St. Louis Metrolink

During a recent trip to St. Louis, Missouri, my wife and I used the local light rail line called Metrolink while we were there. We did this because we got tired of trying to find a place to park our car and paying for the parking place. Also, my wife has never ridden on a train before now and she was impressed by Metrolink. When she asked me what made the train run, I pointed out the catenary wire above the tracks and the pantographs on top of each car. I tried to explain how they supplied power to the motors to make the train run. No my wife isn't a railfan but I am trying to corrupt her and turn her into one. Since we were staying in a hotel in Illinois close to the Shiloh-Scott station, that is where we parked our car and purchased our tickets from the ticket vending machine. Both my wife and I were impressed by the fact that an All-Day Pass on Metrolink wasn't outrageously expensive ($7.50). We didn't have enough time to ride the Blue Line to Shrewsbury and back but we did ride the Red Line all of the way from Shiloh-Scott to Lambert Airport. Then we rode the Red Line back into downtown so we could visit the Convention and Visitor's Bureau before we went to some of the popular tourist distractions (detractions?) such as the Gateway Arch.

Laurence

https://www.ksdk.com/amp/article/news/l ... 81c82202f7

Bi-State Development moving ahead with planning phase of MetroLink expansion

ST. LOUIS — Bi-State Development will move ahead in the planning of a proposed north-south expansion of MetroLink with the hopes of landing federal funding.

Bi-State Development Board of Commissioners gave the OK for the Bi-State Development team to plan, design and develop the Jefferson Alignment MetroLink Expansion, which was previously known as the Northside-Southside MetroLink expansion.

They will work with the City of St. Louis to create a plan that will then be presented to the federal government's New Starts program. Bi-State will lead the project and will work with outside consultant services to develop the plan.
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NS-SS-Jefferson-Alignment - BSD

In Jefferson Ave. a north-south street a little west of the central area. The existing east-west line will need a station at where Jefferson Ave. crosses it, because the nearest one, Union Station, is some 3,000 feet away as the pigeon flies, or about of mile of walking.

Its south end will be at Chippewa St. and its north end at Natural Bridge Ave. & Grand Blvd.

https://www.railwayage.com/regulatory/f ... annel=news

The Bi-State Development Agency of the Missouri-Illinois Metropolitan District, the operator of the Metro public transportation system serving the St. Louis metropolitan region, will receive $196.3 million to replace 48 light rail vehicles that have exceeded or are near the end of their useful life. The project will improve service and reliability as it addresses state of good repair needs.
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Single-Car Trains: KMOV.com.

MetroLink to test single-car trains

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - Metro Transit plans to start testing single-car MetroLink service starting Oct. 2.

“The pandemic has changed our region in a number of ways, including how people travel and how they use transit,” said Charles Stewart, Chief Operating Officer of Metro Transit. “We’ll be testing single-car service this fall to see if more flexibility on MetroLink makes better use of our workforce resources and provides opportunities to try out new innovative options that may better serve the changing travel patterns of our MetroLink riders.”

The pilot program will be put single-car trains into daily service instead of the two-car trains that MetroLink typically operates. According to Metro Transit, the single-car trains provide some advantages, which include more efficient for security to patrol and efficient service at current ridership levels.

Are these really single cars, or simply a single joined pair? My recollection is that they operate articulated pairs, which is pretty much the standard for light rail.

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I'm seeing the term "cars" being used to denote single joined pairs, often articulated, in many places; I don't know whether APTA has a standard definition for what constitutes a "car." I'm assuming that Metrolink is running one pair rather than two pairs coupled.

It's like when the railroads introduced well cars for double-stacked containers, comprising five articulated wells, with six trucks in all: suddenly, what is a car? I think the way it shook out was that if the whole thing had one number it was one car with suffixes ACDEB. (Harks back to the early days if diesels--is A-B-B-A one locomotive or four?)