Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

[Tcmetro]

Apparently Metro Transit has added some new passes for local buses and light rail:

If you buy:
Weekday 2 am - 9 am : $4.50
Weekday 9 am - 6:30 pm: $4
Weekday 6:30 pm - 12 am: $3.50
Weekends/Holidays: $3.50

All the passes are good until 2 am the next day. Metro Transit is still offering the 24 hour pass for $6, but I suppose a lot of people who use those will benefit from these "all day passes". I wonder if the 6-hour event passes have been eliminated.

https://www.metrotransit.org/all-day-pass

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Interesting products, but I suppose I would prefer capped GoTo fares or something.

[MNdible]

Can you buy one of these with your GoTo card?

[Tcmetro]

Good question. I would imagine the only way to do so, if it's even possible, is from a TVM. I don't make it up to Minneapolis often these days, but maybe someone who uses the LRT (or any TVM) could shed some light on the situation.

[Silophant]

I wonder if the 6-hour event passes have been eliminated.

I saw something from MT a few days ago saying that these have replaced the event pass, since people were running into trouble where they went out for a drink or something to wait for the lines to die down, then just missing the six-hour limit by the time they got back to the train.

[jebr]

A couple months ago I was with some family going to a Twins game, and we stopped for a burger ahead of time and we wouldn't have had time to make it all the way back after the game before the pass expired. This new development is a huge plus for that sort of situation, and the price is right. Hopefully they'll make it purchase-able on buses as well as via TVMs, and ideally it'd be nice to see the Go-To cards (maybe with a new iteration) be able to automatically calculate the fare and if someone reaches the amount an all-day or 24-hour pass would cost the card would simply give the rest of the rides in that time span for free.

[intercomnut]

Strib wrote a good article about what Metro Transit learned from the soccer match at U.S. Bank Stadium and how they improved service for the Luke Bryant concert.

Also, I'm semi-seriously thinking about just walking the skyways on September 1 (when there will be a Vikings, Saints, Twins, and Gophers will all have games at the same time) to watch the carnage.

[DanPatchToget]

This won't actually happen (though I wish it did), Thursday would be the time for Metro Transit to seriously consider 4-5 car consists. Open the doors of the first 3 cars and once those are packed move the train up to the last car(s) and repeat. I believe they did this with the Northstar Line running 10-car trains for Twins games.

[LRV Op Dude]

This won't actually happen (though I wish it did), Thursday would be the time for Metro Transit to seriously consider 4-5 car consists. Open the doors of the first 3 cars and once those are packed move the train up to the last car(s) and repeat. I believe they did this with the Northstar Line running 10-car trains for Twins games.

This can not be done. Opens the door they all open.

[talindsay]

This won't actually happen (though I wish it did), Thursday would be the time for Metro Transit to seriously consider 4-5 car consists. Open the doors of the first 3 cars and once those are packed move the train up to the last car(s) and repeat. I believe they did this with the Northstar Line running 10-car trains for Twins games.

This can not be done. Opens the door they all open.

Well, it *CAN* be done, because I was on a train sometime in maybe 2006 or 2007 when they did just this after a Twins game, with three-car trains operating at the two-car stations. It was a debacle - it was slow, extremely manual, didn't work well, and was clearly not a workable approach - but they did it. They had people standing on the station platforms controlling something semi-manually with the doors. For me it was great because I boarded at DTE and alighted at Lake Street, two stations where the three-car trains could operate properly. But Cedar-Riverside and Franklin were a mess.

[Silophant]

Additionally, almost every station has a cross street at one or both ends, which would be blocked by 4+ car train.

[Mcgizz]

Does anyone know if all the buses that moved off Third Avenue to Hennepin Avenue when they repainted Third will move back now that the project is done/near done or will MT just keep all those buses on Hennepin until Nicollete is open again?

[intercomnut]

Does anyone know if all the buses that moved off Third Avenue to Hennepin Avenue when they repainted Third will move back now that the project is done/near done or will MT just keep all those buses on Hennepin until Nicollete is open again?

They'll be staying on Hennepin until Nicollet is done.

[Tcmetro]

Metro Transit is proposing to cut the Xerxes/85th/Noble loop of the 722 and the Earle Brown deviation in order to extend the route along Brookdale and Zane to Target North. The extension would run hourly.

http://www.metrotransit.org/give-us-you ... 22-changes

[twincitizen]

It's almost as if Bottineau should have gone to Brooklyn Center Transit Center...but no that was never considered (at least not as LRT, perhaps in Bottineau's previous life as a BRT corridor, there was an alternative that went to BCTC)

[Tcmetro]

In previous decades, there were only a few bus routes to the Brooklyn Center/Park area. The 5 (which had a maze of branches through the North Side) came to Brookdale, and split to Bass Lake Rd, Brooklyn Bl, Zane Ave (present day 721, 723, 724). The 22 had some Brookdale trips, and others that went as far as 85th (now the 722). Also, the 14 went from Downtown to Robbinsdale, and had a branch to Brookdale, which is now the 717. It also had branches that served areas that are now on the 705 and 716 lines.

Since then, rationalization has seemed to fuel demand. There are currently about 13 buses per hour between Brooklyn Center and Minneapolis on the various lines (5, 19, 22, 721, 724) and more planned with the C and D lines. Brooklyn Bl has a wide ROW as well as several redevelopment plans, and I think it would be foolish to not consider some kind of (real, median) BRT between Brooklyn Center and Maple Grove. It could even use the freeway into downtown as there really isn't any traffic along I-94, even at peak.

[BoredAgain]

It's almost as if Bottineau should have gone to Brooklyn Center Transit Center...but no that was never considered (at least not as LRT, perhaps in Bottineau's previous life as a BRT corridor, there was an alternative that went to BCTC)

Honest Question:

They didn't try to send the light rail over to the Brooklyn Center Transit Center because getting there would require making something else get out of the way. Now that we are "settled" on a route, can the transit center be moved to provide a more useful connection? It would require changing a lot of bus routes, but as bus advocates point out, buses can go anywhere that roads go.

[twincitizen]

I was mostly being sassy, but you definitely have a point that the BCTC location should probably be reconsidered. It's a big, bustling hub of bus activity, and a planned terminal for both the C and D lines (aBRT). It is kind of an island (i.e. it's basically only useful for transferring from one bus to another - it's not actually walkable to much of anything at all)

[Tcmetro]

The Brooklyn Center area has some purpose in that it is a large shopping and civic area (Walmart, Target, Sears, Library) for much of the north side and the nearby suburban neighborhoods. That being said, I would imagine much of the suburb-to-downtown crowd will be able to use the Blue Line instead of the 5/19/22 buses. Bass Lake Rd (721) and Zane/63rd/Brooklyn Bl/NHCC (716/723/724) will more efficiently link people to light rail.

One nice addition would be a regular-service bus from the Oak Grove Station to Champlain and Anoka, as that trip would likely be quite a bit faster than the 852.

BCTC serves as a nice hub, because it can support connections to the 801 (BCTC-Col Hts-Rosedale) and future Anoka County connections. Also it brings residents to the shopping areas. Perhaps the next step would be to extend the C and the D lines to the Blue line at the Bass Lake Rd and Brooklyn Bl stations, to reduce the forced-transfer nature of BCTC.

[DanPatchToget]

It amazes me how there isn't even one local bus route to Maple Grove, specifically the Arbor Lakes Shopping Area. I would think it could sustain an hourly service from Brooklyn Center Transit Center.

[Tcmetro]

There was a trial bus route, #720, that operated hourly between Starlite and Maple Grove when the Northwest Metro restructure happened in 2007. AFAIK, the subsidy was too high and it was cut.

Maple Grove has chosen to operate a dial-a-ride service as opposed to a local route service, and I suppose any re-introduction of service should be up to the city.