Twin Ports bus service is a tale of 2 cities — and different funding levels

If a metropolitan area is spread across two states, with a city in one state much larger than its neighbor in the other, can a single transit agency serve both areas fairly and equitably? 

That’s the question in Duluth and Superior, where the Duluth Transit Authority provides bus service to both cities. Two years ago, the agency revamped its routes under a Better Bus plan, focusing on enhancing those with higher ridership needs. But the reconfiguration also eliminated others.

“They eliminated bus service in Billings Park in the west area of the city and also in south superior and a little bit out in the east end,” said Superior City Councilor Mike Herrick, whose constituents have asked for the routes to be restored.

Herrick joined the Superior Days delegation at the Capitol last month to lobby for funding to restore the service — a challenge, because Wisconsin provides a far lesser portion of the DTA’s budget than does Minnesota.

Herrick spoke about the effort with WPR’s Robin Washington on “Morning Edition.” Washington also discussed the issue with DTA Assistant General Manager Chris Belden.

These interviews have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Robin Washington: What’s the bus service situation in Superior currently?

Mike Herrick: The DTA did a Better Bus Blueprint plan in 2023. That entailed creating more service in the mornings and in the afternoons, especially in Superior. People very much appreciated that. But they also eliminated routes.

RW: What would you like to see in Billings Park?

MH:  A new route would have eight stops a day, four in the morning and four in the evening, timed for when people need to go to work and come home. 

It would cost an additional $400,000. Last year at Superior Days, I brought this subject to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. I’m optimistic we’ll be able to get more funding this year. It seemed to resonate for the simple fact that there’s a new person heading the Wisconsin DOT.

RW: Chris Belden, tell us about the service in Superior.

Chris Belden: We often hear from folks in Superior who see the level of service we’re offering in Duluth and ask, “Why don’t we have as much bus service over here?” It comes down to state funding.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation funds transit very well. With that, we’re able to cover more of our Minnesota geography and provide more frequent bus service. In Wisconsin, Superior is a very large land area but the funding isn’t there. So we have to be really delicate and deliberate on where we put service and where it’s needed most. 

With the Better Bus Blueprint, we took service out of some of the lower performing areas of Superior that were very expensive and reallocated them to later evening service in the core corridors of the city. We’ve seen almost a 30 percent increase in ridership, and the bus between Duluth and Superior is one of the busiest in our entire network.

However, there are still large geographic areas that are missing service entirely. They really should have it, but given the lack of resources from Wisconsin, we’re just not able to. The city of Superior does invest quite a bit into transit, but it’s the state funding we’re lacking.

RW: What needs to be done to restore service in Billings Park? 

CB: One of the problems with Billings Park is that it’s primarily residential. We see the best performance on routes where there’s a mix of housing — commercial and retail. In a neighborhood like Billings Park, it’s often picking up residents and bringing them to their jobs and then having empty buses going back in the other direction. 

We’ve drawn up some initial plans for what that route could look like. But even if funding were to come in, it would take a while to restore it because of our driver shortages. We’re probably providing only 80 to 85 percent of our budgeted service because of the driver shortage, so we’d need that to climb that back first before we start adding new service onto our baseline.

If you have an idea about something in northern Wisconsin you think we should talk about on “Morning Edition,” send it to us at northern@wpr.org.