MINNEAPOLIS — The next few months are important for Metro Transit. Drew Kerr, a spokesperson for the agency, says late August and early September is a time of year when typically pick up.
“When the Vikings are playing and the Twins are in town and the state fair is happening and schools are back in session, this is really the time of year when we see our highest ridership,” Kerr said.
A boost in patrons comes at a time when Metro Transit is scaling back operations. Saturday, new changes went into effect, slightly limiting some bus route and train operations. Instead of running every 12 minutes, the light rail will run every 15 minutes.
Kerr said the changes partly stem from hiring challenges that many industries are still facing.
“We need a couple hundred more operators,” Kerr said. “We’d like to hire them yesterday, really, to provide this service.”
This year, Kerr says Metro Transit will job opportunities up on the electronic billboards at Vikings games.
The next few months will be important as Metro Transit tries to increase ridership, which hasn’t quite picked back up since the pandemic began.
“We’re still down about half from where we were when the pandemic started in 2019,” Kerr said.
Watch more local news:
Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities in our YouTube playlist: