Regional Transportation
What’s next? Improving our transit system
Major goals of the Metropolitan Council’s 2030 Transportation Policy Plan are to double transit ridership by 2030, slow the growth in traffic congestion and improve mobility for everyone.
The strategies for growing transit ridership include:
- Adding new express bus routes, limited-stop routes and park-and-ride lots;
- Funding enhancements such as bus-only shoulders, ramp meter bypasses and signal priority that give buses travel-time advantages in mixed traffic; and
- Developing a network of rail and bus “transitways, ” with mode choices based on a careful cost-benefit analysis.
The region now has three transitways:
- Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on I-394;
- Light rail transit (LRT) in the Hiawatha corridor linking downtown Minneapolis, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America; and
- Commuter rail in the Northstar Corridor between Big Lake and downtown Minneapolis.
Five new transitways are in process
Five additional transitways will be added between 2005 and 2020, and state and federal funding has been provided to begin work on:
- Central Corridor LRT on University Avenue between downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis.
- Southwest LRT between Eden Prairie and downtown Minneapolis
- I-35W BRT between Lakeville and downtown Minneapolis.
- Cedar Avenue BRT between Lakeville to the Mall of America.
- BRT or LRT on Bottineau Boulevard (County Road 81) between Minneapolis and Osseo, Dayton and Rogers.
Additional transitways are planned
- Gateway Corridor along Interstate 94 from the St. Croix River Bridge to Saint Paul.
- Red Rock Corridor between Hastings, St. Paul and Minneapolis.
- Rush Line Corridor between Hinckley and St. Paul.