Metro Transit officials estimate they are roughly three years away from debuting the B Line — a bus rapid transit corridor from at least as far east as the St. Paul Midway to Uptown in Minneapolis, mostly by way of Marshall Avenue and Lake Street.
The B Line will follow the same path as the current Route 21 bus. The second-busiest bus route in the Twin Cities, it carries 10,000 passengers each weekday.
Questions remain, however, about whether the $54 million rapid bus would replace the Route 21 entirely and go all the way into downtown St. Paul, or whether the two bus services will operate on overlapping or adjoining routes.
Metro Transit has scheduled public open houses on those questions. They will be held throughout May, beginning from 4 to 6 p.m. May 1 at South High School in Minneapolis; from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. May 2 at the Merriam Park Library in St. Paul; from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 4 at the Oxford Community Center in St. Paul; from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 5 during the MayDay Parade at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis; and from 4 to 6:30 p.m. May 22 at the Walker Library in Minneapolis.
Much like the A Line, which serves Ford Parkway and Snelling Avenue, the B Line is expected to travel in normal traffic lanes but still run about 20 percent faster than the Route 21 bus.
That’s because in addition to serving fewer stops, the rapid bus will get preference at red lights — though not full traffic signal preemption. And, passengers pay before they board using electronic “readers” located outside bus stop shelters.
Passengers then enter any door without waiting.
Studies completed in 2012 and 2014 indicated a rapid bus would be well-used along the Route 21 corridor. Metro Transit chose to pursue the B Line in 2016.
REPLACE, SUPPORT OR OVERLAP WITH ROUTE 21?
The B Line would serve at least the western portion of the Route 21 corridor, from Uptown to Snelling and University avenues in St. Paul, about every 10 minutes during the day, with less frequent service early in the morning and late at night.
Metro Transit is still determining whether to extend the service the full route of the Route 21, which travels from Snelling and University Avenues to Selby Avenue and then into downtown St. Paul.
A draft corridor plan that may be published before the end of the year is expected to answer most of those questions, and lay out the location of B Line stops and the future mix of transit service.
Construction could begin as early as 2022.
So far, Metro Transit has identified $23 million in federal and Met Council money of the estimated $54 million it will need to debut the service, though the costs of technology, buses and planning will be better refined in the plan.
The B Line will use 60-foot “articulated” buses with more seating and wider aisles than typical public transit buses.
Covered bus stop shelters will feature real-time travel information on electronic billboards, push-button heating, emergency telephones, security cameras, benches and bike parking.
It would be Metro Transit’s fourth “arterial” Bus Rapid Transit corridor in the Twin Cities, or “aBRT” service. The arterial services run in regular traffic, as opposed to rapid bus corridors such as the Red Line and Orange Line, which have their own dedicated lanes.
The A Line debuted on Snelling Avenue, Ford Parkway and 46th Street in Minneapolis in 2016.
The C Line will open along Penn Avenue later this year.
If funding comes together as planned, the D Line will be constructed in 2020-2021 along Chicago and Emerson-Fremont avenues.
Both the C Line and the D Line will travel from the Brooklyn Center Transit Center and into or through downtown Minneapolis.
The E Line, which will travel along Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis, will enter early planning stages in 2019. At least six additional corridors are being studied.
