I have taken the so-called Twins Express bus to Target Field numerous times over the last few years from 394 and County Road 373 and found it an easy and inexpensive way to get to Target Field and not have to worry about finding and paying for a parking spot. With the Minnesota Twins playing poorly since 2010 it turns out that ridership had dropped from about 100,000 a season to just 25,800 in 2016.
According to the Star Tribune article on March 30th:
Ridership on Route 679 is down so much that the agency has decided to drop the service that for the past six years has ferried fans between Target Field and the park-and-ride at Interstate 394 and County Road 73.
“We have done everything we can to get that route going,” Kelci Stones, a specialist in Metro Transit’s marketing department, told the Met Council this week. “We couldn’t continue the service this year any further.”The service offering a round-trip ride for $5 debuted in 2010 with the opening of the new stadium and generated nearly 100,000 rides. Since the Twins won the division title that year, the team has struggled on the field and at the box office. Consequently, Metro Transit has seen a steady decline in fans taking the express bus. Last season, ridership fell to an all-time low of just more than 25,800 for the 81 home games.
It is a shame that this service has been discontinued, hopefully once the Twins start playing a better brand of baseball and fans start going to Twins games again that this service can be revived. I will miss this service.
Metro Transit drops Twins Express service for 2017 season