ST PAUL, Minn. — A new, faster bus route connecting the east metro to St. Paul is being extended, now promising to carry those passengers to Minneapolis more quickly and with fewer stops.
The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Gold Line will serve riders between Woodbury and St. Paul starting in March of 2025. The Met Council announced Tuesday their plan to extend the BRT route further west into Minneapolis, allowing riders to travel between the two downtowns without having to transfer buses or leave their seat. Once completed in 2027, Metro Transit buses on the Gold Line will run from Woodbury to Minneapolis every 10 to 15 minutes, seven days a week using dedicated lanes to minimize traffic disruptions.
Bus passengers currently use the 94 Express as the quickest option to get between downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis, taking approximately 20 to 25 minutes. The other public transit option is the Green Line Light Rail, but that has many stops and can take 40 or 45 minutes to make the trip between downtowns.
The Met Council's John Schadl tells KARE 11's Michelle Baik that the Gold Line project will unfold in two phases.
The first phase - Woodbury to St. Paul - will open in March 2025. It’s currently on time and under budget, with a price tag of $505 million. Met Council officials say it's the first BRT line in a system featuring buses that will operate primarily in a dedicated lane to avoid traffic and speed up trips.
Construction should be complete in November, with testing to follow between November and March. The second phase will involve the section between St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis, with connections to other BRT and light rail lines.
Two additional passenger stations will be added to the Minneapolis extension of the Gold Line, one potentially where the current 94 Express stops on Snelling (halfway between the two downtowns) and the other proposed near U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis. Adding phase two is expected to cost an additional $20 million.
Met Council officials say the new line will give mass transit commuters access to more than 93,000 jobs in the immediate vicinity of Gold Line stations, and also provide more potential customers for businesses in both downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis.