Ramsey County Board Workshop on Metro BRT Project – November 25, 2025
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Ramsey County Board Workshop on Metro Bus Rapid Transit Project – November 25, 2025
This workshop was held to discuss the proposed Metro Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, formerly known as the Purple Line. No votes were taken during the workshop. County staff presented an updated route, funding strategy, and design approach, and sought commissioner feedback.
Project Overview and History
- The project has evolved from the Rush Line (2021) to White Bear Lake (which opted out), then a route modification (2022-2023) ending at Maplewood Mall, and later Maplewood’s withdrawal. The transcript mentions both September 2027 and September 2024 for Maplewood's withdrawal; this discrepancy is noted.
- The current alignment runs from Union Depot in downtown St. Paul to Maplewood Mall, along Maryland and White Bear Avenues, with many segments on county-owned roads.
- Project length: 10 miles, with 22 stations (17 new, 5 existing from Gold Line and other projects).
- Corridor demographics: 61% BIPOC residents, 1 in 5 zero-vehicle households, 1 in 5 living in poverty, 38% young people, plus significant shares of residents with disabilities and limited English proficiency.
Design and Infrastructure
- In St. Paul: full roadway reconstruction on Pennsylvania, Maryland, and White Bear Avenues (Maryland to Larpenteur). Dedicated guideway between Nide Lane and Maryland, including dedicated bridges for transit at Arcade, Nide, and Johnson Parkway.
- In Maplewood: no full roadway reconstruction; only new stations and intersection improvements for ADA, resulting in less right-of-way acquisition and disruption.
- Maplewood will receive transit signal priority (TSP) but no dedicated lanes; possible future conversion to exclusive lanes.
- Stations will feature high-level amenities similar to Gold Line stations: raised platforms, near-level boarding, off-board fare collection, heat, and lighting.
- Design is currently at 1% completion; details on lane widths, parking, and crosswalks will be refined block by block.
Funding and Governance
- Originally planned as 50% federal / 50% county, the new approach is 100% locally funded: Ramsey County will cover ~$340 million, Met Council ~$35 million (potentially rising to $50 million depending on bus type), total cost ~$375 million.
- Advantages cited: less federal process, greater design flexibility (e.g., no mandated park-and-ride), and more control.
- County funding will come from the regional rail sales tax levy, not the general levy, as authorized by a board action earlier in 2025.
- Staff are developing a capital grant agreement with Met Council to include cost and scope guardrails similar to federal agreements; expected for board approval by June 2026.
- Bus type (diesel, hybrid, electric) undecided; decision deferred to later. Discussion noted that tailpipe emissions differences are currently minimal, but technology is evolving.
Contracting and Community Engagement
- Three separate contracts: Ramsey County for roadway design, Metro Transit for stations, bridges, and transit technology, and a third (county-held) for community engagement.
- Additional staffing will be requested in the new year to support delivery.
- Public engagement: smaller meetings have occurred since September; a large public unveiling is scheduled for December 2, 2025 at Union Depot, including a rebranding away from the Purple Line name.
- Commissioners stressed the importance of proactive communication with residents and businesses, business mitigation strategies (e.g., focusing on expenses rather than lost revenue, as learned from other projects), and placemaking opportunities.
Schedule and Next Steps
- Corridor management committee meeting in December to finalize old project phase.
- RFPs for design contracts January–March 2026.
- Seek resolutions of support from cities of St. Paul and Maplewood (required for Met Council process).
- Funding agreement by June 2026.
- Projected operational date: 2032.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes or resolutions; this was a workshop for information and feedback.
- Staff will proceed with public unveiling on December 2, 2025.
- Board feedback will inform next steps, including contracting, funding agreement, and engagement plans.
Meeting Transcript
All right, welcome to Ramsey County Board Workshop. Today's workshop topic is the Metro Bus Rapid Transit Project. Curtis reminder that this board workshop is recorded and it is live streamed on Zoom webinar. There will be no votes taken during this workshop. Let's start with introductions of commissioners and presenters around the table, and then the rest of the Kelly Miller, Commissioner District 7. Mike Tonjon, Commissioner District 6. Tara Jevin Singh, Commissioner District 1. Reading Marine, County Commissioner District 4. Lynn Becker County Manager. Brian Isaacson, Public Works Director. Mike Rogers, Deputy Director of Public Works, Multimodal Planning. Jennifer Jordan, Public Works, Multi Model Manager. Steve Smith, nothing transferred my answer. Okay, Ransom. Jennifer work, charter of government relations. I don't imagine this very range of the motion. Okay. Um, do we have anybody on your city? Roughly a little pretty good district five. This commissioner is Commissioner McMurtry online. Do we know? Okay, can you hear me now? Yep. Yep. Rick uh Garrison McMurtry, Commissioner District 3. Okay, thank you. Well, thank you for uh joining today's workshop. As you know, Maple accept away from the project in September of 2027. Since then, through a more flexible design approach and meaningful input from Maplewood and St. Paul and community stakeholders, we've been able to reshape the project into uh form that into a form the city can support. Um Ramsey County staff are here to provide an update on the project formerly known as the Purple Line and to walk through the county's refined approach to delivering high quality metro BRT corridor. We'll outline our goals, partnerships, and next steps, and we're looking for commissioner feedback as we move into the next phase. With that, I'll turn it over to our team. All right. Thank you, Commissioner Miller. Commissioners, Mike Rogers again. Um this is a big big deal. Uh we've taken a long time to get to this process on this point. There's been lots of ebbs and flows. There's been lots of iterations with this project. And as uh Commissioner Miller mentioned, we had a project before that ultimately didn't meet the needs of the community for everyone along the line. So we did take a step back. We continue to work with our partners, being the city of St. Paul, City of Maplewood, um, Metro Transit. We work with the community as well to find a project that did address those needs and did improve mobility in this part of Ramsey County, this part of the Metro, so that we can go forward with a project. And we think the proposed project that Jennifer is going to provide more detail to you on today, does a great job of improving mobility on the east side, of connecting our vital communities, of making a benefit for our residents and of improving access for businesses as well. So as we go through this and we talk about the proposed project overview, um, how we would fund it. There's a major change in looking at how we would fund this and looking at being locally funded, and Jennifer will provide more details on that. That will also change our responsibilities, putting Ramsey County and a more leadership forward role on this. Uh, we'll talk through how we are looking at design communications and then ultimately the schedule for implementing the project, as well as what types of next steps are out there, what types of decisions that the board's going to need to make.
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