Author’s Note: If you’re able in light of recent events, please take the time to support your neighbors and visit local, immigrant-owned businesses. Immigration and customs enforcement negatively impacted many people, local restaurants, retailers, cafes, bakeries, grocers, salons and other businesses in the Route 725 corridor, like many other areas across the Twin Cities, the state of Minnesota and the nation, and would greatly appreciate your support. Thank you.
On Saturday, December 6, 2025, Metro Transit unveiled many new bus routes, service improvements and other changes to bus lines in their quarterly service changes. While the new METRO E Line bus rapid transit line, replacing Route 6, received all of the fanfare back in December 2025, Metro Transit also began service for a new, more unusual bus route for the transit agency: Route 725, an east-west crosstown suburban bus route running between downtown Osseo and Northtown Mall via Starlite Transit Center (STC) in Brooklyn Park.
Route 725 currently runs seven days a week with hourly service from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., including holidays. Click me to view the schedule for Route 725.
Did you ride Route 725 already? If so, Metro Transit is looking to hear from you to see what you think about this new bus route! The brief survey closes on April 1, 2026. Click me to send feedback.
Coming out of the Metro Transit Network Now framework (thanks in part to a metro-wide 3/4-cent transit sales tax imposed by the state legislature in 2023), this new bus route exclusively serves the second-ring suburbs of the Twin Cities. Without the need for a lengthy diversion to downtown Minneapolis and several bus transfers, Route 725 helps to drastically shorten transit travel times between Starlite Center and Northtown Mall to just 30 minutes when travel times used to run as long as two hours.
Route 725 also more conveniently serves Hennepin Technical College than the existing Route 721 originating from Brooklyn Center Transit Center — bridging the less than a mile transit gap between the technical college and Starlite Transit Center — while providing new services to downtown Osseo, an authentic main street-charm business corridor.
The new Route 725 helps to reduce disparities and car dependency by improving regional access while providing an affordable and climate-friendly transportation option for all people who live, work, shop, attend school or come to the area, regardless of whether they rely on transit for their daily needs or if they rarely use transit at all.
I hopped on this new bus service to experience what things are like on board and see if it’s useful for area residents like me, but first, a little context on how Route 725 came into fruition.
Why Route 725?
For the past several years, the city of Brooklyn Park has advocated for an east-west bus connection from east of State Highway 252 west to the city of Maple Grove and its vast retail centers.
In 2023, Brooklyn Park Mayor Hollies Winston sent a letter asking the then-Met Council Chair Charlie Zelle and the Blue Line Extension (BLE) Corridor Management Committee (CMC) to “prioritize improvements to east-west bus service in the short term, prior to opening of the METRO Blue Line Extension.”
Route 725 does not make stops within the city limits of Maple Grove despite requests, as the city is instead served by an opt-out transit agency, Maple Grove Transit, where that agency provides its own services with downtown Minneapolis and U of M express bus routes and an advance reservation dial-a-ride micro transit service known as My Ride.
I asked Metro Transit Senior Communications Manager Drew Kerr as to why Route 725 doesn’t serve Maple Grove and if Metro Transit could work with Maple Grove Transit to serve the growing city. Kerr said that Metro Transit will “be monitoring route performance to determine whether the route could or should be adjusted while maintaining strong reliability,” providing no definitive answer as to whether they could work with Maple Grove Transit.
The Blue Line light rail extension project plans to add 13 new light rail stations along its 13.4-mile route that will primarily run in the median of West Broadway and Bottineau Boulevard (County Road 81) while serving the communities of North Minneapolis, Robbinsdale, Crystal and Brooklyn Park.
This light rail investment will likely bring changes to the current bus network for the northwest metro as Metro Transit begins “to look ahead to what the next phase of network planning could look like in 2028 and beyond,” Kerr said.
Kerr added that Metro Transit will conduct “formal planning for bus service in the METRO Blue Line Extension corridor” about two years before train service begins and that “staff [are] coordinating with the project team to ensure station designs can support future bus connections.” He also explicitly mentioned that when the BLE opens for service, “bus routes in the area will almost certainly change to reduce duplication, improve transfers and strengthen access to stations.”
These improvements to the bus network, however, may not arrive until at least two to four years from now, a long wait as the Blue Line Extension won’t begin construction until at least 2027 with an anticipated opening year of 2030.
Mayor Winston emphasized in the letter that parts of Brooklyn Park have some of the highest rates of zero and one-car households in the region and that “residents who rely on buses for their daily needs cannot wait until 2030 for route improvements.”
Former Brooklyn Park Mayor and current Hennepin County Commissioner Jeffrey Lunde, among other community leaders, expressed similar concerns prior to the opening of Route 725.
Coming into fruition thanks to a long line of advocacy, Route 725 will better connect people to numerous destinations across the northwest suburbs while bringing people to and from the future 85th Avenue and Brooklyn Boulevard light rail stations.
This new service resembles my theoretical proposal for an 18.9 mile arterial bus rapid transit line running between Maple Grove and Northtown Mall through Brooklyn Park back in March 2024 that I dubbed the “METRO I Line” to support the BLE’s strong north-south connections after concerns over lackluster east-west transit connections in the region.
Several local and express bus routes in the north and northwest metro also received service improvements or modifications in both the August and December quarterly service changes, with more on the way on March 14. Additional changes in the north metro resulted from the discontinuation of Northstar commuter rail service back in early January.
Metro Transit launched Metro Micro, an on-demand dial-a-ride service back in September of last year for the Blaine area, which connects with Route 725 and other local and express bus routes. Kerr mentioned that “Metro micro service is anticipated to launch in Brooklyn Park in the second half of 2026.”
On Board Route 725: A Minibus?!
I boarded a minibus at Starlite Transit Center on the morning of December 13, 2025, a frigid Saturday, just a week after the route’s opening, headed towards Northtown Transit Center. The seats were plush, the temperature inside warm and cozy and the bus was spacious despite it being much smaller than a typical 40- or 60-foot bus Metro Transit uses for most routes.
Kerr said that Route 725 uses “smaller cutaway buses” to “launch the service while reserving higher-capacity buses for routes with higher ridership” and that Metro Transit will closely monitor ridership data to inform future decisions on using larger buses for Route 725.
Along the way from STC, we passed by the Brooklyn Park Walmart, North Hennepin Community College and the businesses near there, Brooklyn Park city hall and community center, Walgreens, the Coon Rapids ALDI, and numerous other popular destinations, local businesses, restaurants, offices and services in Brooklyn Park, Coon Rapids and Blaine.
Unsurprisingly, nobody else was on board but me and the driver for the entire trip – at least for now.
Before exiting the bus at Northtown Transit Center, I asked the driver how many riders he gets a day now that it has been a week since the opening of Route 725. He said that he usually gets about 1-2 riders per trip with about 10 people for the entire day he drives the route. The driver called this new line a “pretty chill and lowkey route.”
On my way out of the transit center, I was greeted by a vast parking lot and was without any physical form of pedestrian infrastructure leading people to Northtown Mall or its surrounding businesses. I had to trudge through ice and snow while looking out for oncoming cars as I cut through parking lots, something that I can do but would not prefer to do coming from a transit center.
I found this experience disappointing, not only for the lack of basic infrastructure, as it felt unwelcoming to people who use transit, but for the significant access challenges that could arise for people who use a mobility device, especially during the winter.
I asked Kerr if Metro Transit could potentially address this access issue, but he said that it’s “outside our scope” as “pedestrian connections between the transit center and Northtown mall are located entirely on mall property.” He noted that improvements “could be explored by partners” with the upcoming reconstruction of Highway 47 near 85th Avenue Northwest, done in coordination with the METRO F Line bus rapid transit project that’ll terminate at Northtown and replace Route 10.
After spending some time visiting local businesses and restaurants at Northtown Mall, I headed back to the transit center to find a Route 725 bus already there, waiting to depart at its scheduled time. Another person was on board with me, a good sight to see that people are already using this new bus route.
The ride from Northtown Transit Center to Edinburgh Festival Center takes around 12 minutes, about on par with the time it takes to drive between there. Not long after that first rider got off, two other people hopped on board and rode the bus to the Brooklyn Park Walmart stop. On their way off, one of them thanked the driver and said that they really liked the new bus line.
The western half of Route 725 serves local manufacturers, businesses and homes lined along Central Avenue in downtown Osseo as well as Osseo Senior High School, among other schools, religious institutions and dozens of other places within a 5-15 minute walking distance.
Total travel time between Northtown Transit Center and Starlite Transit Center took about 30 minutes on the dot with minimal traffic outside of rush hour. End-to-end travel times to and from Northtown Transit Center and downtown Osseo takes about 45 minutes.
A Boon for the Northwest Suburbs
While I spend most of my time driving due to the suburban design of this part of the metro, making my proximity to existing transit farther than it needs to be on top of limited transit service in general, I still find Route 725 a great addition to the transit network in the northwest metro because this new route opens up the door to more opportunities for so many people.
Now that it has been a little more than three months since the opening of Route 725 at the time of publishing, I rarely see the bus empty despite the fact that it’s winter and that the bus only runs once an hour. There’s almost always one, if not more than two or sometimes many more people on board almost every time I see a Route 725 minibus on 85th Avenue, no matter the time or day of the week.
Metro Transit also made additional investments to suburban transit service in the same December 6, 2025, quarterly service changes by adding Route 345 for the southeast metro with service spanning between the cities of Woodbury, Newport, West St. Paul, as well as the MSP International Airport and the Mall of America in Bloomington. More suburban transit investments are on the way, in addition to core services.
I do urge Metro Transit to make frequency improvements to Route 725, potentially to every 30 or 15 minutes, particularly by the time the Blue Line Extension opens for service, as the current once-an-hour frequencies are not the most convenient. This can help draw in more riders and make the bus line more popular.
I also ask for improvements to bus stops here and metro-wide with features like concrete landings, benches, route information signs and more shelters for major stops so that they aren’t just sign posts next to a patch of grass. Municipalities and property owners should also work better to clear snow from transit stops in addition to the existing adopt-a-stop program.
Making transit work in the suburbs can be difficult, but the new Route 725 can help pave the way to make transit in the suburbs possible as this route shortens transit travel times, connects suburban transit centers together and more importantly, connects it communities together by providing crosstown service to bring people around town, not just downtown, especially in a post-pandemic future.