The Sherburne County Board last week voted, 4-1 to start a two-year commuter bus pilot program beginning in 2026.

The bus will serve county commuters once the NorthStar commuter train ends operations Jan. 2 of next year.

The board discussed a few options for the program for 40 minutes with Administrator Bruce Messelt and members of the Met Council and Metro Transit before making it’s decision.

The options included two or three round trips a day from Big Lake to Minneapolis and the option for a period of either one or two years.

Each of the commissioners had input on the program.

“I like how this is set up as a pilot project,” said Commissioner Andrew Hulse. “Because we’re using existing infrastructure, this is truly a project with very minimal investment.”

He said there was still a question whether riders would use the bus service, but because it could be monitored, the board could decide its future.

“It’ll either work or it won’t,” he said. “If we get six months into this, if we get nine months into this and nobody’s riding this - shut it down.”

“I would say give it a year,” said Commissioner Gregg Felber. “Give it at least a full year to see how people respond.”

Commissioner Brad Schumacher, who was the lone dissenting vote, said from the map that was shown, there were very few riders in some areas that it would serve. He said he felt it would be throwing “good money at a bad problem.”

Administrator Messelt explained that the cost would be significantly less than the Northstar Commuter Train, which subsidizes each rider $4,600 a month. Calculating the number of total riders for 255 days a year put the subsidy for the bus program at about $13 per rider per day.

The program would also use existing buses from Met Council - at least for the pilot program.

“I’d like to see us support this pilot program. We will be able to monitor it. If we don’t see it performing like we would hope it would, we can stop the pilot,” said Commissioner Raeanne Danielowski. “I just think we need to provide something.”

Commissioner Gary Gray agreed.

“We can’t go from having the light rail to nothing,” he said. “You have to offer something, or at least make the attempt.”

Messelt said the bus service will use the current Metro Transit fare of $3.25, and use the Metro Transit passes for easy transition from Northstar. It will be less than the current NorthStar fares of $6.25 from Big Lake and $4.75 from Elk River.

Estimated cost of three round trips from Big Lake to Elk River to Minneapolis is $487,000 per year. Fare revenues could help offset some of the cost. The rest would be covered by Local Option Sales Tax dollars, not the tax levy. And Messelt said MnDOT has proposed sharing the cost 50/50 with the county.

Messelt said the county would be doing evaluations at 12, 18, and 24 months, plus additional evaluations as required.  “...to make sure this is a viable bus route. Or, like transit services do all over the state, if it’s not viable, it goes away.”

The program will start Jan. 5, 2026.