The Metro B Line came with many improvements along the old route 21. Lake, Lagoon, and Marshall all have bus lanes, there’s off-board fare payment, stop consolidation, a brand new fleet of 60 ft buses and frequency increases on most of the route. One of the promised improvements, as with the rest of the BRT lines, is an advertised 20-25% reduction in travel times because of these improvements. Is this actually the case? Join myself and Ian R Buck as we put this to the test, and the result might surprise you.
Video Transcription
[00:00:30] Ian R Buck: Next one’s in 17 minutes!
[00:00:35] Ian Gaida: It’s not my fault, it’s the bus driver’s.
[00:00:44] Buck: Guess what route I took to get here?
[00:00:46] Gaida: Yo, I was kind of thinking you would bike. Screwin’ with the camera.
[00:00:51] Buck: Yeah, two reasons I didn’t bike. One, both of my main bikes have flat tires.
[00:00:59] Gaida: Very good.
[00:01:01] Buck: And I just haven’t gotten around to changing the tires. Uh, number two, like…
[00:01:08] Gaida: Yeah, I bet if we’re fast we could get it, so…
[00:01:11] Buck: Do you want to try? Where’s the next stop? Is it on Lake?
[00:01:15] Gaida: I think it might be on Lake.
[00:01:17] Buck: Yes, it is on Lake.
[00:01:19] Gaida: Okay, so maybe not, because the lights are green.
[00:01:22] Buck: Yeah, when I saw it pull up here, and I was like, “Well, if Ian walks up soon enough, maybe we can flag down the driver.”
[00:01:32] Gaida: I was like, “well, maybe he’ll wait because he sees the 6 getting out.”
[00:01:35] Buck: Yeah, no.
[00:01:37] Gaida: He’s got places to be.
[00:01:38] Buck: But yeah, the other reason I didn’t bring my bike is just because I needed to stop by Stina’s place to do the cat litter and stuff. And, I don’t know, I just want to be like, Today’s a transit day, it’s not a biking day.
[00:01:55] Gaida: So I think the hint to you is that you were at Stina’s place, so I’m going to say the 4 and then just kind of like walk over?
[00:02:05] Buck: No, I walked up to the 21 and took the 21 over.
[00:02:09] Gaida: [laughter] Very nice.
[00:02:10] Buck: So yeah, when I got here and I was like, Oh, which one of these is going to be like the return trip?
[00:02:15] Gaida: Probably the same bus.
[00:02:17] Buck: Uh, it looks like it, so mine was like the one that was last in line.
[00:02:20] Gaida: Okay, that guy.
[00:02:21] Buck: And then, yeah, because that’s the thing about the 21, right? If you want to ride it end to end from Uptown Transit Center to Union Depot, you can only take the 21A. None of the rest of the letters go all the way to St. Paul. And there’s a lot of letters. So what’s our point here, Ian? What are we doing today?
[00:02:43] Gaida: So as you rightfully pointed out to me in text, the 21 is undergoing a major change in about a week. Yeah. See if that will actually show up or something. Yeah, maybe camera higher closer. Yeah, you see, we’re like right. We’re at here kind of this spot. Oh, sorry, here. Yeah.
[00:03:09] Buck: And it will be starting and terminating there from now on.
[00:03:12] Gaida: Right. So the story I heard about this Metro Transit is more or less getting kicked out of Uptown Transit Center. Due to just all sorts of construction going on.
[00:03:23] Buck: Oh, OK. But no other transit agency is taking over. We’re just like, OK, OK.
[00:03:31] Gaida: So like, you know, there’s a whole Hennepin Avenue reconstruction kerfuffle that we’re not getting into again.
[00:03:37] Buck: Yeah.
[00:03:38] Gaida: Because it’s still a sore spot.
[00:03:39] Buck: Sure.
[00:03:40] Gaida: And I guess Xcel Energy is also doing some utility work around here.
[00:03:44] Buck: OK.
[00:03:44] Gaida: So I don’t know why it’s just the 21 to start with. It’s like, you know, the 612 and the 6 and the 17.
[00:03:52] Buck: Right.
[00:03:53] Gaida: A couple of other buses go here. But yeah, that’ll be the first one, I guess, in December. And that’s going to happen anyway because of the B Line.
[00:04:01] Buck: Right. That’s what I was going to say is this is aligned with what the B Line is going to be.
[00:04:06] Gaida: Yes.
[00:04:07] Buck: Like it will not be stopping at this transit center.
[00:04:09] Gaida: Correct.
[00:04:09] Buck: It’ll be going all the way to France.
[00:04:11] Gaida: Yeah, it’ll just keep going on like.
[00:04:12] Buck: Yeah.
[00:04:13] Gaida: And that’s kind of the other reason why, you know, since B Line construction kind of already has started. Yeah. This is.
[00:04:21] Buck: I get all the email updates.
[00:04:23] Gaida: I’m sure you do. This is kind of the last opportunity we’ll have to get the true 21 experience, I guess.
[00:04:30] Buck: Are any of the. I know they’ve been like starting to paint some of the bus only lanes. So we’ll get a little bit of that, right?
[00:04:36] Gaida: Yeah. I don’t think the eastbound side any are open. But according to the website, from like the river to 27th Avenue, that’s all open and buses are using it.
[00:04:47] Buck: Nice. All right.
[00:04:52] Gaida: And with that, that kills about what? Six of the 17 minutes.
[00:05:00] Buck: Sure.
[00:05:02] Gaida: So here we go. We are off. I can’t see that out the front worth a dang, but just trust me, that light is green. So we will put to the test if the B Line is actually any faster.
[00:05:20] Buck: Yeah. Do we what do we know about like the schedule of the B Line? Has it been like locked in place?
[00:05:26] Gaida: Well, the goal is like 20 percent improvement. I think they say for BRT vs local routes. Like the 5 vs D Line. So it was what and hour fifteen?
[00:05:44] Buck: Yep. That’s what the schedule says.
[00:05:48] Gaida: We’ll see if that actually happens. It is a Sunday. So that’s. Let me think. 75 minutes. About 15 minutes reduction. Right. About an hour.
[00:06:06] Buck: Which, I mean, is probably enough of a reduction for the Transit App to not suggest taking the 6 to the Green Line as an alternative.
[00:06:15] Gaida: Yeah, but not enough to not suggest taking the 6 to a Greyhound bus.
[00:06:19] Buck: Right. Well. So there’s the time reduction, there’s the speed increase, right? Yeah. And then there’s also the fact that the B Line will not be taking jog up to University Avenue. So you have less distance to cover. So it’ll probably be better than a 15 minute.
[00:06:41] Gaida: Yeah. 20 percent, like I said, is their target.
[00:06:49] Buck: Have you ridden the 21?
[00:06:51] Gaida: No, this is my first time.
[00:06:52] Buck: OK.
[00:06:53] Gaida: Local. Local legend. Nicollet K. Mart is no more. Some of the bus shelters on this route have like a little special design on that says Lake Street. I wonder what that was about. That had to be some sort of like branding thing.
[00:07:12] Buck: Yeah. Creating an identity for. It’s got a yellow circle?
[00:07:19] Gaida: We got some more B Line infrastructure. It’s starting to get to the bus lane too, it looks like.
[00:07:24] Buck: Oh, yeah.
[00:07:26] Gaida: Just not completely painted here, I guess.
[00:07:29] Buck: I guess they decided to paint the words only.
[00:07:32] Gaida: Yeah.
[00:07:34] Buck: Where was it that I saw one that specifically said like buses and bikes only and it wasn’t painted completely red?
[00:07:46] Gaida: I don’t know about that, but I know like at the river. It says buses and bikes only.
[00:07:55] Ian: Yes, it was on the St. Paul side.
[00:07:56] Gaida: OK.
[00:07:56] Buck: Yeah, it was on the downhill approach.
[00:07:59] Gaida: OK, gotcha. I thought that was all painted red.
[00:08:04] Buck: Not when I was there.
[00:08:06] Gaida: Fair enough.
[00:08:09] Buck: Yeah, and I’m wondering if they’re going to like keep it that way. Because whenever I’m in like downtown, if I turn onto one of the, you know, streets that has bus only lanes, I’m always wondering like, OK, me as a cyclist, am I supposed to be in this right-hand lane or not?
[00:08:24] Gaida: Sure.
[00:08:25] Buck: I don’t feel very safe going in the second to most right-hand lane. That feels very wrong.
[00:08:32] Gaida: Yeah. The stop is further ahead of us, but there’s like no space between the curb and the road. So I wonder if we’re stopped here for the time point.
[00:08:45] Buck: Yeah, we’re probably a little ahead of schedule.
[00:08:50] Gaida: Very unusual.
[00:08:53] Buck: Yeah.
[00:08:55] Gaida: The end is in sight. Something we should talk about, which we neglected to, is what is the purpose of the B Line? You know, for people who aren’t familiar with Metro Transit.
[00:09:10] Buck: Whether you know, yeah, what bus type of transit it is and everything.
[00:09:13] Gaida: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like why here and everything.
[00:09:17] Buck: So, well, Metro Transit is the main transit agency that we have in the city. It’s operated by the Metropolitan Council. The B Line is one of our arterial Bus Rapid Transits.
[00:09:37] Gaida: Fancy way of saying it’s a bus with fewer stops.
[00:09:39] Buck: Yeah, like BRT is a phrase that is used internationally for like certain types of improvements that you can do in a bus corridor. Right, so having its own dedicated right-of-way, having like stations that are spaced out a little bit farther apart than what you normally think of for a local bus. Paying before boarding. Those kinds of things that all like speed it up. And in the Twin Cities. Because I think mostly there just wasn’t as much political will to do the dedicated right-of-way part of that equation. Metro Transit came up with this “arterial BRT.” Which is basically all of the things I mentioned except that it’s going to be in mixed traffic. So all of the routes that we have that are named letters are the arterial BRT ones.
[00:10:48] Gaida: And you know, you might see some of the other upgrades like dedicated ways of stuff, but they’re sporadic, they’re not throughout the whole corridor.
[00:10:56] Buck: I think the B Line is the first one that we’re seeing that has dedicated lanes for a good chunk of its route.
[00:11:08] Gaida: Most of the Minneapolis side will have bus lanes in at least one direction. I think there may be a little bit more on the Saint Paul side. There are a little some bus lanes is what I meant. Not a lot.
[00:11:25] Buck: Very few. It’s pretty much just in between Cretin and the river.
[00:11:31] Gaida: The River pretty much. And then a little bit in downtown as well. Because they’ll overlap with the Gold Line, which is going to be the true BRT.
[00:11:40] Buck: And that’s opening… Is the Gold Line opening first?
[00:11:45] Gaida: I think so.
[00:11:47] Buck: It’s all under construction right now.
[00:11:48] Gaida: It’s all up in the air. And you know the reason they’re doing it here is because the 21 is something like the second most popular bus route in the city.
[00:11:58] Buck: Right. And you know, infamously like one of the slowest routes to take from end to end.
[00:12:03] Gaida: That too, yeah. Parts where average is about 8 miles an hour or even over like the whole thing I think. This is about 10 miles for the whole trip and it’s taking us about an hour and 15 minutes.
[00:12:18] Buck: We’re at like 55 right now.
[00:12:19] Gaida: Yeah. We’re only at Dale, probably got another 15 minutes to go. Yeah, an hour and 10. Of course now we’ve got to get through the throngs of people that are here for the holiday festival.
[00:12:37] Buck: That’s fine because we’re here for the holiday festival too.
[00:12:40] Gaida: That’s true. But we’re here for the holiday festival. We’re not here to sit on the bus. Okay, we are here to sit on the bus too, but like you get why I’m saying. Thank you. What was the final time?
[00:13:00] Buck: 01:10:44.
[00:13:02] Gaida: Alright. Return trip.
[00:13:07] Buck: Not for us.
[00:13:07] Gaida: But not for us.
[00:13:10] Buck: We’re not doing an Ian Gaida special. Go to a destination and immediately hop on the first return.
[00:13:19] Gaida: Immediately just whip [censored] it back. We won’t be back here for a year and a half, two years when the B Line opens.
[00:13:28] Buck: Well, I might be… Yeah.
[00:13:32] Gaida: The video will continue then is what I meant.
[00:13:36] Buck: Yeah, when is it supposed to open? 2024? No, it’s pushed back to 2025.
[00:13:39] Gaida: July 2025 I think. Yeah.
[00:13:41] Buck: Which seems so absurd because it’s not like, you know, they’re not constructing all new right of way. You know, it’s just going to be on the normal road. Why can’t we just run the bus?
[00:13:54] Gaida: You know, slowly I guess the improvements will be implemented to the point where, you know, B Line opening day is probably just going to be new buses.
[00:14:03] Buck: Sure, yeah. With the pretty dark blue livery.
[00:14:07] Gaida: Welcome back. It’s November 8th 2025?
[00:14:11] Buck: No, it’s definitely opening day of the B Line.
[00:14:13] Gaida: Oh yeah, that’s right.
[00:14:13] Buck: We dress this way in June in Minnesota.
[00:14:17] Gaida: Ignore that tree. It’s just dying.
[00:14:21] Buck: It’s totally not the day when Metro Transit is celebrating one million rides on this route.
[00:14:27] Gaida: Yeah, no. Definitely not. We definitely got this done in a timely manner and we’re not on the train to Detroit at the time of filming. At the time of opening day. And there is another good reason for us to shoot this late and that is 94 Construction. That’s finally wrapped up.
[00:14:46] Buck: Sure, yeah.
[00:14:46] Gaida: Because everyone was going on Lake Street and the purpose of this video is like a fair comparison between the B Line and the 21. So I don’t want to get caught there.
[00:14:56] Buck: Yeah, yeah. And honestly, I mean, the 21 was already benefiting from a lot of the bus only lanes on Lake at the time that we rode it, whenever that was.
[00:15:06] Gaida: No, that was like two years ago. Do we have any of the bus lanes by then?
[00:15:10] Buck: I feel like there was some red paint on the ground.
[00:15:11] Gaida: Okay, yeah, sure.
[00:15:14] Buck: But yeah, here we are at the Western Terminus. Very unassuming.
[00:15:19] Gaida: Just a normal Metro Transit bus shelter. Please note, Route 17 does not stop here.
[00:15:28] Buck: Yeah, you got to wonder how many people make that mistake before they decide like we got to put up a sign.
[00:15:36] Gaida: Quite a few, yeah. Well, that guy’s gone, so.
[00:15:42] Buck: Yeah, catch the next one.
[00:15:43] Gaida: Catch the next one. I don’t know what else there is to say right here.
[00:15:48] Buck: It’s, yeah. Yeah, I think most of my thoughts are going to start when we cross the bridge over the Green Line.
[00:15:56] Gaida: Yeah, mine too. I will say, I rode the B Line out here and it did seem much faster.
[00:16:03] Buck: Okay.
[00:16:03] Gaida: Because I took Orange Line to the B Line and got here like ten minutes faster than Google said I would. So that’s good.
[00:16:09] Buck: Nice.
[00:16:09] Gaida: That’s a good sign.
[00:16:11] Buck: I took the 17, which does not stop here.
[00:16:14] Gaida: That probably was the 17 I would have taken out downtown if I took that route, yeah.
[00:16:19] Buck: So, here we go.
[00:16:21] Gaida: Here we go. I missed the start because my phone won’t start recording. But, and you also missed the start by a couple seconds. But, you know, it’s about an hour, that’s close enough. We are rolling and then we’ll add a lap once we get to Hennepin, just kind of as a comparison to the old 21. This is Lake and Green Line station. Not open yet because the Green Line’s not open, but once it is, that’s going to be gangbusters. We are approaching Hennepin. Seven minutes so far, that’s not bad. Wait for it. Wait for it.
[00:17:05] Buck: Wait until you see the cannabis dispensary.
[00:17:09] Gaida: Wait until you see the reds of their eyes. Alright, go.
[00:17:12] Buck: Oh, I was ahead of you.
[00:17:12] Gaida: Oh, you did. Perfect. What are you? So had this burnt down by the time we did our ride? I don’t remember. I don’t remember either. But, yeah, the Kmart’s gone now. And they’re almost done putting in, reconnecting Nicollet. It’s a shame it’s just a normal street though. There’s really no reason for that. It could just be a busway.
[00:17:38] Buck: The bridge just got taken down just a few weeks ago.
[00:17:40] Gaida: That’s true, yeah. So it’ll probably be a while before it’s fully open. So is this part of the bus lane actually parking or are there just a whole bunch of people parked illegally?
[00:17:53] Buck: Definitely no parking.
[00:17:54] Gaida: Something I’ll point out is just how much more bus lane there is going westbound compared to eastbound. And we are definitely feeling it right now. This is something I’m interested to see. I know they added some temporary bus lanes. These ones are permanent. But they did add temporary ones between, was it Cretin and Cleveland?
[00:18:24] Buck: I think it was from Snelling to Cretin. Something like that.
[00:18:29] Gaida: I wonder if those are still there. So I’m going to record this and I’m going to go back in post and actually look and try to figure out where those were. And I’ll put lights and text on screen.
[00:18:40] Buck: By the way, we got to the river and it’s been 42 minutes.
[00:18:43] Gaida: 42 minutes. Okay. And these say bike, bus only. Interesting.
[00:18:48] Buck: This is the only place in the Twin Cities that I’m aware of that the bus lane specifically says bike and bus.
[00:18:56] Gaida: Other than maybe Nicollet Mall, but yeah. I mean it’s generally understood that you can bike on Nicollet Mall.
[00:19:04] Buck: Right, but like it is literally painted on.
[00:19:06] Gaida: It’s literally painted on the pavement. Okay, so there’s the end. I think that was Cleveland.
[00:19:11] Buck: Yeah. And this is the reason that they put bike and bus. Is because there’s a bike lane on there.
[00:19:17] Gaida: No, they still got the temporary markings there.
[00:19:20] Buck: Monday through Friday.
[00:19:20] Gaida: Monday through Friday. Okay. Okay, it looks like we’ve got one more here maybe. So Wilder is where it starts. Maybe. Unless we see it at the next intersection. I don’t think we will. Yeah, okay, that’s it. But they are still there. They did seemingly forget to remove those after 94 construction finished. So that’s good. Hang on. What’s going on here? What is this? We got one here. This one died? Oh, maybe this one died. And that’s why that one’s there. I thought we were just bunching. So one of the big time savers compared to the 21 is we’re not on University right now. We’re still on Selby.
[00:20:06] Buck: Look at that. An HourCar.
[00:20:07] Gaida: Hey. Oh, that’s the color I wanted mine to be. But they were impossible to find in any color, really. Anyway. So yeah, we just keep going straight instead of doing that little jog up. So that saves a bit of time. We are just now entering downtown St. Paul and we’re about a little over an hour in. 01:05 and change. I’m kind of worried this isn’t actually going to be faster now. That’s not the result I was expecting.
[00:20:38] Buck: From Hennepin, we’re at 58 minutes.
[00:20:40] Gaida: OK, that’s better. I think it was 01:05 last time. I mean, you guys would have just seen it, but I haven’t looked at it in a couple of years.
[00:20:50] Buck: You don’t have to admit that. You can just record voiceover at home.
[00:20:55] Gaida: I don’t want to do that. That takes work. I just want to slam this together and put this up, man. I’ve been struggling recently with higher production value videos.
[00:21:08] Buck: An hour and fifteen. We’re nearly an hour and eight from Hennepin.
[00:21:18] Gaida: We’ll have to go back just to be sure. I mean, technically, we’re not even off the bus yet.
[00:21:24] Buck: But we’re pretty sure that I just hit the stop on this side of the platform.
[00:21:29] Gaida: Okay, yeah. Whatever. So that clearly wasn’t the result we expected or hoped for.
[00:21:37] Buck: I remember before the B Line opened and I was in the Transit App and I did a hypothetical trip from a nighttime concert here in downtown St. Paul back to home in Uptown. And it was telling me, taking the 94 and then the 6 would be faster than taking the B Line. And that was kind of when I started thinking about, Oh, is the B line actually going to be like a game changer versus the 21?
[00:22:06] Gaida: It’s worth pointing out that ridership’s already up like 30 percent compared to 21 ridership. But I think what this trip proves is that, and I’ve been saying this for a while, not everything can be fixed by just making the buses a little bit better.
[00:22:21] Buck: Right.
[00:22:21] Gaida: Sometimes you do need, especially for a route like the 21, you know, these really heavy, high frequency routes. Sometimes you do need heavy infrastructure changes. You need light rail or a streetcar or something, busway, whatever.
[00:22:38] Buck: I think the 21 probably couldn’t have handled this much ridership.
[00:22:43] Gaida: That’s true.
[00:22:43] Buck: Guaranteed articulated buses on every single trip…
[00:22:47] Gaida: OK. My microphone just fell off. I’ll just hold it here for now.
[00:22:51] Buck: Yeah, so I mean, that higher ridership is facilitated by the fact that we have articulated buses on every single trip on the B Line. And honestly, I mean, more people getting on and off the bus is probably part of what slows it down.
[00:23:08] Gaida: Exactly, yeah.
[00:23:11] Buck: Or rather, keeps it from being a noticeable speed improvement above and beyond the 21.
[00:23:17] Gaida: I will say another bus did just roll in behind us.
[00:23:22] Buck: We had three in a row??
[00:23:25] Gaida: What we think happened with that one that we passed and we had that other one in front of us the whole time. We think the one 20 minutes ahead of us broke down. So then the one 10 minutes ahead caught up and had to get everybody. And then we kind of ended up behind them in this last little bit. I don’t know if that really would have saved us much time if that didn’t happen.
[00:23:46] Buck: And the bus in front of us picking everybody up instead of us having to pick people up probably speeded us up.
[00:23:52] Gaida: Oh, yeah, that too. That’s the other side of it.
[00:23:55] Buck: “Sped” us up. That’s how language works. This is why I’m excited about things like the Gold Line extension. Because it’s like, OK, highway BRT is a hell of a lot. That makes a big difference to actually biking everywhere and busing on city streets.
[00:24:19] Gaida: That’s why I’m looking forward to the Green Line extension. I have a family in the Southwest Metro and having an actual strong, fast, frequent transit route down there will be a game changer for me.
[00:24:34] Buck: There you go.
[00:24:36] Gaida: Is that everything?
[00:24:37] Buck: I think so.
[00:24:38] Gaida: Should we go to the event? Do we have time?
[00:24:42] Buck: What event?
[00:24:43] Gaida: The one million riders event for the B Line.
[00:24:46] Buck: That’s all the way over at King Field Recreation Center?
[00:24:49] Gaida: No, Martin Luther King. It’s on like… It’s in St. Paul. It’s on like Dale and Selby, I think.
[00:24:58] Buck: Oh, I thought it was at the Martin Luther King…
[00:25:00] Gaida: No, no, no.
[00:25:01] Buck: Oh, OK, OK, OK. Oh, I know the one that you’re talking about.
[00:25:04] Gaida: Yeah.
[00:25:04] Buck: Yeah, that makes way more… That’s a location that makes way more sense. Alright, so let’s get on to the next…
[00:25:10] Gaida: Let’s get on to the next one. Well, it’s almost 3, but the food’s free, the band’s playing. We’re still partyin’.