Ten-Minute Buses: What Frequency Really Means for Lowry Hill

The METRO E Line, which opened Dec. 6, 2025, runs buses every 10 to 15 minutes from roughly 4:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily along France, Hennepin and University avenues. Transit planners call that "show-up" service: at those headways, a rider walks to a station and waits a few minutes rather than building the day around a schedule.

That difference is what separates rapid transit from an ordinary bus route, often more than raw speed. A bus that comes every half hour punishes a missed connection with a 30-minute wait; one that comes every 10 minutes shrinks that penalty to almost nothing. Metro Transit built the E Line around that idea, replacing Route 6 -- which carried about 9,000 trips each weekday -- with roughly 30 percent more service and trips that run up to 20 percent faster on average.

"The E Line connects Dinkytown, Downtown, and Uptown with one-seat, faster service," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at the line's Dec. 6 opening, one of several officials who marked the launch alongside Metropolitan Council Chair Robin Hutcheson and Metro Transit General Manager Lesley Kandaras.

For Lowry Hill, the practical effect is that a trip to downtown, the University or Uptown means a short walk to a Hennepin Avenue station and a brief wait, not a planned expedition. That makes the bus a credible alternative to driving and parking for the errands, appointments and evenings out that a rush-hour-only route never served. Frequency also compounds: the more reliably the bus comes, the more people fold it into daily life, and the more it is used, the easier it is to justify keeping headways short.

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