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Community Corner

Lake Minnetonka Bus Routes Safe—For Now

New state budget spares drastic cuts to Metro Transit.

Metro Transit routes serving Lake Minnetonka will continue running on schedule for at least the foreseeable future. Talk of large-scale transit cuts swirled during last month’s shutdown of state government, but the final budget passed by lawmakers and signed by Governor Dayton spares route reductions and fare hikes.

While the new state budget slashes transit funding by $51 million, a $109 million cut had originally been proposed.

“We’re in a much better position than we were with the earlier bill, though funding challenges remain,” Metropolitan Council Spokeswoman Bonnie Kollodge said. “This is good for transit, good for customers, and good for the economy.”

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While down slightly year over year, more than 250,000 rides have been tallied on local bus routes through the first half of 2011. Park-and-Ride points, particularly in Wayzata and Mound, are key for all three lines that circle Lake Minnetonka, Metro Transit’s John Siqveland said.

The 672, 674 and 675 lines stop in about a half dozen cities around Lake Minnetonka and were among those on the chopping block under a worst-case state budget scenario. The Met Council says ridership is up more than 3 percent system-wide year over year, although all three lines have seen decreased ridership through the first half of 2011. Route changes could happen after an annual review of all lines and system operations, in September.

Find out what's happening in Lake Minnetonkawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

To plug the $51 million hole left by the state budget, Metro Transit will use about $15.3 million in new funding for transit operations from the Counties Transit Improvement Board and reduce funding to suburban transit providers by $7.2 million. The Met Council will assume $29.3 million of the shortfall through attrition, transit reserves, temporarily using capital funds for operations and using property taxes levied for the Right of Way Acquisition Loan Fund, according to Kollodge.

More statistics on local bus routes:

  • The 675 line is used the most, with 212,000 paid rides through June—1,400 fewer than through the same time a year ago.
  • The 672 line has tallied 36,648 rides through the first half of 2010. The route was down about 1,000 rides in each of the first two quarters of 2011.
  • The 674 line saw an increase in ridership in the first quarter of 2011, but was down about 3,000 rides year over year in the second quarter of 2011.
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