The Minnesota Valley Transit Authority, also known by the acronym MVTA, is a public transportation agency that serves seven communities in the southern portion of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area.

The agency provides fixed-route and demand-responsive transit within the service area of the communities and to select destinations in the region.

The six cities of Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, Prior Lake, Rosemount, and Savage voted to leave the MTC service area in 1989.

[6] After only six weeks of service, MVTA along with the other six opt-out communities rallied against budget cuts impacting their transit systems.

[7] After consultation with the Regional Transit Board's attorney, budget cuts were tabled with the understanding that the Regional Transit Board had overstepped its authority to institute budget cuts and impinge on the independence of the opt-out communities.

[10] MVTA served 1,470 riders each weekday by 1993,[11] and offered suburb-to-suburb service with several of the five suburban only routes terminating at the recently built Mall of America.

I-35W is the main thoroughfare between the communities and downtown Minneapolis and at the time was under consideration for a light rail line.

[13] While MVTA provided 1,085 parking spaces for riders throughout their system, 97% were full which led to the Regional Transit boarding funding projects to improve park-and-ride locations in Apple Valley, Burnsville, and Eagan.

[17][18][19] Other opt-out communities followed suit with construction of park-and-rides in Maple Grove, Plymouth, and Eden Prairie.

[26] A tweak in state law in 1996 allowed opt-out providers to directly levy their own taxes for transit rather than collect them through the Metropolitan Council.

[27] MVTA began operating an express bus route from Burnsville Transit Station to the I-494 strip in Bloomington and Edina.

MVTA also provides service from these areas to key destinations in the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as the Mall of America in Bloomington.

Prior Lake rejoined and the city of Shakopee joined MVTA in September 2014 with service in those areas beginning in 2015.

Service is offered seven days a week and serves the cities of Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, Rosemount, and Savage.

[41] MVTA buses traveling via I-35W also stop at the I-35W & Lake Street station which was created as part of the project.

Route 436 offers service from the 46th Street Station on the METRO Blue Line to Ecolab Shuman Campus, The Omni Hotel,[46][47] Viking Lakes Innovation Center & TCO Stadium,[48] with limited service to Thomson Reuters in Eagan.

Route 447 offers bi-hourly service to & from Mystic Lake Casino at Apple Valley Transit Station Route 465 offers service from Burnsville to the South Bloomington Transit Center and the University of Minnesota.

Route 489 offers service from Union Depot in Downtown St. Paul to Ecolab Shuman Campus, Boulder Lakes Business Park and Thomson Reuters in Eagan.