St Louis light rail

I was told by the transit office in st. louis that there is a vote coming up in Nov 2008 to see if another light rail branch will be built, the system wants to build another line but she said another suburban route. I suggested an inner city route to help re-build neighborhoods like the redline in Boston help Davis Sq become popular with young people.

And what research did you base your suggestion on?

I'm sure the folks in St. Louis have done countless hours of studies to determine what route to build next. Not to mention that these routes are usually politically controlled as to where they might run next...

-otto-

I base my info off countless transit meetings I go to and learning from Boston's best transit neighborhood guy there is. I always say Boston needs more inner city transit over commuter rail. poeple need to move back to the cities with the gas prices.

If I might, this discussion could use some facts interjected.

aline1969 is correct that St. Louis County is planning on having a vote in Nov 2008 for an additional 1/2 cent sales tax to fund continuing Metro operations and possible expansion in St. Louis County. This tax is needed if current service levels are to be maintained. If the tax fails both Metro Bus and Metrolink will experience deep service cuts and sizable fair increases to balance the budget.

As for where a Metrolink expansion route will go, the politics have basically narrowed this down to two routes: to West county or to North County. Neither route has moved beyond the most basic study levels (see this website for info). The politics of the situation is such that most believe that a tax vote will only be successful if there are potential lines two these two areas of the County.

Both the Northside-Southside and the MetroSouth lines have advanced further in the planning process, but neither carries the proper political support. Local leaders in South County do not see future Metrolink expansion as a priority and the St. Louis City Mayor is not keen on additional taxes to pay for the Northside-Southside line. Additionally, St. Louis County leaders are not keen on pushing for a County tax to pay for what would amount to a City-only line. It should be notes that when studied the ridership estimates for the Northside-Southside were quite low, particularly due to three factors:

A. The study route did not include any portions that could well exist in St. Louis County. Adding in County park-n-ride stations would certainly increase the total ridership estimates.

B. Study criteria prevents the inclusion of special event ridership when estimating ridership (i.e. Cardinals games). Unfortunately in St. Louis special event ridership plays a big roll in the success of Metrolink and as such the study undercounts the likely ridership.

C. Those areas of North City through which the Northside-Southside pass have lost most of their residential density, further depressing ridership estimates. The potential to develop significant density remains one of the biggest positives of the route, but that cannot be capitalized into the estimates.

From an urban development standpoint aline1969 is right that the Northside-Southside would make a good route. That said, the easy low-hanging fruit for expansion are to West County and North County. With such a critical vote on the future of transit hanging in the balance, it is better to go with the sure things rather than the homerun.

Thanks for the note and info. I hope the tax gets passed because we need to keep transit going and we need more too, traffic and gas prices are killing a lot of us.

I notice that the St. Louis LRV's have a door that does not require a high platform. Has there been any thought given to having flag stops between the stations to serve less populated neighborhoods?

Disney Guy wrote:I notice that the St. Louis LRV's have a door that does not require a high platform. Has there been any thought given to having flag stops between the stations to serve less populated neighborhoods?

I don't think flag stops is a fly anymore. If the stop is not built by standards and law today then the car can not stop at flag stops anymore.