Task force seeks to retain popular bus route into Minneapolis

As the popularity of a commuter bus line from Forest Lake in Washington County to Minneapolis surges, officials from four east-metro counties met Thursday to hasten a similar line from Forest Lake to downtown St. Paul.

That service, along what's known as the Rush Line Corridor, will begin in January if Ramsey, Washington, Anoka and Chisago counties find the money to fund it. Meanwhile, the route to Minneapolis -- funded by the federal government to help ease traffic congestion in the wake of the Minneapolis bridge collapse -- is scheduled to expire in December.

"It really does have to be saved," said Victoria Reinhardt, a Ramsey County commissioner who is chair of the Rush Line Corridor Task Force. "Why stop something that's exceeding expectations right now?"

Reinhardt wanted to start the 23-mile Forest Lake to St. Paul line on Sept. 1 to help build a case for keeping the sister service to Minneapolis. But funding complexities, including applications for money available through the new metro quarter-cent sales tax, made the delay to January inevitable, she said.

Representatives of the four counties in the task force agreed each would pay $112,209 to help operate the Rush Line bus service in 2009. However, each county board would have to approve that expense and the task force would seek additional money from the Counties Transit Improvement Board, which oversees money collected from the quarter-cent transit tax.

The Rush Line Corridor stretches from the Union Depot in St. Paul to Hinckley in Pine County and has been the subject of rail discussions since the late 1990s. Reinhardt and others on the task force see the bus line as the first step in developing a comprehensive transitway to funnel commuters in the east and north metro areas to jobs in St. Paul.

Traffic forecasts predict that by 2020 congestion on I-35/I-35E will increase by 25 percent south of I-694, by 65 percent between White Bear Lake and Hugo, and by 50 percent north of Hugo.

The Rush Line bus service -- commuters would ride on leased coach buses via Interstate 35E -- would include a stop in White Bear Lake. The task force hasn't decided where that stop would be.

Bus service to Minneapolis, which started in January after the federal government surprised east-metro counties with a $5 million windfall, has gained ridership in recent months. In February the service averaged 300 commuters a day with a daily high of 350, said Mike Rogers, a Washington County transportation planner. In May, he said, the service averaged 433 commuters daily with a high of 506.

Susan Young, a member of the Forest Lake City Council, said she's ridden on buses where all of the 55 seats were full and other passengers were standing. More people angered by high gasoline prices seem to be turning to buses, Rogers said. In addition, he said, another bus was added to the route in May.

The Forest Lake to Minneapolis route is in a "demonstration period" that will last through Dec. 31; the new I-35W bridge is scheduled to open earlier that month.

Counties served by the bus line into Minneapolis will have to compete for transit tax dollars to save it, said Dennis Hegberg, chair of the Washington County Commission and a member of the Rush Line task force. If the Washington County board hadn't voted in favor of the tax, he said, the county would be in a tough position to extend the Forest Lake to Minneapolis service.