Metro Transit ridership up this year, but continues to lag behind pre-pandemic numbers

Service on Metro Transit trains and buses grew steadily to nearly 20 million rides for the first half of 2022 — but that's still just over half of what ridership was before COVID-19 broke out more than two years ago.

While the news "is good," said John Harper, contracted transit services manager for the Metropolitan Council, "we are continuing to dig out of the hole that is the COVID-19 pandemic."

Transit ridership in the Twin Cities plunged when the deadly virus took hold in March 2020, giving rise to remote work and schooling. Since then, a stubborn shortage of bus drivers and light-rail operators has continued to hamper Metro Transit's efforts to restore lapsed routes and fill half-empty buses and trains.

Still, ridership on the entire system was up 23% from January through the end of June when compared with the first half of 2021, according to a presentation Monday at the Metropolitan Council's Transportation Committee meeting.

The two workhorses of the system — the Green and Blue light-rail lines and bus service — increased in the same period over last year by 23% and 25%, respectively.

Express bus ridership increased to 404,530 rides, a 70% jump, indicating more commuters are returning to the workplace. Bus rapid transit line ridership increased by 34%, while rides on local bus routes rose by 22%.

The troubled Northstar commuter rail, which connects downtown Minneapolis and Big Lake, saw a 112% increase in ridership even though service has been reduced to four daily trips during the week, with no weekend or special-event service. Metro Transit tallied 18,721 rides aboard the line as of the end of June.

"A lot more habitual travel is beginning to happen again," said Eric Lind, Metro Transit's research and analytics manager.

The Blue Line between downtown Minneapolis and the Mall of America, which caters to more commuters, saw a sure and steady rise this year over last year, "which makes sense with more and more people going to work," Lind said.

But Green Line ridership so far this year has been more variable because it "interacts strongly with the University of Minnesota," where passenger levels rise and fall with the academic calendar, Lind said. The line, which connects the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, has three stops at the U.

A dip in January light-rail ridership this year, more pronounced on the Green Line, was likely due to the surge of the omicron COVID variant. Workplaces and schools closed due to the highly transmissible nature of the virus' strain, which also limited transit service when bus drivers and LRT operators themselves were felled with the virus.

Metro Transit will continue efforts to hire more operators in coming months. The transit agency currently has 1,080 bus drivers and has money in its budget to hire about 300 more, a move that would restore the service level that was cut back in the pandemic.

With new schedules recently in effect, Metro Transit now is short 36 bus operators, according to spokeswoman Laura Baenen.

"Our opportunity to provide service is becoming a lot more constrained because of the difficulty with the operator workforce," Lind said.

Earlier this summer Metro Transit rolled out a new safety plan, designed "to reassure people that it's safe and reliable to be on transit," Lind said. But it's too early to tell what effect it will have on ridership.

The plan calls for more police and community service officers, the use of private security guards at some stations, broader use of real-time security cameras, and shorter trains to promote a feeling of security.

Community service officers, intended to provide an official presence on light-rail trains, were in training this week on the Green Line.

Another factor that may positively affect ridership is the U's Universal Pass, which enables U students to get unlimited transit access for a single transportation fee.

But there remain many unknowns in predicting passenger behavior on public transportation for the rest of the year. Cheap parking deals offered by parking ramps in downtown Minneapolis could "make it harder to convince people to try transit," Lind said.

Historically high gas prices could persuade more people to take public transportation, even though prices are falling. But then there's the unpredictable nature of the COVID virus.

"I hope we're through with the major waves of COVID," Lind said. "But it would not be wise to rule it out."