This report includes information on transit service in Minnesota as required by Minn. Stat. 174.247. In addition, it provides a comprehensive overview of the state’s public transit services by highlighting accomplishments; listing ridership, financial and performance information; and providing a snapshot of every public transit provider in the state.
Transit is a key component of Minnesota’s multimodal transportation system, contributing to the health of people, the environment and the economy. In Greater Minnesota, 40 public transit systems in 79 counties offer scheduled transportation service to the public. These transit services are funded through a financial partnership that includes local, state and federal participation.
MnDOT strives to make access to quality public transit systems available to citizens statewide. To ensure Minnesota is at the forefront of future transit strategies and financing, MnDOT will work proactively toward its mission to provide the highest quality, dependable multimodal transportation system.
This research summary is part of the final deliverable for Report 2025-01, "Value of Dedicated Right-of-Way: Transit Service Reliability and User Impacts," published in February 2025.
Transit services connect people to jobs and opportunities, fostering vibrant communities and multimodal travel along service corridors. A transit right-of-way (ROW) can help buses bypass congestion and stay on schedule. Many studies have proved that transit ROWs effectively improve service reliability and reduce user costs. However, these studies often focus on one or two service corridors, limiting comprehensive impact assessment. This project addresses this gap by investigating service reliability for all route segments across a transit system. We derived reliability metrics at the route segment level using high-resolution automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger count (APC) data collected in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
We then collected and integrated data from various sources via spatial-temporal computing to capture service characteristics, operating environments, traffic conditions, and land-use features along route segments. We applied the Gradient Boosting Model (GBM) to examine nonlinear relationships between these factors and bus travel time reliability. Lastly, we used the trained model to estimate potential improvements in reliability with dedicated ROWs. Through these steps, we worked with members of the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) to illustrate our methodology and demonstrate its utility for transit agencies. Specifically, the results proved that the ratio of bus lanes and busways was associated with more reliable travel time along route segments. We also found that route segments along a few service corridors with unreliable services can greatly benefit from implementing a dedicated ROW.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is pleased to provide this assessment report as required by Minn. Session Law Ch. 68, sec. 112. The purpose of the study was to conduct an analysis and evaluation of options for development of transit and rail service improvements in the corridor between the Minnesota Cities of St. Paul, Minneapolis, Coon Rapids, St. Cloud and Moorhead, and Fargo, North Dakota.
The Transit Report is published annually to give residents and elected officials an overview of public transit services in Greater Minnesota. The report includes fact sheets that describe each of these state-supported public transit systems, aggregated information about calendar year (2022) expenditures, and calendar year (2023) operating budgets. 2023 expenditures are not included because the report is developed in fall 2023. This report meets the requirements in Minn. Stat.174.247 that MnDOT annually compiles
and publishes financial information for federal and state-supported transit systems.
The Transit Report is published annually to give residents and elected officials an overview of public transit services in Greater Minnesota. The report includes fact sheets that describe each of these state-supported public transit systems, aggregated information about calendar year (2020) expenditures, and calendar year (2021) operating budgets. 2021 expenditures are not included because the report is developed in fall 2021. This report meets the requirements in Minn. Stat.174.247 that MnDOT annually compiles and publishes financial information for federal and state-supported transit systems. The chart on page 3 itemizes specific statutory guidelines for the report and indicates which sections meet the requirements.
The Fourth Northstar Workshop, "Transportation For Minnesota: How and How Much? What is The Transportation Future To Keep Minnesota Moving?" was held at the Thunderbird Motel in Bloomington, Minnesota, on December 1 and 2, 1987. It was attended by approximately 150 people drawn from Mn/DOT, other state departments, the Minnesota Legislature, county and municipal agencies, chambers of commerce, developers, and industry. The format of the workshop was one and one-half days of presentations of papers by individuals on subjects which had been assigned to them, with limited questions and discussion after each one. These presentations were followed by group discussions for which the attendees were divided into six groups. Reports of these discussions were made to the full conference by group leaders and a wrap-up was then made by Deputy Commissioner Doug Differt. Following the workshop. Transportation Commissioner Leonard W. Levine created a special action committee to follow up on these recommendations.
The proceedings contains transcripts of the presentations made by the conference speakers and discussion group speakers, and also the wrap-up.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is searching for ways to maximize the use of transportation alternatives among single occupant vehicle drivers to (a) reduce traffic congestion, (b) improve the efficiency and sustainability of the regional transportation system, and (c) improve the livability of the Twin Cities region and the competitive advantage of its economy. Multi-Modal Alternative Transportation Study is designed to measure the potential for change in mode shift behavior in a corridor that has alternative infrastructure in place (1-394).
The purposes of this study are to:
1. Identify incentives, services and facilities that have the greatest likelihood of changing commuting behavior (use of alternative modes of transportation at least one day per week).
2. Identify groups of individuals for whom the alternative modes have realistic appeal.
3. Establish baseline data from which to measure trends in this corridor over the course of deploying promotional programs (incentives and marketing).
4. Investigate the appeal of alternative modes within a health context.
5. Determine the amount of telecommuting that is taking place and the types of workers who telecommute.
The Transportation Tourism Marketing Analysis conducted by the Arrowhead Regional Development Commission (ARDC) centers on the formulation of a marketing plan and strategies to increase tourist riderdership on the Region's three mass transportation modes: AMTRAK's Northstar, Regional airports, and the intercity bus system. The Marketing Analysis was funded through a grant from the Minnesota Department of TransportafTon (Mn/DOT) Special Study Grant Program and matching funds from ARDC.
