During New Ulm’s Transportation Advisory Committee meeting Tuesday, Committee chair and Brown County Heartland Express Operations Director Pat LaCourse said Hermann Express would not be adopting electric buses as originally planned. Following testing of the electrical buses, it was discovered they would not have enough power to make it through a full route.

LaCourse said the electric buses would likely work during the summer months, but would not be able to make a full loop during a Minnesota winter.

The original plan was to purchase the buses through a low or no-emissions grant program. LaCourse said they tried to switch out the electric buses with propane buses with the grant, but this change was not approved. Going forward the committee is looking to apply for another low or no-emission grant to cover the cost of two propane buses.

LaCourse said propane-powered buses would meet the low emission requirements. Propane burns cleaner and is currently a lower-cost option than gasoline.

Hermann Express stops across the street from Broadway Haus. The current Hermann Express bus route takes an hour to complete. New Ulm is hoping to decrease the route time by adding two buses on shorter loops.

If the grant application is accepted, it would cover the cost of two propane-powered buses and the infrastructure needed for it.

As part of this application, the committee is seeking a letter of recommendation from the City of New Ulm and the Brown County Commissioners.

LaCourse said though the plan has changed from propane buses instead of electric, the committee still wanted to move forward with a two-bus system for Hermann Express. The idea would be to have two buses operating in New Ulm at the same time on separate, shorter routes. However, LaCourse wanted to confirm the city still supported a two-bus system.

“Two buses are going to double the cost,” LaCourse said. “Is it going to be double the ridership? I am not sure. We might hit a few more places we are not hitting now, but will it really increase our ridership?”

City Manager Chris Dalton said he did not think ridership would double with two buses, but was confident ridership would increase. He said with two smaller route loops it would be more rider friendly. More people could use Hermann Express for commuting.

Dalton said he was not concerned with doubling the cost of Hermann Express because last year it only cost the city around $2,500.

“If you double that, it’s $5,000 a year for a bus system,” Dalton said.

The committed did receive an updated ridership number from lead Hermann Express driver Sarah Berg. Berg said there was an 11% increase in ridership during the first five months of 2025 from 2024. There were a total of 2,509 rides between January and May of this year. May saw the highest monthly ridership total on Hermann Express with 582 rides. June has seen 201 riders so far.

Berg said it was exciting to see the increase. She believed the increase was due to new riders discovering Hermann Express and becoming regular riders.  

Berg provided the committee with rider feedback related to the route. She said there were requests to add new stops at Colonial Inn and the Senior Center at German and 7th North.

Berg said for passengers heading to the Senior Center, Hermann Express will stop at German and 3rd North.

There was also a request for a bench at the Emerson Union stop. The committee discussed options for funding new benches. Committee member Tom Henderson suggested looking for grants from the Optimist Club to fund new benches.

City Councilor and committee member Eric Warmka asked if there was a city code for constructing benches.

City Engineer Joe Stadheim said the benches cannot be placed in the Boulevard and it would take city council approval to be placed in the city right-of-way. The benches were not required to be uniform in design, but the bench pads would need to be ADA-compliant.

In other news, LaCourse informed the committee, that Hermann Express and Heartland Express will be offering free rides to New Ulm’s Farmers Market. LaCourse said passengers using this service will turn in a voucher to the New Ulm Area Chamber, which hosts the market. The New Ulm Chamber was able to get a $10,000 grant from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture to cover this cost.