NorthEast Chapter - Purple Line Report
submitted by John Slade
Purple Line 101
The Purple Line Bus Rapid Transit project is a high-frequency, express bus route that connects in downtown St. Paul at the hub of all the other transit lines and heads northeastward. Originally named the Rush Line (initially planned to go to Rush City) the line has progressively shortened. In 2017, cities along the line designated a specific route the “locally approved alternative” which ended in White Bear Lake.
Originally planned as a light rail line, budget cuts caused a shift to Bus Rapid Transit which, like light rail, has an exclusive corridor it can move through and will have stations, but it uses wheeled buses on the road rather than a train on rails. It costs significantly less.
The Rise of the Purple People
For the last few years, the only organized community presence around the Purple Line Bus Rapid Transit route were the opponents.
But now there is a new factor to consider – the rising of a pro-transit group, the Purple People: including MICAH; the East Side Area Business Association; the Greater East Side, Payne-Phalen, and Dayton’s Bluff district councils along with transit advocates; biking advocates; and more.
Purple People Paris Dunning of ESABA (at podium) and Darrell Paulson (front left, in power chair) testifying at Maplewood City Council. Photo: John Slade
The No Rush Line coalition has been active for several years. Led by the Center for the American Experiment, a right-wing think tank with an employee who sits on the White Bear Lake City Council, anti-transit feeling was mobilized by that group. The White Bear Mayor, and one of the city council candidates in 2022, campaigned on an anti-Purple platform. They won, and that resulted in the City of White Bear coming forward with a resolution asking the Met Council to steer the Purple Line away from White Bear Lake.
Legally, however, the line could still go into White Bear. As a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project the rail authority does NOT NEED the consent of every city it goes into. “Municipal Consent” could be withdrawn for a light rail project, like the Green Line, but not BRT.
Despite this, the Met Council’s initial response was to pull back from White Bear and reconsider three options – stopping at Maplewood Mall, going from the Mall to Vadnais Heights, or going from the Mall to Century College. Also, the route that was approved in 2017 went along the County right-of-way next to the Bruce Vento Trail. This land was bought from the railroad by the county to be used as a transit corridor in the future – 20 years ago. Since then the locals and others have grown accustomed to having the parkland. As Mark Sather, the former City Manager of White Bear Lake said, “we knew that people would get used to it as a parkland no matter that we put signs up telling them it was designated for transit.”
Maplewood, after White Bear acted, decided they wanted more meetings on the new direction of the line. The anti-Purple People took this opportunity to once again oppose the line. One of the listening sessions was dedicated to the anti-Purple point of view. Many of those who testified did so on behalf of the Bruce Vento Trail, which they contended would be destroyed by adding the bus guideway. There were also discussions of other transit options, and an ominous presentation from the hard-right Center for the American Experiment on how dangerous Metro Transit – and the riders of those busses – are.
The following week we had a chance to speak back. The open comment session included many from the anti-Purple People crowd, but there were several who spoke in favor. Paris Dunning, who is the Executive Director of the East Side Area Business Association, spoke, as did your reporter, a health care professional, and a former city councilman.
After that session, the Purple People started contacting the City Council of Maplewood. MICAH leaders did so; we were able to send out a message to the White Bear Unitarian Universalist congregations in Maplewood, and one of the pro-Purple Line leaders who was on the city council said that at the end, the calls and emails were coming in more balanced.
Then Ramsey County came forward with a new idea. WHAT IF – we looked at getting the Purple Line off of the Bruce Vento Trail, and moved it along Maryland to White Bear Avenue? And then went up to Maplewood? This route, which had been suggested and rejected in favor of the already-owned land along the Vento Trail, was apparently resurrected. The County asked Maplewood to approve this, and they did. While the project is legally in the hands of the Met Council, half of the cost of the project will be paid by the county (and the other half by the federal government) and that carries some weight.
This action does delay the project. There had been an August goal to get into the federal funding queue, but it was looking like the White Bear action and the Met Council Maplewood reroute would make that hard to get to in any case. Now that White Bear is back on the table as an option (and there is a lot of study that needs to get done on that) it could still go up the Vento trail. Or into White Bear, for that matter.
Since that action at the end of March, we have applied for a grant for the Purple People from Ramsey County and done what we can to increase the pro-Purple crowd. They say “the future is unwritten” – and we’re looking to write some purple lines connecting the East Metro!