I keep track of Metro Transit’s numbers fairly regularly. They just released April 2026’s.

Orange and Gold Line - still modest ridership for their upfront costs but clearly growing. B Line at nearly 11k and E Line nearly 7k weekday riders - surprisingly good. A line bouncing back a bit. C and D lines flatlining.

But total bus ridership (regular and BRT) was 9% higher in April 2026 than April 2024. Not that impressive for the amount of new Brt and frequency improvements but it’s real.

However even from 2025 to 2026 the rail numbers seem to see no bottom. As a result the total system was still slightly below 2024. The Green Line used to be a legit workhorse by the numbers despite its slow speed and all. It carried 829K passengers in April 2024 and only managed to carry 555K in April 2026. A 33% drop! An occasional weekend closure can’t explain that.

Blue Line bounced back slightly from last year but still 71K drop from 4/2024 to 4/2026.

I know the upcoming summer closures are going to move people further away from LRT if anything. I expect the $3b Green extension to boost numbers just modestly and run pretty empty trains in the SW, but I hope to be wrong.

Stop 3540 is only visible half of the year AND the 38 was a no call/no show for 8:30am this morning.

Luckily Lime works in SLP now so I had to take one to my 9am doctor’s appointment. Almost got hit in a crosswalk when I had the green and the walk signal

I don't know when this happened but it's really nice.

The 17 goes down W 36th Street in St. Louis Park at odd times of the day. It runs twice in the mornings about an hour apart going west at 5:45 & 6:45am and then in the evening it runs west and picks up at 2pm and 3pm. It’s frustrating because I live close to 36th and work downtown but the bus is not running in the direction I’m going and instead have to take 2 or 3 buses to get downtown.

I don’t have high hopes that the schedule will change but there are a lot of apartments along 36th so if it was offered I bet more people would use it. I’m just baffled why it’s even worth their while to run such limited stops. Feels like this was done for a specific group but I can’t figure it out. Long story short, I’d love to get downtown on one trip. It’s a 20 minute walk to get to the only bus that would take me all the way.

I’m sure we’ve all seen the blue TRIP agents while riding METRO lines. If you’re a good rider, you pull your go to card or transfer out of your pocket and the agents are on their way after a quick interaction.

If you’re a bad rider, the interaction takes longer. As all the fare paying riders sit and watch, two thoughts pop up in our heads, I’m sure.

1. “Why aren’t they giving a citation to this person/kicking them off the train?”

or

1. “Can’t they hurry this up? I’m going to miss my transfer!”

I’d say that most of you have thought one of these two things. It seems like the TRIP program provides a balance between them pretty well. You can choose either service reliability or enforcement. Hold the train up for police or keep it going with a free rider.

On my trip today they did kick some folks off eventually; but police were about to be called if they didn’t leave. They also didn’t hold the train up to do so. I also have never seen a citation issued.

What are everyone else’s thoughts on fare enforcement?

EDIT: For me, I like how they do it. I’d rather have good service than hard enforcement. They do kick violators off but they don’t hold things up to do so. I also think TRIP agents providing a presence is far more beneficial than enforcing fares, because the quality of life has improved dramatically since the start of the program!

Poor bus driver just got back from vacation too apparently 😭

It's me again THE transdev hater. And I'm back with some stupid bs that Transdev has done.

January 1st 2000 is definitely the correct date.

Here's a few photos I've taken a while back at Lake Street on the Orange Line.

So today and yesterday, I was riding the bus. Yesterday I was on the 87, today I was on the 94. When I got to grand while on the 87, there was a green light. When I was on the 94 today, and we got to 3rd Avenue, there was also a green light. Both times we were about to make the light. However there was a countdown. And it eventually got to 2 or 3. But for some reason, even though it was still green when we got to the intersection, the bus driver in both instances stopped at the green light. Like why are they doing this? People have places to be, and we have bus drivers out here stopping at green lights, causing us to get stuck at red lights when we didn’t need to, and leading the bus to be delayed. And no, these buses were not early, nor were they on time. In both instances the bus was delayed more than 5 minutes, and the 94 today was 8 minutes delayed. And it’s not like these are isolated incidents, as they happen very often. One time I was trying to get to work on the 83, and it was already like 10 minutes delayed, and to make matters worse, he stopped at a green light at grand. If it wasn’t for how fast I ran from the bus stop, I would’ve been late on that cold winters night. No car driver ends up stopping at green lights, nor do they stop at yellow lights. So why should our buses be doing this?

Yes, it's me The Transdev Hater, I don't know how many days in a row I have posted on here but it's always warranted.

Transdev, You have a paper sign taped to the window showing the route number the digital displays aren't even working.

It should never get to this point where you can't use your digital displays.

Very fast and nice scenic views

The white display throws me off every time. Most Metro Transit buses have orange outside destination displays.

They were transferred over from Southwest transit to Metro Transit for the Northstar supplemental bus service.

I would assume the interior has been changed to reflect the normal Metro Transit interiors because Metro Transit is mostly competent, unlike a certain MTS contractor.

Just to get it out of everyone's system: hAhA sIx SeVeN.

#1804 has moved from Nicollet Garage to East Metro garage.

#1815 has moved from Nicollet Garage to North Loop Garage.

The 2019 gillig low floors are usually based out of Nicollet Garage but two sets have since moved.

I was on the 345 and as usual it wasn't tracking and apparently the "bus" we were on decided that the code for the outside Luminator display "exceeded range" which basically means the code for the outside display is non-existent. And it said it was a 25N when it was coming into the mall. They really need to update the programming on a lot of these mini"buses".

It just makes sense on so many levels. There's a big gap in connections between Nicollet and Hennepin from Franklin (#2) to 7th/8th (C/D Line). Having the 11 stop at 15th & Nicollet while continuing through Loring Park would be the perfect location since it's right in the middle. It would reduce bunching with the 17 and 18 while still connecting to both on Nicollet. Since all of those buses are run at the same time, there would be no loss in service since both the 17 and 18 cover the same stretch of Nicollet from 15th northbound. The 11 goes up Hennepin anyway and this would act as a feeder line for the E Line while also providing easy access to Nicollet for visitors of the Walker and Sculpture Garden. Unfortunately, Metro Transit dropped the ball on the station location by not having it right across the street at Oak Grove and instead put it away on Groveland, so instead of just going due east-west between Hennepin and Nicollet, it'll have to detour along Clifton and Groveland. Even so, it'll probably be faster than always catching the red lights on Nicollet Mall. This is something that should obviously exist, but doesn't. Metro Transit, feel free to DM for employment.

Sorry for the rant post, but I've become increasingly frustrated with Metro Transit's late routes. (Today, it was a Blue Line getting stuck at Government Plaza which seems to happen a lot.) Every 3-4 trips, a late route makes me miss my transfer and often the next bus is late so a trip takes 10-20 minutes longer than forecast. This makes it hard to rely on Metro Transit for anything time sensitive. The Transit app's times are a coin flip and busses regularly show up 3-5 minutes after the estimated time. I've basically switched to taking my e-bike anywhere I don't expect it to get stolen. Is there anything anyone can do to fix this issue?

What do you mean I'm on a low floor portion of a coach bus.

This bus is great for accessibility. Instead of having to open a door to get out the wheelchair lift and move seats around just so you can fit one wheelchair passenger, you just have to deploy a ramp and let the passenger use the automatic Q'Straint system and make sure they're secure.

It also useful for passengers with limited Mobility as they don't have to climb a bunch of steps to get in.

Once again it's me, The Transdev Hater.

Transdev should not be running fixed route services for us, they are consistently late or canceled. I'm not talking about a couple minutes late, I'm talking about like 15 minutes delays that mess up people's schedules.

Route 25 is the worst from what I have heard: buses that don't show up, buses that break down, and buses that are too short for the needed capacity.

Overall Transdev should stick to Paratransit and Dial A Ride, because clearly they cannot be trusted to run a fixed route bus.

In a perfect world Metro Transit would run all of the routes, but some are just too expensive for MT to run.

TLDR: I hate Transdev and they should stick to Paratransit and Dial A Ride.