In the days leading up to Saturday, March 22, 2025, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) stations were fully constructed with a countdown to the opening of the brand new METRO Gold Line, officially billed as Minnesota’s first BRT with proper guideways.
After years of debate over the location of its eastern terminus, the project was finally brought to fruition. The new Gateway Corridor BRT—now known as the METRO Gold Line—would no longer end in Lake Elmo, which rejected the proposal, but instead in the more populous city of Woodbury. In the months leading up to the Gold Line opening, bridge construction projects to benefit the BRT took hold, the two most notable being the Maple Street pedestrian bridge reconstruction and the opening of the Helmo-Bielenberg bridge across Interstate 94, made possible by federal funding for the Gold Line and further connecting Woodbury and Oakdale.
Not only was this project a benefit for people riding the bus between St. Paul and Woodbury, but pedestrians, cyclists and drivers now reap these benefits whether or not they ride the bus. Two months before the line opened, Metro Transit started operating micro service, a benefit to the riders of the 323 local bus, as well as the 351 and 355 express buses, with the intent to eventually connect with the Gold Line.
All of this activity culminated in a chilly but sunny March day filled with fun, adventure and, yes, public transportation.
The Golden Journey Begins
I departed my apartment in St. Paul a little before 9 a.m., starting my journey with a short walk to Route 74 on Randolph Avenue. I wasn’t the only one on this eastbound 74 headed to the Gold Line, as I encountered a Metro Transit employee wearing a Gold Line hat on the bus.
After a roughly 20-minute bus ride, I had a seamless transfer at Rice Park Station in downtown St. Paul, which is shared between the 74, Gold, and various other local and express buses. After only a few minutes, the Gold Line bus appeared, and on it was Jonathan Ahn, assistant director for Metro Transit. I asked him about the most important aspects of the new line.
“Building a bidirectional, all-day network is responding to the change in market demand,” he said, noting that commutes have changed in a post-pandemic world. Suburban connections are important, he added, as they become part of a larger network. Rider Gwen Reoch echoed this point, saying they were “excited for quicker access to the suburbs and to take my bike out there.”
A Celebration Years in the Making
After a remarkably quick 30-minute ride to Woodlane Drive Park and Ride, we disembarked to attend a ceremony for the opening of the Gold Line. When a sizable crowd filled up, Charlie Zelle, chair of the Metropolitan Council, started to speak. He introduced a whole slew of political and state dignitaries, including Minnesota senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger, Washington County Commissioner Stan Karwoski, Ramsey County Commissioner Mai Chong Xiong, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, Landfall Mayor Stan Suedkamp, Oakdale Mayor Kevin Zabel and Woodbury Mayor Anne Burt.
Many of them have been working on this project for almost two decades. McCollum was excited for the project, as someone who had to live car-free for much of her life, stating that transit is a lifeline for many. Karwoski noted the new pedestrian and bike trails that were brought to Washington County. Xiong thanked the community for sticking through the project and working through any issues that came up. All of the mayors were happy for their communities to be connected through the Gold Line, with the mayors of Oakdale and Woodbury mentioning the new Helmo-Bielenberg bridge.
All of them were thankful to the staff, leaders and communities who helped make the Gold Line possible. The excitement in the air was palpable, from leaders and transit riders alike.
Once the ceremony wrapped up, I made my way back to Rice Park Station for the Streets.mn return ride back east to Sun Ray Station. There was a different opening celebration at Sun Ray, where I spoke with University of Minnesota student Asher Maudsley, who will be using the Gold Line to return home from his residence hall on the weekends.
Maudsley had been waiting for the line for months in anticipation of this easy-to-make connection. “The Gold Line is really great because of the connectivity through the [Green Line] from the University of Minnesota to Woodbury,” he said. The former 351 express bus, which the Gold Line replaced, did not run on weekends.
At Sun Ray, many of us headed to the nearby Culver’s for cheese curds and other snacks. It was fun to see friends, old and new alike. After a zippy back and forth between Oakdale and St. Paul, I concluded my day at a gaming event in Downtown St. Paul at the St. Paul Event Center. It was really nice to not have to sit on the bus for a really long time and to have a connection eliminated, versus taking the 323 and then Route 63 or Route 74 to get back to Downtown St. Paul.
Stories from the Line
During my adventure, Streets.mn Managing Editor Amy Gage also spoke to Gold Line riders. Chanelle Grosbard and George Wojcicki, who live car-free near the Westgate Green Line station in St. Paul, said they were excited to attend more transit events. Gage also met Maplewood City Council member Nikki Villavicencio, who, as a transit-dependent rider, strongly advocated for the Gold Line, which has a station at the 3M headquarters in Maplewood.
Back in Downtown St. Paul, Metro Transit Project Manager Edwin Awason explained the gate changes that are now in place. Awason, who works on both the Gold Line and the coming Purple Line, told Gage that some bus routes share Gold Line platforms while others do not, enabling buses to move more quickly through downtown.
I’ll be using the Gold Line to visit family and businesses out in Washington County. Building up regular ridership will take time, I expect, as more apartments and businesses go up along the corridor.
In the future, I hope to see more transit connections to the Gold Line and more improvements to the signal priority system. Despite a few flaws from the start, the BRT line is a night-and-day difference compared with the previous Route 74/323 combination. And paired with a bike or Metro micro, it will cut at least 30 to 40 minutes out of the trips I was making before.
Here’s to a prosperous future for the Gold Line!