A majority of Maplewood City Council members no longer support the Purple Line Bus Rapid Transit Project in their city.

Citing traffic concerns, negative impacts on businesses and neighborhoods, and expected reduced ridership numbers, Mayor Marylee Abrams at a Monday meeting requested that city staff provide a resolution withdrawing support from both the project’s Bruce Vento Regional Trail corridor alignment and White Bear Avenue alternative as well as lay out plans to further discuss alternative transportation options with Metro Transit.

The project proposes a bus rapid transit line from downtown St. Paul’s Union Depot into the northeastern suburbs.

Maplewood isn’t the first city to oppose the project. In 2022, the White Bear Lake City Council passed a resolution requesting that the originally envisioned 15-mile line not terminate in their city, as planned. As a result, Metro Transit settled on a new northern terminus at Maplewood Mall in Maplewood. An alternative alignment along White Bear Avenue was also being studied, along with options for extending the Purple Line beyond Maplewood Mall.

However, Abrams said a White Bear Avenue alignment would negatively affect some 23,000 drivers who use it daily.

The opposition

Council members Kathleen Juenemann and Rebecca Cave echoed many of Abrams’ concerns with the White Bear Avenue alignment and also expressed interest in alternative transit options other than the Purple Line, which was expected to open in 2029 and connect with Metro Transit’s existing and future light rail and bus rapid transit services as well as with local and express bus routes.

The number of people using public transit since the 2020 pandemic has significantly changed, Abrams told the Pioneer Press.

“And I think just using common sense, an investment of $450 million (and) great disruption to our community, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Abrams said.

She added: “We were anchored to a 28-year-old plan that doesn’t fit our community. It doesn’t fit the way people go to work anymore, but there are other innovative ways, and we really can move people where they need to go, and we want to explore those.”

The withdrawal of support for the Purple Line doesn’t mean the council is anti-transit, Juenemann said.

“Just because we’re saying, ‘No, we don’t want a Bruce Vento Trail (alignment) and no, it doesn’t make any sense on White Bear Avenue,’ doesn’t mean we want them to go away as far as how do we make transit better for the people in Maplewood,” Juenemann said.

A request for alternatives

Council members mentioned micro transit — involving smaller buses that provide individualized services, additional buses and autonomously driven vehicles as possible alternative options to the Purple Line.

“We do not have maximum bus transportation at this point, and they need to work on that,” Juenemann said.

Council members Nikki Villavicencio and Chonburi Lee did not express support for the proposed resolution.

The resolution — or resolutions — regarding the Purple Line project are expected to be presented to the Maplewood City Council at its next meeting on Sept. 23. They would need majority support from the five-member council.

Abrams, Cave and Juenemann voiced support for alternatives to the Purple Line during the Monday meeting.

On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Council, the regional planning body that operates Metro Transit, stood by the project and said it would continue to seek to move it forward.

“The Purple Line is a strong transit project that would bring significant investments to the east metro, and we are committed to continued engagement with our local partners,” Terri Dresen, a Met Council spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We look forward to advancing a regional transit vision that will connect our communities and ensure future prosperity, and we remain steadfast in our vision and commitment to a future with more transportation options for everyone.”