“This piece would be a very nice piece of infrastructure for the region,” said Mark Schermerhorn, Anoka County’s Transit Program Coordinator. “It’s a fast service and it adds some amenities along that line.”
Metro Transit currently has a survey in the field through January 20 to gauge which routes it should prioritize in the coming years.
It’s part of Metro Transit’s Network Next program. Planners with the Met Council-controlled transit authority, they want participants to rank the top three out of the following four corridors to help prioritize implementation of the future METRO F, G and H lines. The corridors to choose from for near-term implementation (2025 to 2030) are:
- Central (Route 10)
- Como/Maryland (Route 3)
- Johnson/Lyndale (Route 4)
- Rice/Robert (Routes 62 and 68)
According to the agency: “Once prioritized, three of the four corridors will be designated as the future METRO F, G, and H Lines. The F, G, and H Lines would be implemented following the E Line currently in development. The E Line is targeted for construction in 2023 and opening in 2024 (pending funding). The F, G and H lines would be implemented between 2025-2030. The fourth corridor not chosen in this round will be considered in the next round of lettered BRT lines to be implemented.”
Planners told North Metro TV that it made sense to follow the existing bus route to try to add an expedited and expanded service.
“It’s one of our busiest bus routes,” said Assistant Director of Bus Rapid Transit Projects Katie Roth. “I think what we see is a lot of is existing demand for this type of improvement.”
Roth said years of planning goes into each new expansion.
“We see it as a really great way to improve the ride and attract other people to using transit, as well,” she said.
Schermerhorn and other Anoka County and Blaine city leaders want to see more of these kinds of improvements as the population continues to grow here.
“It takes people too long to get where they want to go, or the service wasn’t traveling at the time of day they wanted,” he said. “This would be kind of adding into the big picture of what could benefit the region.”
