The A Line operates primarily along the Snelling Avenue corridor and travels through the cities of Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Falcon Heights, and Roseville.

A Line buses travel east along 46th St, cross Minnesota State Highway 55, also known as Hiawatha Avenue, before passing near Minnehaha Park.

The line continues north past Hamline University, the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, and the Como Park neighborhood of Saint Paul.

The line crosses Minnesota State Highway 36 before terminating at Rosedale Center where there are connections to eight Metro Transit bus routes.

[11] The A Line employs several bus rapid transit features that result in service that is six to eight minutes faster than existing buses on Snelling Avenue.

[14] Metro Transit did not consider bus lanes in their project proposal to be reasonable and maintains that dedicated bus lanes would not have sped up travel times significantly due to most speed improvement being linked to other A Line design features that minimized red light and passenger delay.

[16][17][18] Stations are spaced at roughly .5-mile (0.80 km) intervals which helps limit the time spent on accelerating and stopping the bus.

Station shelters follow a "kit-of-parts" design so they can be easily identified and used throughout Metro's bus rapid transit system.

Stations have lighted canopies, on-demand heating, security cameras and emergency telephones, benches, and bike parking.

Ticket vending machines and Go-To card readers are located on platforms for off-board fare collection, speeding up the boarding process and reducing bus dwell time.

[27] The internal digital displays are able to show real-time service information on connecting routes, announcements, and what stops are upcoming.

[29] An additional bus was purchased a month after the line opened to improve maintenance and reliability operations.

A Snelling + Ford Parkway streetcar corridor from 46th Street Station to the Green Line and a Snelling North corridor from the Green Line to Como Park scored lower on the study's screening criteria due to lower ridership, less transit supportive land use, and limited potential to redevelop properties.

Route 84 ran 15-minute weekday and Saturday service from Rosedale Center before diverging into several branches close to Ford Parkway.

Route 144 ran along Snelling Avenue from around Ford Parkway until it reached Interstate 94 where it traveled west, exited and served the University of Minnesota, before finishing in downtown Minneapolis.

[42][43][44] The Metropolitan Council, the metropolitan planning organization for the Twin Cities, completed a 2030 Transit Master Study for the region in 2008 which identified arterial bus network corridors and encouraged further study of arterial bus rapid transit projects.

Corridors were evaluated on capital and operating costs, potential ridership, and travel time savings.

[50] The current route of the A Line was approved in 2014 by the Metropolitan Council as the region's first arterial bus rapid transit project.

[52] Funding for the project came from a variety of sources including $14.6 million of the costs from CMAQ, Metropolitan Council, and MnDOT Trunkhighway Bonds, as Snelling Avenue also serves as State Highway 51.

[55] After design reviews postponed the approval of a contract for station construction until June 2015, the opening date was pushed from late 2015 to 2016.

[56] Metro Transit began testing operating A Line buses along the corridor by February 2016 before the planned June opening.

[58] The extension studied had a northern terminus of the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant redevelopment in Arden Hills which is also known as the Rice Creek Commons.

In the final report issued in September 2016, Metro Transit concluded that there was no funding available and ridership did not support an immediate extension.

[59] The comprehensive plans for the cities of Roseville and Arden Hills both contain sections on an A Line extension and the need to keep BRT in mind when developing land within the corridor.