Madison Metro Transit expands services in the region, starts new Monona route

Madison Metro Transit has expanded its services to Monona on Monday and is working to grow across the greater-Madison area.

By Ashley Weil

Published: Mar. 4, 2025 at 7:15 PM CST

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - Madison Metro Transit has expanded its services to Monona on Monday. The bus operation is working to grow across the greater-Madison area to become a regional source of public transportation.

Mich Rusch, Chief Development Officer with Metro Transit, says the launch of Route 38 was a success, saying timing and ridership went smoothly as buses operated at new stops.

The bus operation is working to grow across the greater-Madison area to become a regional source of public transportation.(wmtv)

“We’re really excited, in fact we heard our dispatcher reported that there was a point yesterday morning that we had 15 people on the bus at one time, which is really great for brand new service,” explained Rusch. “It’s great for anytime, especially early morning, and 15 people, that could be 15 cars that aren’t driving into Madison in the morning.”

The newly extended route 38 operates every 30 minutes through Madison and every hour through Monona and runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every weekday.

Monona officials are hoping this partnership will help Monona residents access Madison and other municipalities in the area. This will also help outside residents access Monona.

The City of Monona previously had its own private bus service, but it only operated at limited times and had limited stops.

“If you wanted to come to the library in the middle of the afternoon or you wanted to come to the pool at 10:00 AM, you couldn’t get here without getting in a car or riding your bike,” explained Alderperson Nancy Moore.

The bus operation is working to grow across the greater-Madison area to become a regional source of public transportation.(wmtv)

Alder Moore says she has been working with Metro Transit for three years to figure out how they wanted to execute the partnership.

“From the time that we started talking to Metro, to a whole bunch of community engagement that we had, to drawing and redrawing maps and routes and what would be safe,” said Moore.

Metro Transit also took time to organize and plan the new route systems. They have also worked with other municipalities in the past to set up other partnerships as they look to become a regional source of transportation.

“Going into Monona, we are looking into other arrangements with other neighboring communities. We want to be a regional transit, so we are working on different agreements with other communities, so that’s pretty exciting for us,” said Rusch.

Rusch says they are already in talks with Verona officials about expanding their metro services to add all-day service.

https://www.wmtv15news.com/2025/03/05/madison-metro-transit-expands-services-region-starts-new-monona-route/