Since the Metropolitan Council seems unable to process the impending transit-related budget cuts, I offer my plan to help them - and the University of Minnesota that is also facing cuts. The time has come to decide what parts of what is now Metro Transit is actually transit and what is merely show business.
1. Get the U out of the transit business. There is no real need for all those campus shuttles and their huge fleet of articulated buses. Sell them all. There are plenty of Metro Transit buses running between the East, West, and St. Paul campuses. In my day, we walked to the West Bank and didn't waste our time talking any class only offered at the St. Paul Campus, a white elephant which should be closed and sold off anyway.
2. Discontinue all these little U of M shuttle routes, like from Richfield, St. Louis Park, Uptown, New Brighton etc. In every case there is existing Metro Transit service that will get you to the U and back. You'll have to transfer. It'll take 10 minutes longer. Tough. That's what we all did 40 years ago, packed like wheat in a shock on the #16 buses.
3. Outsource the Hiawatha Line operations to a private company.
4. Begin planning on converting the Hiawatha to a bus transitway, to be executed when the Hiawatha tracks reach the point of required rebuilding or sooner. No further capital improvements will be made.
5. Lay off anybody else involved with rail transit, including the Central Corridor which ends now. Remediate the damage from the CC construction already started.
6. Shut down the Northstar line (888), and its bus extension (887) to St. Cloud. Sell the engines and cars. Raze and sell off the station properties.
7. Disband the Metro Transit Police. The individual cities can provide police protection as they always used to and continue to do for people driving, biking, walking, or taking taxis. Off duty cops and private security can be hired as needed for fare supervision until the Hiawatha Line stops running.
8. Focus on sustainable routes, ones with enough business to run 6 am to 9 pm weekdays with at least hourly service on weekends. Dump all these little park and ride 2 trips a day routes. The reason they make only 2 trips is because they don't have enough business for even 3, hence the 2 must really be losing money.
9. Start thinking outside the downtown centric model. I find that crosstown routes like the 2 (Franklin), 21 (Lake/ Shelby), 23 (38th St.), 46 (46th St.), 84 (Snelling) and 515 (66th St.) seem to have a surprising amount of ridership. Other routes like the 32 and 705 might do better with more predictable times and faster routes. Not every trip needs to flow through downtown.
10. And yes, raise the fares. $3 rush hour, $2 off peak, $5 express freeway express, with the current 10% discount for GoTo cards that greatly expedite boarding.
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