Safety, staffing, service: As downtowns reopen, is Metro Transit ready?

As a Dakota County transportation coordinator specializing in services for the elderly and disabled, Robyn Bernardy is sometimes public transit’s biggest advocate.

Bernardy, of St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood, introduces first-time riders to bus and light-rail options, and many are pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to save money running errands or getting to downtown St. Paul or Minneapolis without ever setting foot in a car.

Still, even Bernardy has been taken aback in the past two years watching fellow Metro Transit riders light up a cigarette or litter in front of her.

“It’s definitely been surprising seeing how much of that is going on, especially on the trains,” she said. “You want to take people on the bus and you want to give them that really good first experience, so next time they’ll do it for themselves.”

In the early days of the pandemic, when relatively little was known about the coronavirus, Metro Transit openly discouraged non-essential workers from hopping aboard.

Bernardy stuck to biking, running and walking or working from home whenever possible, mostly to avoid COVID-19, and those habits have stuck, especially in light of transit service cuts. In short, she’s a transit advocate who no longer relies heavily on public transit. And in so doing, she’s joined a sizable group of former passengers eager to see system improvements but on the fence about returning to the bus or train with regularity.

When the pandemic emerged in early 2020, Metro Transit’s bus, light rail and commuter rail ridership plunged.

For public transit providers, it’s been a difficult two years as judged by ridership, service cuts and public safety incidents. A man was fatally stabbed in the neck on a bus in Minneapolis’s Uptown neighborhood around 2 a.m. last Sunday. But Metro Transit officials say year-over-year crime reports have dropped and ridership has nudged up almost every month since April 2021.

Still, ridership is still about half what it was pre-pandemic.

With downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis gradually reopening to office workers, sporting events, concerts and the vendors and services that support them, what could lure passengers back to the bus and light rail?

Fewer transit drivers means skipped or delayed trips are common, and Metro Transit police are dozens short of their authorized strength.

The transit authority employs 111 full-time police officers out of 171 authorized, and 53 part-time officers out of 80 authorized. There are an additional 15 community service officers on staff.

“The greatest challenge we are facing, in all areas of our operation, is staffing,” said Laura Baenen, a spokesperson for Metro Transit. “Despite aggressive and continuous hiring efforts, the Metro Transit Police Department, like many police agencies throughout the U.S., is understaffed and having a harder time hiring new officers.”

To lure new workers, the transit authority is offering a $4,000 hiring bonus for full-time officers, community service officers are now eligible for benefits, and marketing and outreach efforts like job fairs have increased. In a tough labor market, it just hasn’t been enough.

Some longstanding passengers have complained that public transit has become less frequent and less reliable.

Metro Transit suspended all overnight service in March 2020, and light rail weekend services still wrap up around midnight, or even earlier depending upon the stop, regardless of whether there’s a major sporting event or downtown concert. Additional route and service cuts have followed, often along lines that run parallel to existing light-rail lines or other bus routes.

The Northstar Commuter Rail from downtown Minneapolis to Big Lake, which once made 14 weekday trips daily, now makes four — two northbound and two southbound — and none on weekends, not even during major downtown events.

“Some of these transit cuts are really scary to see,” Bernardy said. “We absolutely need to be fighting for more services and better services for people who rely on transit and can’t work from home — people from low-income communities, people with disabilities, people who are not choice riders.”

Even before the pandemic, the proliferation of homeless passengers and transients using the light rail to stay warm overnight added to difficult conversations about the best ways to serve the needs of the most vulnerable without compromising service for students and workers.

In light of low overnight ridership and unruly behavior, overnight Green Line service was suspended months before the pandemic.

When it comes to luring passengers back, “it’s gonna take a while,” said Kyle Orf, who lives car-free along the Green Line. “There’s COVID avoidance, homeless people avoidance, ‘other people’ avoidance that we — Minnesotans especially — need to move past. To be honest, I think one of the best things to do with the (state) budget surplus is make public transit free.”

Even on some day trips, passengers say near-empty buses and train cars have added to a general feeling of disregard. Fewer butts in seats means fewer eyes providing oversight, and it’s not unheard of to now see passengers on a moving transit car drink from an open container of alcohol. On some trips, litter abounds.

“Job one is to make the (light-rail) lines welcoming again,” said Adam Platt, executive editor of Twin Cities Business Magazine, on social media.

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Due to the shortage of sworn officers, Metro Transit is “targeting resources to areas on the transit system that demonstrate that greatest need for police attention,” she said, and using data mapping that takes into account calls for service, bus operator reports and customer complaints. Officers are directed to patrol hot-spot, high-activity areas more frequently, and the transit authority hopes to contract outside security at high-traffic transit stations on a pilot basis.

During the pandemic, the Metropolitan Council, which oversees Metro Transit, formed a Metro Transit Police Work Group which has released a 17-page action plan of recommendations to address safety concerns raised by the community and employees alike. Those recommendations will be presented to the Met Council for adoption — likely in June — with public progress reports to follow.

Still, some societal questions — like housing the homeless — are larger than anything one transit agency can tackle on its own, and other key decisions could fall outside of Metro Transit’s immediate control.

For instance, under state law, only sworn officers can issue tickets and fines to fare evaders. Met Council officials have asked the Legislature for the authority to issue administrative citations — non-criminal penalties that could be leveled by government employees who are not sworn officers.

That would free up Metro Transit police to focus on other criminal matters rather than primarily serving as fare collectors.

B Kyle, president of the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, said questions around public safety are especially timely given the long-awaited arrival of Viking River Cruises from New Orleans in downtown St. Paul this summer.

“St. Paul will have a tremendous opportunity to showcase our community, our energy, our vibrancy,” said Kyle, in an email. “We want to welcome tourists with a clean, safe and fun experience. We absolutely must be ready to deliver on that.”

Metro Transit ridership is half what it was pre-pandemic. There were 32.9 million passenger trips last year, compared with 77.9 million in 2019. Here’s a brighter spot: Ridership has inched up almost every month since April 2021. Through the end of March, more than 8.4 million rides had been provided this year, up 21 percent compared with the same period last year. More information is online at metrotransit.org/performance.

Metro Transit groups crimes under Group A (robbery, theft, assault, vandalism, drugs) and Group B (disorderly conduct, liquor violations, trespassing and other violations). The most common Group A crime last year was vandalism, which represented 42 percent of all crimes reported by Metro Transit Police.

Group A crime reports dropped from 3,465 in 2020 to 2,934 last year. Group B crimes dropped from 2,125 in 2020 to 1,653 in 2021.

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