Messages from the Council Chair

2025 will be a banner year for the expansion of our METRO network, which offers frequent, comfortable, and faster service to get people to the destinations they choose. Bus rapid transit (BRT) is helping our region realize one of the key goals of Imagine 2050: Our region is dynamic and resilient.

The METRO Gold Line opens on March 22, becoming our state’s first bus rapid transit line running primarily on a roadway dedicated exclusively to buses. Operating between downtown Saint Paul and Woodbury, it will connect people to jobs, housing, services, and other key destinations across the I-94 corridor.

The service is frequent, with trips running from 5 a.m. to between midnight and 1 a.m. in both directions. Stations have amenities like heat, light, ticket machines, and real-time signs. Later this year, five electric buses will also be incorporated into the Gold Line’s fleet of spacious buses.

On June 14, we will open the B Line, significantly improving service in the popular Route 21 corridor running from downtown Saint Paul to Uptown in Minneapolis and extending to France Avenue. The B Line is within a 10-minute walk or roll for 106,000 people in the corridor, 42% of whom are Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

And in December, we will open the E Line, running from the Green Line’s Westgate Station, near the eastern edge of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, through the campus to downtown and south on Hennepin and France avenues to the Southdale Transit Center in Edina.

A dynamic and resilient region meets the opportunities and challenges faced by our communities and economy including issues of choice, access, and affordability. Our METRO network provides people more choices of where to live and work, and the option to do so without a car if they can’t afford one or choose not to drive.

Developers continue to respond to these regional investments. In total, between 2009 and 2023, $19.2 billion – or 38% – of the region’s total permitted development occurred within a half-mile of high-frequency transit corridors, which represent just 3.4% of the region’s land area. Nearly 60,000 multifamily housing units were permitted in those same corridors. See our latest report, Transit Oriented Development - Metro Transit.

Affordable housing has been a big part of that picture. Between 2014 and 2023, more than half of all affordable housing constructed in the region was near high-frequency transit – about 10,710 units. And 77% of deeply affordable units – meaning units a household earning 30% of median area income could afford to rent – were in these corridors.

By connecting housing and access to jobs, our transit network helps reduce economic barriers and disparities for historically marginalized communities. More efficient transit and fewer cars on the road also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These outcomes help our region to achieve two additional Imagine 2050 goals – our region is equitable and inclusive, and we lead on addressing climate change.

Please join us on March 22 for the grand opening of the Gold Line at Woodlane Park & Ride in Woodbury and Sun Ray Park & Ride in Saint Paul. We’ve got family activities and entertainment planned at both locations, and Gold Line rides will be free through March 28. Learn more details here.

By Chair Charlie Zelle