“We feel like we are investing in the fundamentals that should lead to growing ridership over time,” said Lesley Kandaras, Metro Transit’s general manager. “And that is increased service, but also improvements to the customer experience, our public safety investments and other steps we’re taking to make transit easier to use.”
Lesley Kandaras, the general manager of Metro Transit, speaks during a press conference on Aug. 15, 2023. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
As it looked to add back service in 2021 amid a tight labor market, the agency struggled to hire transit drivers, Kandaras said.
When riders began to come back, demand tended to be more level throughout the day, not just during rush hour. That meant Metro Transit needed to change its schedules — adding more non-rush hour service — while trying to hire enough people to get back up to pre-pandemic levels, especially on light rail.
Before the pandemic, trains arrived every 10 minutes during peak hours — often enough that riders didn’t need to plan ahead. Now, trains generally come every 12 to 15 minutes.
Passengers depart from the Blue Line train inside the Mall of America Transit Station on Oct. 14, 2019. (Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Kandaras said hiring is still the barrier to more frequent trains. In October, she said, Metro Transit expects to have enough workers to run trains every 12 minutes for more hours of the day.