As Metro Transit approaches August, typically among its highest and most event-driven ridership months, the Green Line and Blue Line will resume their more-frequent schedules, with trains running every 12 minutes for much of the day.

Metro Transit announced Tuesday that the more frequent light rail service will start Aug. 17. Several bus routes will get more runs too, including the Orange Line from Burnsville to Minneapolis and the Route 80 between the Sun Ray and Maplewood Mall transit centers. The new schedule “will remain in effect for the foreseeable future,” said Drew Kerr, a spokesperson for Metro Transit, who noted route schedules are adjusted quarterly.

More than 200 bus and train operators have been hired so far this year, which the transit authority said is on pace to reach last year’s hiring record. Also helping matters is ridership, which is up 9% for the first half of this year compared to the same period last year. Light rail and bus rapid transit services are leading the way, with Green Line ridership up 17% and BRT up 21% collectively. Average weekday ridership this year exceeds 143,500 passenger trips.

Starting Aug. 17, light rail trains will run every 12 minutes between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily. Currently, trains run every 15 minutes.

Weekday midday trips on Route 80, operating along White Bear Avenue between the Sun Ray and Maplewood Mall, will run every 30 minutes rather than hourly.

On weekdays, Orange Line buses servicing Burnsville, Bloomington, Richfield and downtown Minneapolis will run every 10 minutes between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. northbound and 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. southbound, up from service on the 15-minute marks. On Sundays, trips will run on a 15-minute schedule.

More services to roll out

Other changes are intended to improve the speed and reliability of Route 4, which connects Bloomington and South Minneapolis to the Silver Lake Shopping Center in St. Anthony, largely along Lyndale Avenue. Buses on that corridor will serve fewer stops and benefit from bus lanes and traffic signal technology, according to Metro Transit.

Pending approval from the Metropolitan Council, Metro Transit this fall will begin taking feedback on a service improvement plan, Network Now, outlining changes that could be made through 2027. Three new bus rapid transit lines will open next year, including the B Line between Uptown Minneapolis and downtown St. Paul, and the Gold Line between downtown St. Paul and Woodbury.

State Fair Express Bus Service also will be expanded this year, with Metro Transit driving fairgoers to and from six park & rides across the metro. Fairgoers are also encouraged to use the Metro A Line and Routes 3 and 61 to access the fairgrounds. For more information, visit metrotransit.org/state-fair.

The transit authority still is recruiting frontline workers, including transit operators, bus, rail and facilities technicians, police officers and community service officers. Wages for all positions represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) will increase 4.5% on Aug. 1. After that date, starting wages for transit operators will be nearly $29 an hour while starting wages for technicians will start at more than $39 an hour.

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