Metro Transit and other regional transit providers, including Maple Grove Transit, Minnesota Valley Transit Authority and SouthWest Transit, will resume service on Washington Avenue through the University of Minnesota campus starting Saturday.

The University of Minnesota's Campus Circulator also will return to Washington Avenue Saturday.

More than 20 bus routes making 1,200 trips a day will operate between Pleasant Street and Oak Streets just as they did prior to May 2011 when they were put on detour when construction of the Green Line began.

Buses will stop at Coffman Union on the west end of campus and at Oak Street on the east end. They will not stop at the Green Line platform at Harvard Street.

Along the Washington Avenue Transit and Pedestrian Mall, buses will share the tracks with light-rail trains between Walnut Street and Church Street, making it the only place along the line where that will occur.

Bicycles, emergency vehicles and pedestrians will be able to use the pedestrian mall, but general vehicular traffic will not.

With the return to Washington Avenue, several bus routes will have schedule changes that go into effect Saturday.

Many on the U campus are not used to seeing traffic on Washington Avenue since it has been closed to vehicular traffic for more than two years. Testing of the Green Line, the light-rail line which will run from downtown Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul, began earlier this year. With buses returning Saturday, Metro Transit officials remind students and visitors to campus to cross only in marked crosswalks and refrain from station areas that are closed.

Photo: Metro Transit