Maplewood votes to pause support for Purple Line bus route

Ellie Roth, Pioneer Press
·2 min read

Maplewood City Council voted unanimously on Monday to pause its support for the Purple Line Bus Rapid Transit Project.

The Purple Line route would connect St. Paul with suburbs to the north. Maplewood officials said the Metropolitan Council, which presides over the project, didn’t them in planning efforts that would involve buying and bulldozing the Birch Run Station Shopping Center near the Maplewood Mall. The city council has decided to reevaluate the best ways to move forward in November.

“I think it’s accurate to say that the entire council is in favor of transit. We see that there’s a transit deficit in the east metro,” said Maplewood Mayor Marylee Abrams on Tuesday. “We have some struggles with the Purple Line and the way that it is being rerouted and the new proposals that they’ve been working on.”

Abrams said that the city council still does not have data on post-pandemic ridership from the Met Council. They want the Met Council to release a ridership survey to determine how many people would use the new route before taking further action to implement the line in Maplewood.

During the meeting on Monday, councilmember Kathleen Juenemann expressed concern over a lack of transparency within the Met Council’s plans.

“People who need (the bus line) need it to be reliable,” Juenemann said. “We’ve got to work on the reliability piece and the trust piece.”

Abrams said that the council does not want to abandon the ideas of a rapid transit system and considers the withdrawal of support from the Purple Line to be a pause.

“We’re taking a couple of steps back,” said Abrams, who hopes that during an upcoming workshop in November, the city council will be able to “flesh out” the stakeholders, the data that needs reviewing, and the most effective ways to survey Maplewood residents.

The proposed Maplewood resolution specifically recommends a suspension of the announcement of a plan for the northernmost stop of the Purple Line until the Met Council “evaluates future transit options/routes that work effectively for all.”

The modification plan is currently scheduled for presentation to the Met Council’s Corridor Management Committee on Nov. 10.

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