METRO B Line (Lake Street / Marshall Avenue)
Faster transit is coming to the Route 21 Corridor
The METRO B Line is a planned bus rapid transit (BRT) line that will provide faster and more reliable transit service in the Route 21 corridor along Lake Street and Marshall Avenue. Bus rapid transit is a package of transit enhancements that adds up to a faster trip and an improved experience on Metro Transit’s busiest bus routes.
Each weekday, customers take more than 10,000 rides on Route 21, Metro Transit’s second busiest bus route. Buses carry approximately 20 percent of people traveling by vehicle on Lake Street today and make up less than 2 percent of vehicle traffic. But Lake Street is also one of the slowest transit corridors in the region. During rush hours, buses regularly slow to average speeds of 8 miles per hour. Frequent stops, lines of customers waiting to board, and red lights mean that buses are moving less than half the time.
BRT brings better amenities, faster service and a more comfortable ride.
- Faster, frequent service
- Pay before boarding for faster stops
- Neighborhood-scale stations with amenities
- Enhanced security
- Larger & specialized vehicles
Selby Avenue Consideration
In early 2019, initial project planning and coordination with project partners indicated that a more thorough evaluation of transit service across the full Route 21 corridor would be an important step in planning for the B Line, including the consideration of extending the B Line east of Snelling Avenue along Selby Avenue to downtown St. Paul. Metro Transit will be engaging project partners and community members around planning for the B Line in 2019.
Preliminary project schedule
Planning activities to determine essential project details are underway and will continue through the beginning of 2020. Station design will occur in 2020-2021 with construction anticipated to begin in 2022, pending full funding.
Learn more about the METRO BRT network
The B Line is planned to be the fourth of several planned BRT lines that will bring faster, frequent service to the region’s busiest transit corridors.
The region’s first arterial BRT line, the A Line, opened in 2016 and has boosted corridor ridership by about one third. Construction on the C Line, serving Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center, is underway. Service is scheduled to begin in 2019. The D Line, serving the Route 5 corridor from Bloomington to Brooklyn Center, is currently in design, targeted for construction to begin in 2020. The E Line, serving the Route 6 corridor on Hennepin Avenue is in the corridor study phase through 2019, with construction targeted for 2023.
A completed BRT network would cover 100 miles and include 400 enhanced stations, directly serving about 20 percent of the region’s residents and more than 230,000 jobs. BRT lines are an essential part of growing bus ridership, with the potential to see an estimated 160,000 average weekday boardings by 2030, representing about a third of total bus ridership.
Learn more at metrotransit.org/abrt.