Rider's Almanac Blog

Know Your Operator: Mary Barnd

Posted by Drew Kerr | Dec. 5, 2014

When Operator Mary Barnd picked up her first customers, she panicked. As a 17-year semi-truck driver, Barnd had developed an innate sensitivity to others entering her private driving space and was taken aback when she started training and [...]

Bus Transit Information

1 million calls and counting

| Nov. 21, 2014

When Gary Bier began working in the Transit Information Center, his trip planning tools included a large wall map, a tape measure and a robust memory. “If you were taking 20 calls a day you were really cooking,” Bier said recently. “Each of those [...]

Light Rail METRO Blue Line METRO Green Line Safety

Light-rail vehicles ready for all seasons

| Nov. 19, 2014

Metro Transit’s light-rail vehicles are becoming even more weather-hardened. Pantographs that are specially-equipped to cut through ice on overhead wires are being installed on all 27 Bombardier light-rail vehicles and 32 of the newer Siemens [...]

Light Rail METRO Green Line

Green Line tops 1 million rides, again

| Nov. 13, 2014

For the second straight month, customers boarded the METRO Green Line more than 1 million times. There were 1,131,264 rides on the Green Line in October, up 6 percent from September’s total and a new monthly record. Average weekday ridership was [...]

Light Rail METRO Blue Line METRO Green Line Northstar University of Minnesota

Vikings fans bleed purple, ride Green

| Nov. 4, 2014

Vikings fans have long enjoyed traveling to and from home games on light rail. And while it’s been all about the METRO Blue Line in past seasons, the opening of the METRO Green Line and a move to TCF Bank Stadium has changed the game day [...]