2021 to 2022. The exception appears to be Red Line BRT service between the Mall of America and Apple Valley, which lost about half its ridership during the pandemic.
Nuria Fernandez, administrator of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), said at last week's Gold Line ceremony that bus ridership has bounced back nicely across the country. With remote work, she said, "people are now using systems at different times. [Transit] agencies need to figure out new ways to capture that base ridership."
After more than a year of operation, the Orange Line highlights a new paradigm in public transit: the fading of traditional morning and afternoon rush hours.