Rural transit system offers free rides to urge newcomers to try the bus

LE SUEUR — The Minnesota River Valley Transit bus hummed along Highway 169 early Thursday morning speeding toward Mankato from Le Sueur.

Frosty trees and fields passed outside the bus windows and three women riding the bus chatted to one another in Spanish.

“This is my first time to take the bus to Mankato,” said Le Sueur resident Concepcion Pargas. “I think it’s nice. I’m just going to go around and see in Mankato. I don’t have anybody waiting for me at home, so I can stay as long as I want.”

For many of the transit system’s regular riders, the bus is their only form of transportation, said Carly Ballman, a driver for MRVT.

Pargas said she has worked at a nursing home in Le Sueur for more than 15 years and often uses transit in Le Sueur.

The MVRT routes get riders from town to town.

“They utilize the corridor route a lot to come to Mankato to shop,” Ballman said. “We have one lady who likes to shop at Barnes and Noble. She preorders her books there and she goes and picks them up. She rides with me about once a week.”

The corridor route begins at the Valley Green Square Mall in Le Sueur, then stops at the Family Fresh Market in St. Peter before going to the River Hills Mall in Mankato. After the mall, it stops at the Mayo Clinic Health System campus for riders with medical appointments before starting the route over.

The fare is $6 one way from Le Sueur to Mankato and the bus goes back and forth every two hours on route days.

"A lot of people use it just to hang out with their friends in Mankato, too" Ballman said.

The joint transit system between St. Peter and Le Sueur is offering free rides from Le Sueur to St. Peter to Mankato and back as a way to promote its services.

St. Peter and Le Sueur merged their bus systems in January to form Minnesota River Valley Transit. The new system has set routes and dial-a-ride in both cities, preschool transit in St. Peter and the corridor route all the way to Mankato.

"Right now we kind of have the same regulars and it isn't reaching as many people as we hoped it would," Ballman said. "We're hoping that by offering free rides, people can hopefully let go of their fear. Because people feel like 'I don't know how to ride a bus from Le Sueur to Mankato.'"

The route from Le Sueur to Mankato launched in February. But the transit system only began advertising the route in the last few weeks, said Transit Operations Director Sandi Owens.

The route is available Mondays, Thursdays and the second Saturday of each month. This month all rides on the corridor route on Dec. 10, 18 and 21 are free. They also offered free rides Dec. 4 and 7.