Metro Bus CEO Highlights Goals And Ridership Numbers

Metro Bus CEO Ryan Daniel indicates he and his staff are always monitoring ridership numbers and what is working and what isn't.  He says they discontinued ConneX on-demand service and moved to resume Fixed Route 32 earlier this month.  Daniel explains that ridership was the reason for making this adjustment.

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Daniel indicates they are looking at evaluating their entire service area, take everything apart, and hire some consultants to give them some ideas on how they can best serve the customers in the St. Cloud metro area.  He says as a result of COVID many people's patterns changed including more people working from home and not as many commutes to the Twin Cities.  Daniel indicates Northstar Link ridership numbers are going up.  He says they had 900 rides in April of 2022 as opposed to 1,100 in April of this year.  He says consistently used routes include route 1 and route 7 on the east side of St. Cloud for example.  Daniel indicates those routes average 3,000 to 4,000 rides a month.

In April 2022 Daniel says Metro Bus averaged 50,000 fixed route rides a month and in April of 2023 they are averaging 53,000 fixed route rides a month.  Daniel says this is system wide.  Dial a ride numbers in April of 2022 show 10,000 rides a month while April 2023 show 12,000 rides a month.  Daniel says services are slowly rebounding but the ConneX service in Sartell just didn't see the numbers needed to continue the service.

Metro Bus is in the process of looking to add a west metro transit hub.  Daniel says they'd like to take advantage the growing population and events held in west St. Cloud and Waite Park.  The location for this transmit hub has yet to be determined.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Metro Bus CEO Ryan Daniel it is available below.