Minnesota's "Twin Cities" of Minneapolis–Saint Paul are seeing an uptick in transit ridership in recent months, after the COVID-19 pandemic cut usage significantly. These trends, which are...
Minnesota's "Twin Cities" of Minneapolis–Saint Paul are seeing an uptick in transit ridership in recent months, after the COVID-19 pandemic cut usage significantly. These trends, which are reflected nationwide, speak to the public's fundamental desire for high-quality transportation in and between their communities.
For January through May — the latest numbers available — Metro Transit provided 17.7 million rides, a nearly 20% jump compared to the same time last year, and on par with national transit ridership trends.
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Kandaras said that "one thing we've learned is that frequent, fast, all-day service," such as light rail and bus rapid transit "has been much more resilient than express buses, which head to downtown from the suburbs in the morning and back in the evening."
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Happily, students also appear to be returning in large numbers, aided by an innovative Universal Transit Pass introduced last year at the University of Minnesota that has doubled student ridership. Students' transit fee is included in their university fees and a transit function is added to their student IDs.
The phrase "[staffing|ridership|frequency] has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels" seems to be the motif of the decade in US transit systems, but we are definitely seeing solid linear upward growth. The increase seems to affect every mode of public transit, including heavy rail, light rail/trams, buses, etc.
Changes to transportation infrastructure don't happen overnight. Many projects take years or decades to complete. However, their effects last decades or centuries. It's good for us to pay attention to these positive trends and react accordingly: by prioritizing efficient public transportation infrastructure rather than exclusively building highway expansions.
This seems completely logical and honestly express bus usage is unlikely to return to previous levels without a significant shift in return to office expectations. A large number of express bus...
Kandaras said that "one thing we've learned is that frequent, fast, all-day service," such as light rail and bus rapid transit "has been much more resilient than express buses, which head to downtown from the suburbs in the morning and back in the evening."
This seems completely logical and honestly express bus usage is unlikely to return to previous levels without a significant shift in return to office expectations.
A large number of express bus riders were professionals going downtown to avoid traffic, contract parking fees, or buying a second car. With current partial in-office expectations for many professionals, there is little incentive to use the express bus as it does not save a significant amount of money.
Previously, a monthly prepaid express pass was a notable savings over parking and gas when going in to the office daily. Buying the pass pre-tax was even more beneficial. I recently calculated what the potential savings would be with going to the office for 50% time and the individual ride fee did not save anything versus driving and paying early bird parking rates, without a contract. To avoid traffic I just go in extra early, leave early, and log in at home to finish end-of-day things.
Definitely congrats on them for making frequent service possible. Just wondering how much extra it cost to implement this, versus the % of ridership gained?
Definitely congrats on them for making frequent service possible.
Just wondering how much extra it cost to implement this, versus the % of ridership gained?
The article doesn't describe any major infrastructure upgrades. In this particular case, the increase in ridership is more of a function of "time passing since the pandemic" than anything else,...
The article doesn't describe any major infrastructure upgrades. In this particular case, the increase in ridership is more of a function of "time passing since the pandemic" than anything else, with ridership seeing particular increases in some modes like light rail. But the increase in ridership may prompt more/better lines.
Generally speaking, implementing bus rapid transit systems within a city runs eight or nine figures (depending on how much existing infrastructure they have). For example, building an electric bus depot and purchasing new vehicles can easily cost $100 million in a large city. Additional costs may include rebuilding bus stops and creating dedicated bus right-of-way. The municipality also has to conduct extensive traffic planning studies, environmental consultations, and community reviews.
The cost of light rail and heavy rail varies widely depending on the city and route. The United States is not very good at spending money efficiently on rail, mostly due to a lack of standardization and various political hurdles. For example, Honolulu's new Skyline metro (which, for now, is mostly elevated) is apparently set to cost about $12.4 billion by 2031. Metros requiring extensive tunneling tend to be much more expensive. However, heavy rail options like this can transport tens or hundreds of thousands of people daily. For example, Philadelphia's Market-Frankford Line had a daily ridership of 172k in 2019. Light rail lines like trams tend to be somewhat less expensive to implement—perhaps in the high hundreds of millions or low billions when constructed from scratch—especially when they run at grade on or next to existing automobile rights-of-way, but they also carry fewer passengers. They're still important to the transportation network.
Every region has its own unique geographical and planning challenges that change the approach we need to construct rail infrastructure. I'm not familiar enough with Minneapolis' transportation system to speak at length about the potential cost of rail or BRT upgrades, but I'm sure the information is out there.
Minnesota's "Twin Cities" of Minneapolis–Saint Paul are seeing an uptick in transit ridership in recent months, after the COVID-19 pandemic cut usage significantly. These trends, which are reflected nationwide, speak to the public's fundamental desire for high-quality transportation in and between their communities.
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The phrase "[staffing|ridership|frequency] has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels" seems to be the motif of the decade in US transit systems, but we are definitely seeing solid linear upward growth. The increase seems to affect every mode of public transit, including heavy rail, light rail/trams, buses, etc.
Changes to transportation infrastructure don't happen overnight. Many projects take years or decades to complete. However, their effects last decades or centuries. It's good for us to pay attention to these positive trends and react accordingly: by prioritizing efficient public transportation infrastructure rather than exclusively building highway expansions.
This seems completely logical and honestly express bus usage is unlikely to return to previous levels without a significant shift in return to office expectations.
A large number of express bus riders were professionals going downtown to avoid traffic, contract parking fees, or buying a second car. With current partial in-office expectations for many professionals, there is little incentive to use the express bus as it does not save a significant amount of money.
Previously, a monthly prepaid express pass was a notable savings over parking and gas when going in to the office daily. Buying the pass pre-tax was even more beneficial. I recently calculated what the potential savings would be with going to the office for 50% time and the individual ride fee did not save anything versus driving and paying early bird parking rates, without a contract. To avoid traffic I just go in extra early, leave early, and log in at home to finish end-of-day things.
edit: clarified express bus usage
Definitely congrats on them for making frequent service possible.
Just wondering how much extra it cost to implement this, versus the % of ridership gained?
The article doesn't describe any major infrastructure upgrades. In this particular case, the increase in ridership is more of a function of "time passing since the pandemic" than anything else, with ridership seeing particular increases in some modes like light rail. But the increase in ridership may prompt more/better lines.
Generally speaking, implementing bus rapid transit systems within a city runs eight or nine figures (depending on how much existing infrastructure they have). For example, building an electric bus depot and purchasing new vehicles can easily cost $100 million in a large city. Additional costs may include rebuilding bus stops and creating dedicated bus right-of-way. The municipality also has to conduct extensive traffic planning studies, environmental consultations, and community reviews.
The cost of light rail and heavy rail varies widely depending on the city and route. The United States is not very good at spending money efficiently on rail, mostly due to a lack of standardization and various political hurdles. For example, Honolulu's new Skyline metro (which, for now, is mostly elevated) is apparently set to cost about $12.4 billion by 2031. Metros requiring extensive tunneling tend to be much more expensive. However, heavy rail options like this can transport tens or hundreds of thousands of people daily. For example, Philadelphia's Market-Frankford Line had a daily ridership of 172k in 2019. Light rail lines like trams tend to be somewhat less expensive to implement—perhaps in the high hundreds of millions or low billions when constructed from scratch—especially when they run at grade on or next to existing automobile rights-of-way, but they also carry fewer passengers. They're still important to the transportation network.
Every region has its own unique geographical and planning challenges that change the approach we need to construct rail infrastructure. I'm not familiar enough with Minneapolis' transportation system to speak at length about the potential cost of rail or BRT upgrades, but I'm sure the information is out there.