Author: Aaron Isaacs

Aaron Isaacs

Aaron retired in 2006 after 33 years as a planner and manager for Metro Transit, where he worked in route and schedule planning, operations, maintenance, transit facilities, light rail and traffic advantages for buses. He's an historian of transit, as a 40+ year volunteer with the Minnesota Streetcar Museum. He's co-author of Twin Cities by Trolley, The Streetcar Era in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and author of Twin Ports by Trolley on Duluth-Superior.

Uptown Transit Center, NE Corner of Hennepin Ave. and 29th St. W. The transit center is currently closed for construction, but the outcomes of that construction are promising.

The Quarterly Transit Report: June 2024

Aaron Isaacs • June 10, 2024

Our Quarterly Transit Report is back, with good news: Metro Transit ridership is up, nearly across the board, and service increases are set to follow.

Photo by New Orleans Transit Authority, public domain

Minnesota’s Hidden Intercity Bus Network Revisited

Aaron Isaacs • March 6, 2024

All the lamenting about the lack of public transportation between the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota ignores the network that already exists.

The Brooklyn Center Transit Center and other transit hubs around the metro are the centerpoints of transit planners' strategies for improving suburban mobility. Photo courtesy of Metro Transit

Making Transit Work in the Suburbs

Aaron Isaacs • January 23, 2024

How can suburban transit become more affordable to develop, and serve riders in a car-centric market? Retired transit planner Aaron Isaacs gives an overview.

Photo by Runner1928, Wikimedia Commons, CC 4.0

Moving Twin Cities Transit Forward

Aaron Isaacs • January 3, 2024

COVID, crime and working from home devastated transit ridership. As those trends recede or reverse, we can speculate about the future of the transit system.

The Quarterly Transit Report–March 2022

Aaron Isaacs • March 24, 2022

Aaron Isaacs offers a run down of changes to Metro Transit service for the quarter.

The Quarterly Transit Report–December 2021

Transit

Aaron Isaacs • November 23, 2021

Two opposite things are happening on December 4–a big service increase and an even bigger service reduction. The increase is the opening of the Orange Line bus rapid transit on I-35W from downtown Minneapolis to Burnsville along with new or upgraded feeder routes. Together they add 1342 weekly bus trips to the system. Metro Transit […]

The Plight of Transit in 2021

Transit

Aaron Isaacs • November 1, 2021

I used to post a Quarterly Transit report, but that stopped with the onset of the pandemic. There was little to report and it was bad news anyway. I confess to have been in mourning for the transit system I helped build during my Metro Transit career. The transit system is now about half of […]

The BRT/Local Service Dilemma

Aaron Isaacs • February 18, 2021

Thanks to new funding, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is picking up steam. Work on the B, D and E lines is underway with others soon to follow. Based on the available pre-Covid data for the A and C Lines, total ridership in those two corridors increased by about a third. On the surface, that’s wonderful. […]

Questioning the B Line BRT

Aaron Isaacs • November 2, 2020

The State Legislature has approved the bonding to build the bus rapid transit (BRT) B Line, which would replace much of Route 21 Selby-Lake from downtown St. Paul to Uptown. They’re at the conceptual planning level, but there are still some crucial details to work out. This includes the shape of the remaining local service […]

Rerouting the Bottineau Blue Line

Aaron Isaacs • August 17, 2020

When Hennepin County prevented the BNSF and Canadian Pacific railroads from building a freight connection where their lines crossed in Crystal, that killed any chance of light rail sharing the BNSF right of way for seven miles through Golden Valley, Robbinsdale, Crystal and Brooklyn Park. That alignment is no longer available, so what now? I’d […]