Big changes are coming to Uptown/East Isles transit service. First in 2025 will be the B Line bus rapid transit on Lake Street and E Line on Hennepin Avenue that will largely replace Routes 6 and 21. The Green Line LRT will open in 2027. On top of that, Metro Transit this month announced Network Now, their name for a systemwide restructuring caused by Covid’s permanent changes in transit ridership.
Let’s start with the current bus service, so you can see what will change. When not detoured due to construction, Route 6 runs the length of Hennepin Avenue. Route 17, also currently detoured, uses Nicollet Avenue to 24th Street to Hennepin to Lagoon, then out Lake Street to St. Louis Park. Express Route 114 to the University of Minnesota uses Hennepin. Route 2 Franklin Crosstown terminates at Hennepin. The Uptown Transit Station was closed in March, 2023, "to address public safety issues," including "Rampant property damage, vandalism, drug use and other activities" according to the Star Tribune. Until the current construction started, Routes 6, 17, 21, 23, 114 and 612 all met at Uptown Station to transfer passengers.
Bus Rapid Transit will change everything. The goal is faster service. BRT stops only about every half mile instead of the current eight stops per mile. Fares are collected off the bus, so passengers can board through every door with no delays. The bus has traffic signal priority, the ability to shorten at least some of the red lights or extend some of the green lights it encounters. And there will be all-day bus-only lanes on Lake Street. Given the constrained street width, most of the lanes will be in the westbound direction, which is more congested. There will be few bus lanes eastbound, except the one-way portion of Lake Street, through Uptown. You may have noticed that Route 21 Selby-Lake has been extended to Lake and France Avenue, bypassing the Uptown Transit Station, which is inaccessible during street construction. The B Line will also bypass Uptown Station. On Lake Street, hourly local Route 21 will serve intermediate stops.
Assuming Hennepin construction is completed in 2025, the E Line will begin operation. It will largely replace Route 6. The BRT recipe is the same, except that the bus lanes will be in effect only at certain times of the day. BRT will stop at Groveland, Franklin, 25th Street, Uptown Station, 33rd Street and 36th Street. Will the other Hennepin bus stops still have service? Yes, but only by Route 17 from Lagoon to 24th Street. Route 6 will be reduced to a shuttle from Uptown to Southdale via Xerxes Avenue. The Route 114 express to the University of Minnesota will remain unchanged.
With the Uptown Station currently closed during street construction, Metro Transit didn’t want to continue terminating Route 23, 38th Street and Route 612, Excelsior Boulevard in Uptown. So they were combined end-to-end. You can now take a single-seat ride from Hopkins through Uptown to Highland Park in St. Paul. This will be made permanent, renumbered as Route 38.
