MVTA officials outline service changes, station upgrades and warn of bill to centralize suburban providers

Minnesota Valley Transit Authority representatives told the Eagan City Council at its March 10 workshop that ridership across their system rose about 7–8% year-over-year and that Eagan-specific trips increased roughly 6.7% from 2024 to 2025.

"Overall ridership for system wide was up 7, almost 8% all year over year," MVTA presenter Luther Weider said, adding that express service was up more than 10% and that a local route known as the "4 Fun" had increased about 34%.

The agency outlined near-term service changes effective March 16 that will include hourly service to MSP Terminal 1 and seven-day, year-round hourly service on the 4 Fun route. Weider said the agency’s Connect on-demand product recorded almost 60,000 rides in 2025, averages about 161 daily customers in Eagan and has an average wait time of approximately 21 minutes.

"The cost" for Connect in Eagan "is $3 each way," Weider said, noting that Connect provides free transfers to fixed-route service and that MVTA is pursuing a partnership with Lyft to preserve the $3 price point.

MVTA also described station and facility improvements impacting Eagan. Weider and colleagues showed work on heating/cooling window sills, new bus-lane lighting, upgraded lobby flooring and interactive real-time signage. They said a Union Transit Station project exceeds $2,000,000 and will deliver additional customer amenities, including expanded customer-service kiosks and a parking-lot elevator.

On fleet sustainability, MVTA said it is operating one of the first fully electric vehicles in revenue service for micro-transit and reported fuel-cost savings since acquisition. "We've continued to see... about $40,000 [in fuel savings] since the acquisition for last year," Weider said.

During council discussion, Weider flagged a state legislative proposal that would alter regional governance of suburban transit providers. He read aloud a House file sponsored by Representative Kosnick that — as presented in the meeting—would create a coordinating body with only limited suburban representation and could place suburban services under Metro Transit after July 1, 2027 with only a one-year guarantee of service.

"There was a companion bill that was released today on the senate side," Weider said, and he described plans for MVTA and partner cities to submit support letters and testify at the Capitol opposing consolidation.

Council members asked about passenger communications for service changes, luggage and accessibility on micro-transit vehicles, and how MVTA triages zone-based wait times. MVTA staff described outreach plans that include station tabling, route canvassing, social media and quarterly meetings with community planners.

The MVTA presentation closed with a list of planned 2026 adjustments for Eagan — replacement of some local routes, rerouting to serve the community center, and additional express trips — and a note that the agency will continue adjusting service to balance ridership growth, subsidy levels and fleet availability.