The Northeast Suburban Transit (NEST) service will be ending on March 26, 2010. NEST has provided local dial-a-ride services for Maplewood, North St. Paul, and Oakdale for many years and was created to fill a void in bus service within the area. The three cities contributed to the funding although the majority of the funds were provided through the MET Council. The Met Council has determined that it's funds can be better utilized in its new Transit Link service. General information about the change in dial-a-ride services is available here.
In general the new service will provide an expanded area which you will be able to travel because the system is county based vs city based. However the new system is set up to supplement the fixed route services currently provided by Metro Transit so there will be some limitations on service based upon your proximity to fixed route stops.
We will have to wait and see how this new plan works before we can determine if it is comparable to the service that NEST delivered, but there is no doubt in my mind that Transit Link is a more efficient use of tax dollars. We should expect that in the future that many city services will have to be reviewed to see if a regional approach makes more sense financially and then balance our decisions with whether the new service provides what we want and need.
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