Public transport in Fargo–Moorhead began in the 1870s, with horse-drawn coaches. In the twentieth century, trolleys and buses were introduced. Trolley tracks can still be seen in some alley ways in Fargo. Increased automobile use and growing urban sprawl caused public transport to decline in the area. Beginning in 1971, transit was subsidized. In 1974, the Fargo-Moorhead Council of Governments began management of the area's public transit, which was subsequently named MAT. Fargo and Moorhead later took control of their portions of the transit system, but continued cooperation and coordination under the MAT brand.
Ridership
MATBUS ridership totaled 1,867,498 system-wide in 2017, down from 1,931,970 in 2016. Ridership on MATBUS has seen significant gains since 1998 when fixed route ridership was 793,228. MATBUS experienced its highest use in 2014 when the total fixed route ridership reached 2,223,701. Significant ridership on MATBUS comes from area colleges due in part to the system's U-Pass program. Through the program, students at NDSU, MSUM, Concordia, M State, and NDSCS can ride any fixed route in the system for free by using their student ID. In 2017, college ridership accounted for 407,485 rides on MATBUS. Of those 407,485 rides, the majority were taken by riders from NDSU. Fixed routes near the NDSU campus are some of the most-used routes in the MATBUS system. Ridership on MATBUS paratransit routes in 2017 was 10,907, up from 10,765 in 2016.
Transit Routes
MATBUS operates 23 fixed routes and two on-demand routes throughout the Fargo-Moorhead metro area. Routes 1 through 9 primarily run in Moorhead and Dilworth while routes 11 through 34 primarily run in Fargo and West Fargo. During special events, MATBUS also operates a free shuttle between the Fargo and Moorhead downtown areas called LinkFM. Seven MATBUS fixed routes serve the North Dakota State University campus during the academic year through an agreement between the university and the City of Fargo. In January 2018, MATBUS replaced its late-night route on NDSU's campus with an on-demand route called TapRide. The system allows students at the university to request a ride via a smartphone app to and from any location on campus or nearby neighborhoods. In August 2019, a second TapRide route was launched to serve Fargo's industrial park area.
