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Political Agenda

New Metro Transit website makes it easier to plan travel and get to the Twins stadium

By Joe Kimball | 04/19/10

Metro Transit unveils an updated website today to help plan travel with buses, light rail, Northstar commuter rail, bicycling and ride-sharing.

They say it "will take existing customers to the content they need in fewer clicks and will help potential transit users find information about all of their travel options more easily.”

And many may be interested in the section on getting to the Twins stadium in crowded downtown Minneapolis.

And the trip planner lays out exact routes and departure times. If I wanted to take a bus from White Bear Lake to a noon Twins game, it would take two hours five minutes, with one layover in downtown St. Paul.

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Comments (3)

Submitted by Ben Irwin on April 19, 2010 - 12:00pm.

"If I wanted to take a bus from White Bear Lake to a noon Twins game, it would take two hours five minutes, with one layover in downtown St. Paul."

Let's see, 2 hours there, 3 hours for the game, 2 hours back equals 7 hours. Due to the length of the trip, I will be required to eat the vastly overpriced and barely edible food at the ball park.
OR
30 minutes there, 3 hours for the game, 30 minutes back equals 4 hours. I have a choice of eating at the ball park or waiting to eat soemthing much better at home. I could probably park for what it would cost me to eat at the ballpark.

Metro Transit needs to work on their schedules.

Submitted by Pat McGee on April 19, 2010 - 2:48pm.

Not only do they need to work on their schedules but they still need to fix their website. Selecting going from the Coon Rapids Park & Ride sends me to Big Lake to get the train and THEN going to Target Field---riding right by the Coon Rapids Park & Ride I specified as my starting point. Also, where is the much touted by the media, change in the train schedules to be found?

Submitted by Mike Hicks on April 19, 2010 - 10:22pm.

Yeah, I think Metro Transit needs more express-style buses that run on highways during the day. A bus like the 16 trundling between downtowns takes 50 minutes to an hour. The 94, running a parallel route along the Interstate, does roughly the trip in 25 to 30 minutes.

I see there's an express bus (270) that goes from Maplewood Mall (not far from White Bear Lake) to downtown Minneapolis each morning in about half an hour, though the last one runs before 9 AM. Later in the day, you can bounce through Rosedale with the 223 and the 260, but the nearest you get to a noon game is a one hour and ten minute trip with a 10:45 arrival (possibly too early).

Anyway, since Pat asked, the schedule you see on the Northstar page now is the "new" one. Metro Transit had a link to it in their News section, and had a "Rider Alerts" link to it, but then they went and switched to their redesigned page on April 17, the same day the schedule changed, so I know there were some people who either couldn't access the site for a little while, or just got confused. The website's still not quite up to snuff (the Rider Alerts link is currently broken on the Route 888 page, for instance). The new website looks a lot better, but they really should have done a better switch.