A TRUE Transit bus drives across a bridge into Mankato, one of its most popular destinations. TRUE Transit offers rides to people from New Ulm into Mankato and vice versa, even though New Ulm is not within their three-county area.

NEW ULM — Born out of necessity, TRUE Transit works to provide public transportation to those who need it in a pocket of southern Minnesota.

TRUE Transit is a public transportation service operating out of Mankato. With their dial-a-ride service, buses come to the rider’s home and drop them off there as well. As public transportation, TRUE Transit is available to everyone.

TRUE Transit mainly covers Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties. TRUE Transit Marketing Communications Manager Paige Schuette is an original member of the organization. She said the idea came from an initiative led by the Minnesota Department of Transportation

“They wanted to see every county in the state offering public transportation,” she said. “There were only five counties out of the entire state not already offering public transportation. Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties were three [of them]. Because of the proximity of those three counties being close together, it made more sense to create one big organization serving all three counties.”

As they already had experience with MnDOT and running a bus service for seniors, VINE Faith in Action elected to fill that void with TRUE Transit. The service began in 2018, after a year and a half of planning and organization to put everything together. They soon realized New Ulm was a popular request outside of their three-county bubble.

“A good portion of western Nicollet County was going into New Ulm,” Schuette said. “That’s in Brown County and not in our service district. We had to get special permission from Heartland Express and MnDOT to cross county lines and drop people off in New Ulm if they needed to. When we started going into New Ulm, people started contacting us from New Ulm saying ‘Hey, can I get on the bus and get into Mankato?’ Because Mankato is in Blue Earth County, we do have a handful of passengers who regularly ride with us.”

TRUE Transit is unique for the area as it covers multiple counties at the same time. With the demand from these areas, there has been a lot of quick growth and spots to fill.

“As we’ve grown, we’ve discovered sometimes we have to deny rides based on the availability of drivers and buses,” Schuette said. “Since COVID began, we’ve been in a constant state of trying to hire bus drivers. There’s certain licensing they need, and not everybody has licensing, nor do they want to go through the process of getting a license. We’ve been short-staffed for quite a while because of that.”

Another issue has been getting more buses, which has seen a supply shortage since COVID-19 started and is still unrelenting today. As an example, Schuette said a bus they ordered in 2021 has still not arrived over two years later. Even so, the ability to provide public transportation to those in need makes it all worthwhile.

“I’m hearing the stories of people and how grateful they are for the service,” Schuette said. “With the bus typically only having a handful of people, our drivers get to know the passengers pretty well. A lot of times they develop relationships with them, and they know about them. For a lot of people, it’s an opportunity to socially connect with somebody, especially if they are isolated and living alone. To have a driver to talk to and tell them stories, it can brighten someone’s day.”

Rides are a $5 fee regardless of mileage, but reservations must be made in advance so schedules can be planned out. For more information, visit https://truetransit.org/