Residents across Greater Minnesota now have more consistent ways to plan for and, in some cases, book and pay for public transit and intercity bus trips, the Minnesota Department of Transportation announced today.
“This is a big step for Minnesota and for rural communities,” said MnDOT Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger. “Transit agencies currently provide public transit services in all or part of all 87 counties in Minnesota, but many people are not aware of the services in Greater Minnesota or what their options are. This will allow residents and visitors throughout Greater Minnesota to see their options and plan trips now or months into the future.”
This expansion builds on MnDOT’s efforts to help transit agencies make their services more visible and accessible. To complete the upgrade, MnDOT used nearly $500,000 in grant funding from the Minnesota Technology Modernization Fund, a $40 million fund established by the Legislature to help state agencies improve customer experience and efficiency.
Travelers can plan trips using the Transit app or the website mntransitplanner.com, which allows people without smartphones to plan trips. More than 20,000 Minnesotans are using the Transit app each month for public transit in Greater Minnesota. Prior to this recent expansion, only transit agencies in southern and western Minnesota were covered.
The multimodal trip planning is powered by standardized transit data. Transit agencies provide accurate and reliable trip information that is pulled into websites and apps so that travelers can plan trips statewide.
MnDOT’s original pilot program with 12 rural Minnesota transit agencies launched in March 2023. Researchers from the University of Minnesota studied the pilot phase and found that the transit agencies that used the Transit app saw a 4.2 percent increase in ridership compared to similar agencies that didn’t have this technology.
“The Mobility as a Service platform is making Greater Minnesota transit resources visible in a way they were not before,” said Elliott McFadden, MnDOT’s Emerging Mobility unit supervisor. “Minnesota is the first state doing this on a statewide basis. We’re proud to help connect people with transit options and strengthen our local transit partners.”
What’s next
MnDOT recently added six rural transit agencies to the Transit app:
- Paul Bunyan Transit
- Hubbard County Heartland Express
- Prairie Lakes Transit
- Prairieland Transit
- Three Rivers Hiawathaland Transit
- City of Winona Transit
The Department of Iron Range Resource and Rehabilitation will add funding for Arrowhead Transit, including goMarti service, in Northeast Minnesota this spring.
MnDOT will add the remaining 15 public transit agencies in Greater Minnesota by this summer:
- Becker County Transit
- Brainard & Crow Wing Public Transit
- City of Morris Transit
- Duluth Transit Authority
- East Grand Forks Cities Area Transit
- Fosston City Bus
- La Crescent Apple Express
- MATBUS serving Moorhead
- Rainbow Rider Transit
- Saint Cloud Metro Bus
- Timber Trails Public Transit
- Trailblazer Transit
- Tri-Valley Heartland Express “T.H.E. Bus” in Thief River Falls
- Wadena County Friendly Rider
- Watonwan County Take Me There
How agencies are added
- MnDOT serves as the technical and coordination lead to convene transit agencies and technology vendors
- MnDOT’s vendor meets with each transit agency to inventory all the routes and services
- The vendor creates and hosts data files that allow MnDOT’s web trip planner and the Transit app (as well as sites like Google Maps and Apple Maps) to use these files to advertise trip options
- The public transit agencies are then able to test these sites for accuracy and make updates
- Once the files are online, the Transit app and MnDOT’s website MnTransitPlanner.com make these services available for trip searching by travelers
