A message from General Manager Wes Kooistra
In a few short weeks, service on several express routes serving downtown Minneapolis, downtown St. Paul, and the University of Minnesota will be restored or expanded. We’ll also begin running light rail trains more frequently in the morning and late-afternoon and extend Route 3 service into the North Loop neighborhood.
Collectively, these improvements will allow more people to get more places on transit than at any point since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are excited to be bringing additional service to our community and look forward to welcoming more of you back this fall.
As we move forward, though, we all must remain mindful that the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet behind us.
If you are currently riding or planning your return, please remember that face coverings are required on transit. If you don’t feel well or think you’ve been near someone with COVID-19, avoid riding with us until you know it’s safe to come back. Whenever possible, give others space.
As an organization, we know we must honor your commitment to riding responsibly by redoubling our efforts to provide safe, clean, and reliable service. And that is what we are doing.
In addition to this fall’s service improvements, we are putting more police officers and community service officers out on transit, improving our network of shelters and real-time signs, and recruiting the next generation of bus operators.
We’re also doing everything we can to keep boarding areas and vehicles looking their best, including putting easy-to-clean plastic seats in all our light rail vehicles.
As an organization, we are focused not only on making these immediate and noticeable improvements to the way you experience transit today, but on sustaining and building on this work in the years ahead.
Ultimately, we want to provide a service that is universally acknowledged as clean, safe, and reliable. Thank you for joining us as we enter this next chapter and continue working toward that goal.