The March schedule changes mostly represent minor schedule adjustments, but there are a few changes of note.
Routes 2 and 3 have done a robust business connecting the U of M West Bank campus with southeast Minneapolis. Now a number of evening trips have been added to serve that market.
December saw the elimination of 22 bus stops along Route 2 Franklin Crosstown and the re-spacing of others in an attempt to speed up the notoriously slow route. Effectively the stop spacing is now every quarter mile. The old running time was left in place for three months. Now it has been changed based on new data and here are the results. Depending on the time of day, the running time has been shortened slightly. The biggest improvement was 4 minutes for eastbound midday trips. The eastbound PM peak actually got a minute slower. Future traffic signal priority should cut it a little more.
Running time (mins.)-Eastbound
Time of day Old New
AM peak 42 41
Midday 45 41
PM peak 49 50
Night 40 40
Running time (mins.)-Westbound
Time of day Old New
AM peak 42 40
Midday 44 43
PM peak 52 51
Night 42 40
Route 14 downtown reroute: On its face the loss of the 4th Street contraflow bus lane in downtown Minneapolis would seem to be a step backwards, but it actually has greatly improved service on northbound Route 14 Bloomington Avenue-West Broadway-Robbinsdale. It has been moved to 7th Street, which means it now serves the heart of downtown, not the northern fringe. That’s bound to make it more attractive, including to residents of the burgeoning North Loop. Also, it will share 7th Street with Routes 5, 19, 22 and the soon-to-arrive C Line BRT. This adds more service options for North Side residents headed for the Broadway area.
Route 83 Lexington Crosstown was created in 2014 to feed the Green Line at University Avenue and Route 54 Airport-Mall of America at West 7th Street. I’ve been worried that it wouldn’t generate enough ridership to survive. That may be true. With this schedule change, the night service after 7 PM has been cut, along with selected morning trips.
Route 537 Southdale-Normandale College has been extended to 108th & France. This was easy to do, because the route had more layover than it needed. It now serves the Valley West shopping center and some senior citizen housing.
2018 LRT Ridership
In 2018 the Green Line carried a record 13.8 million passengers, 42,572 per average weekday. The Blue Line also set a record of 11.1 million passengers, 32,921 per weekday. Light rail accounted for 31 percent of Metro Transit ridership.
Ridership profile
A recent staff report to the Met Council gives an interesting statistical profile of who rides Twin Cities transit, how they ride and their trip purpose. Hopefully you can read the fine print in the attached graphic.
I wonder how much the 83 suffers from not being anchored at any point to a major transfer station. It gets close to Rosedale, but doesn’t go all the way to it. There isn’t even a very easy way to make a transfer to the A Line (at best, you’re having to cut across a Target parking lot.)
An extension to Rosedale seems like the simplest way to add traffic to the route. You’d probably have to make a couple of modifications to the route so an additional bus isn’t required; the 83 would probably have to either commit to Hamline all the way up until it turns towards Rosedale (either on County Road B or B2) or stay on Lexington and then cut over on B (as current) or B2. I’d lean a bit more towards Lexington to B2 as it’d keep decent service to the shopping center at Lexington and Larpenteur and add frequency to Roseville High School and B2.
I support the Lexington option to provide better access to Como Park as well.
Route 84 should be extended to the old Hamline/Hoyt terminal of the 4B and during shopping hours continue out Hamline to County Road B to Har Mar or Target or even to Rosedale via Fairview like the old 4E.
I’m glad they’re extending Route 537 so it’s just a little bit closer to my house. Unfortunately they’re also reducing 539 service to Normandale Village, which is the closest stop to my house with all-day service. Not a huge loss especially with the 537 extension, but it’s still sad to see any kind of service cuts.
Just a point of clarification, the Route 2 schedule had already been tighten up for the August pick ahead of the bus stop changes (October 13). The schedule adjustments for March are minor refinements – some additions but mostly subtractions – based on observed travel times since the October changes.
RT83 need anchors such as Rosedale/Highland .
AN option is to extend 83 to Highland via Rt46 which it can replace Rt ,46 is mostly duplicated except for a small segment .
Eliminate 87 can run the 83 to Rosedale via Fairview .The new #30 @ Larp to Raymond Station via Raymond replacing 87
Rt87 is competing with 63/74 for the limited riders Rts63/74 can run every15mins again with the savings
Rt87 ridership is very poor.
30/46/83/84/87 are poor performers .