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Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on 35W
Passengers at a Transmilenio station. Transmilenio
is the BRT system for the city of Bogotá, Colombia.
Increasingly, cities thoughout the world have begun to turn
to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems to meet the transportation
needs of their citizens. BRT systems provide a low investment,
high return solution to the transportation needs of modern
cities.
Bus Rapid Transit in the I-35W corridor
35W is the busiest transit corridor in the state. When both
the Crosstown and Access projects neglected to study the potential
for bus rapid tansit in this corridor, progressive transportation
advocates in the legislature began work to mandate investigation
of this option for the corridor. Last year, Rep. Frank Hornstein
introduced a measure to mandate study of the potential for
BRT in the 35W corridor.
This study was completed in early 2005. Its key conclusions
include:
- BRT on can triple transit ridership along the corridor:
provision of bus rapid transit system can increase ridership
from the current 15,000 passenger to over 45,000 passengers
per day.
- A bus rapid transit system on 35W will allow buses to
run at posted speeds even in the middle of rush hour.
- BRT can serve more people: adding BRT service to 35W can
move more people than adding three new freeway lanes to
the corridor.
- Cost for a BRT system that serves the Twin Cities and
surrounding communities is a fraction of what the Crosstown
and Access projects are expected to cost: for Phase I and
II (65 buses, 3 stations, 1 Park and Ride), the cost is
$37 million. The total cost for a complete BRT system on
35W (includes 126 buses, stations at Lake Street, 46th Street
and 494, and one Park and Ride facility at Lakeville) is
$55 million.
Want to find out more about BRT on 35W?
Download a copy of the report's
executive summary (357 Kb pdf) or a copy of the full
BRT report (22.2 Mb pdf).
What would BRT on 35W look like?
This is a visualization of a potential BRT station along
35W. Passengers would transfer to and from buses on city streets
to BRT buses running on 35W by using the elevatos or stairs
in the stations - you can find this and other diagrams in
the BRT studies linked in the section above.
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