Network NOW and You

John Wilson

Metro Transit recently released its draft plan, called Network NOW, to restore, and improve on, the service they provided before COVID. Many of the improvements involve making transit more useful all day, every day, instead of just at traditional work commute times.
This plan will be good for most people near bus and train lines that are used a lot, and not as good for people in the suburbs or who have limited mobility and need to get as close as possible to their destinations. For people in the Southwest Connector readership area, the following changes will be most relevant:
• Route 2 will run every 10 minutes on weekdays and on weekends in the daytime.
• Route 4 will run every 10 minutes on weekdays and every 15 minutes on Sundays in the daytime, as far south as 38th Street.
• The E Line will replace the France Avenue branch of Route 6; the Xerxes Avenue branch will run only once every half hour, and will end at Uptown Transit Station. Persons wishing to go downtown or to the university from Xerxes will have to transfer to the E Line at Uptown.
• Route 9 will run every half hour on Sundays. The 9B branch on Glenwood west of Penn will no longer operate.
• Route 11 will run every 10 minutes on weekdays in the daytime.
• Route 12, suspended for COVID, isn’t coming back.
• Route 17 will run every 15 minutes to the Knollwood area Monday through Saturday, and to Lake Street and France Avenue on Sunday.
• Route 18 will run every 10 minutes on weekends, as far south as 66th Street. The Grand Avenue branch, suspended for COVID, is now gone for good.
• The B Line will mostly replace Route 21 and completely replace Route 53. However, the 21 will still exist between Uptown Transit Center and Minnehaha Avenue and run once per hour.
• Route 38 will replace Routes 23 and 612 entirely. There will be more frequency west of Uptown on weekdays, and on the whole route on Sundays.
• Route 25 appears to have no changes to the one daily trip through Kenwood.
• Routes 27, 135, 141, 156, 552, 553, 554, 558, 588, 589, and 643, suspended for COVID, aren’t coming back.
• Route 46 will run every half hour, seven days a week, between Edina and the 46th Street Blue Line station.
• Routes 113, 467 will not change.
• They will restore Route 115, which was suspended because of COVID.
• They will discontinue the C branch of Route 115.
• Route 146 will run two trips in each direction during the a.m. and p.m. rush hours.
• Route 578 will run three rush hour trips on weekdays. The 578C branch, suspended for COVID, is not coming back.
If any of these proposed changes bother or annoy you, it’s not too late! Public feedback is being collected through Nov. 15, 2024. More details are available at https://www.metrotransit.org/network-now-engagement. Please speak your mind!