Metro Transit leaders go on tour to ask riders for feedback on safety initiatives

Last year, Metro Transit adopted a Safety & Security Action Plan with 40 steps to improve safety and make public transportation more welcoming.

The plan was aimed at boosting ridership that was slow to recover from the steep drop-off caused by COVID-19, while addressing issues such as drug use, smoking, harassment, public urination, littering and other behaviors that may have kept passengers away.

The initiatives were clustered primarily in three areas: improving conditions on the transit system, training and supporting employees, and engaging customers and partners.

In the ensuing months, the agency placed unarmed security guards at troubled transit stations and platforms, deployed non-sworn community service officers to do fare checks and revised its code of conduct to give riders clear explanations of what is expected of them on transit services.

Metro Transit also launched its Transit Service Intervention Project, partnering with community groups to build relationships with people who use transit sites as shelter and connect them with services such as housing and mental health programs.

So how is that working? And what do riders think?

This week, Metro Transit is launching a listening session tour. For a few hours each day from Tuesday through Friday, Met Council Chair Charlie Zelle, Metro Transit General Manager Lesley Kandaras, Metro Transit Police Chief Ernest Morales III, Metro Transit Chief Operating Officer Brian Funk and Met Council Transportation Chair Deb Barber will ride the rails and fan out to platforms to talk with people about improvements they want to see on the transit system.

"These listening sessions are an opportunity to meet riders where they are to gather ideas on how we can improve the transit experience," Kandaras said. "Listening to and learning from our customers is essential to how we make decisions. Our Safety & Security Action Plan is based on rider feedback. As we continue to advance each of the 40-plus items in that plan, we want to ask: 'How are we doing?'"

Leaders will take notes, reflect and post their thoughts on the Metro Transit website at metrotransit.org.

Glenwood Avenue bridge reopens

Drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians in neighborhoods just west of downtown Minneapolis got an early holiday gift when the Glenwood Avenue Bridge, just west of Target Field and the old Lee's Liquor Bar, reopened Dec. 11.

The vital connection had been closed for four years as crews worked on the Southwest Light Rail line, trying to find a way for trains to navigate from the freight rail corridor up to a higher grade at the Royalston Avenue-Farmer's Market Station, said spokesman David Davies.

"The light rail could not go over or under the existing roadway bridge," he said in a YouTube video explaining the project. "The bridge had to be designed in a way that the light rail went through the existing roadway, and design three bridges that tied together."

Service between Minneapolis and Eden Prairie is expected to start 2027.