MetroLink Questions (St. Louis, St. Charles, Maryland Heights: sales, house, transfer)

[David Einstein]

1. Do you use it? How often?

2. Are expansions planned? What are the barriers for these expansions?

3. Is the Illinois portion used a lot?

4. What's the general perception of the system by citizens in the area?

5. How well intertwined is the rail/bus system?

[aragx6]

Originally Posted by David Einstein

1. Do you use it? How often? Because I don't live in St. Louis I'm really just a special event user, but I've known several people who used it for their daily commute and were very happy with the service.

2. Are expansions planned? What are the barriers for these expansions? There are quite a few lines under consideration for future construction, the most talked about being an extension to Westport Plaza in Maryland Heights and a north-south line through the city. Check out Metro's 30-year plan online at ://www.metrostlouis.org/MovingTransitForward.aspx -- This plan also calls for several express bus lines and two commuter rail lines. Like most things in life the biggest barrier is of a monetary nature, so I wouldn't expect major new lines to be built next year or anything, but within five years I would expect to see BRT lines up and running and a decision as to what will be the next metro line built -- man, I hope they build the N/S line!

3. Is the Illinois portion used a lot? I would think ridership numbers would be available but couldn't find them on a quick search.

4. What's the general perception of the system by citizens in the area? Varied. As a wild generalization I'll say that the farther out from the city you head, the lower the support for public transit. Years ago there was a push to extend service to St. Charles county and voters there voted down a proposal to do just that. It did come with a sales tax increase and there was no definitive timeline for construction or completion, but there were plenty of folks for whom this issue had little to do with money and everything to do with race.

But that was also more than a dozen years ago now and even the most suburban of folks I know in the area have parked at Hanley a time or two and taken the train in for Cards games or festivals.

5. How well intertwined is the rail/bus system?I've never had to do it for a daily commute, but from my understanding there is work to be done here. In addition there is still a pretty solid bus stigma in St. Louis.

Hope that answers your questions!

[BoomBoxing]

1. Yes and no. Now that it's warmer and gas prices are rising I'll probably start using it several times a week for commuting. My employer generously provides us with metro passes so there's no real excuse not to.

2. Yes there are many expansions planned but nothing is really moving forward with that. I wouldn't be surprised if it was 10+ years before a new line is completed.

3. The Illinois portion is probably used more than the MO part.

4. I'd say at least 50% of my coworkers use it everyday and most people I know will use it from time to time. They generally have a postive view of it. It wouldn't surprise me if people who live in the far outer parts of the St. Louis area probably have a more negative view (ironically because they are the ones who never use it!).

5. Rail and bus are very well intertwined and provide great service for St. Louis city and county. Also, the buses have bike racks and you can bring your bike on board metrolink.

[billiken]

1. Do you use it? How often?
I use it. Now that I live in the burbs and travel a whole ton for work, I just use it for big events where parking is a pain. Before that, I was carless for 5 years, and exclusively used MetroLink for transportation.

2. Are expansions planned? What are the barriers for these expansions?
Expansion is planned. Sales taxes have increased to help fund it.

3. Is the Illinois portion used a lot?
Not sure--I only went to IL once.

4. What's the general perception of the system by citizens in the area?
Depends who you ask. The people I knew who actually used it regularly didn't have too many complaints. I'd say most people complain that the last expansion was way over budget and that it doesn't go "anywhere," along with complaints about crime.

5. How well intertwined is the rail/bus system?
It's pretty good in my experience, but I used the light rail much more frequently. I wish the bus routes would have descriptions of major areas they run through. It would always take me a fair amount of time to figure out what bus to take if I was trying to go somewhere not directly served by the light rail.

[stlcitygirl]

1. Do you use it? How often?
I use it about once a week to get to work


2. Are expansions planned? What are the barriers for these expansions?
Sales taxes have increased to help fund it. Go STL County!

3. Is the Illinois portion used a lot?
Yes, I work over in Illinois occasionally, they use it a lot.

4. What's the general perception of the system by citizens in the area?
The people that use it like it, people like my Mother in Law way out in the burbs, think it brings crime.

5. How well intertwined is the rail/bus system?
I have neighbors in my South City neighborhood that are carless, so I assume its decent.

[rmc01]

It looks to me like Metro has made an effort to integrate the bus and metrolink systems. Take a look at the Missouri system map. There are several "Metrobus Centers" that are adjacent to metrolink stations. The one I am most familiar with is the CWE station--there are eight bus lines one could access from the metrolink at that stop.

http://www.metrostlouis.org/Librarie...System_Map.pdf

[Book Lover 21]

I use it every day commuting from IL to downtown St Louis and I love it. Clean, good security, convenient, reliable. I'm not very comfortable using it after 9pm though. But that's just me.

[David Einstein]

Great responses. Thanks.

[wustu87]

1. I use it every day to commute to work at Wash U from our home in Richmond Heights. On nicer days I walk to the stop, and on not so nice days or when I need the car I drive to a lot and park and ride. There are a lot of faculty, staff and students at Wash U that use it every day.

I believe others have answered 2, and 3 pretty well. I have never taken it over to Illinois.

4. In Clayton and the nearby mid-county suburbs, Metrolink and the buses are utilized pretty well and the system is fairly well regarded. I am sure as you go further out, the support for it goes down since its services do not extend too far out.

5. I can actually take a train to Clayton and then catch a bus that comes within half a mile of our house so I do that fairly often on nicer days. The Clayton station has a bunch of bus stops so when you get off the train you take an escalator down to the buses and can get on whichever bus you may need to go further out. It works out pretty well and there are always a good number of people that transfer from the trains to the buses at rush hour.