Transit Study Committee

The Transit Study Committee project is now completed. Read the Final Report: Getting From Here to There: Funding Transit in the Region

We convened a study committee to look at transit in the region through the lens of governance, policy, and funding. The study committee was chaired by Peter Bell, former Met Council chair. Ann Lenczewski, former legislator and chair of the Minnesota House Tax Committee, was vice-chair.

The focus on transit—defined broadly to include all modes—was the result of a more general study of the Met Council that the Citizens League completed earlier this spring with a 19-member task force of community members. In that final report, the task force reported that while experts maintained that the region’s system of transit governance, planning, operating, and funding worked well despite its seemingly fragmented and complex nature, there remained important questions related to accountability and transparency, efficiency and effectiveness, and equity. Given the limited time the previous group had to review these issues, it recommended that the Citizens League undertake a separate study.

The Transit Study Committee Recommendations

As a result of testimony from outside speakers and engaging in lengthy discussions, roughly half the committee viewed that the capital cost to expand the region’s transit system should be borne by local government entities while the other half felt that planning and funding the transitway network was the Metropolitan Council’s responsibility to plan for an integrated system. What has yet to be determined is who should be responsible for funding operations of the region’s transit system. Should it be a state responsibility, a municipal or county responsibility, or what is the right mix of the two? This needs to be done with consideration for the rapid growth of Metro Mobility.

Since the committee’s work started before and ended after the election, the committee agreed that some recommendations were unlikely to be advanced given the priorities of the current legislature.

In the end, the committee felt it important to present both: recommendations that considered the current political realities and those that looked beyond them so that the public and formal policymakers could see how the group voted for the recommendations under each of the two scenarios.

Committee Members

Click here to see the list of committee members

Meeting Minutes

Press