How the Hennepin Redesign Was Built Around the E Line

Much of what looks like ordinary street reconstruction on Hennepin Avenue South was built for a single purpose: the METRO E Line, the bus rapid transit route that opened Dec. 6, 2025, and largely replaced Route 6, one of the busiest bus routes in the region.

The E Line is part of a regional rapid-transit network, not a local Uptown amenity. The 13.3-mile route runs from the Southdale Center Transit Center in Edina to the Westgate station in St. Paul, connecting 50th & France, Linden Hills, Uptown, the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, downtown, the University of Minnesota and Prospect Park along the way. It was fully funded by a $60 million state appropriation in 2021 ).

Bus rapid transit aims to deliver train-like reliability using buses, through dedicated lanes, fewer and better stops, all-door boarding and signal priority. Along Hennepin, that meant enhanced stations built into the reconstructed street, including stops at Hennepin and Franklin, Hennepin and 25th Street, and the Uptown Transit Station, each with real-time arrival signs, ticket machines, lighting and heat.

Designing the reconstruction and the transit line together avoided tearing up the same street twice. The bus lanes, station platforms and signal priority all had to be in place for the line to function, so the city built them as part of the corridor's roughly $36 million, 18-month rebuild rather than as a separate, later project.

Route 6 carried about 9,000 trips each weekday before the switch. The E Line runs every 10 minutes during weekday midday hours and every 12 minutes on weekends, faster and more frequent than the local route it replaced. In its first months, ridership ran below the route it succeeded, averaging about 6,200 weekday trips in February 2026, a figure transit planners expect to climb as riders adjust.

The payoff still depends on execution. Off-board fare payment and signal priority deliver their promised speed only if the system runs as designed, and Hennepin's part-time bus lanes, reserved for transit a minimum of six hours a day, revert to general traffic at other hours. The reconstruction set the stage; riders will judge whether the bus is faster and more reliable within their first few trips. Metro Transit publishes route, schedule and station information at metrotransit.org/e-line-project.