Metro Transit riders to see new shelters, improvements

Bus riders in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and their first-ring suburbs may soon see new bus shelters to protect them from rain and snow.

A $3 million federal grant will help Metro Transit pay for at least 50 bus shelters in the Twin Cities and for improvements to many more locations. The agency, which aims to build 150 new shelters by the end of next year, is steering the upgrades to so-called areas of "areas of racially concentrated poverty."

Metropolitan Council member Adam Duininck said the decision to build new shelters shows that the agency is serious about improving transit service for disadvantaged and low-income populations. He said transit advocates helped press the issue.

"There's no question that the push for transit equity in general, I think, helped bring some focus on what this grant could do and the community it needed to serve," Duininck said.

Transit advocates in north Minneapolis have argued for more bus shelters, and improvements such as lighting and heating, as recently as this summer during negotiations involving the Southwest light rail project.

Because of financial constraints, the Metropolitan Council has fallen behind its own guidelines of installing shelters at bus stops where there at least 40 people board a day.

The grant will improve the experience of thousands of customers who use the transit system every day, council chairwoman Sue Haigh said.