urbanSTL

I wish this were Downtown and not the Loop however the Loop is very special and will continue to grow i believe this will be positive for the surrounding area and Saint.Louis

I guess the trolley tracks themselves may be complete, but it certainly seems like there's a lot of work still to be done. Delmar is still a mess with lanes deadending into trolley stops with no warning, for example.

hiddeninput wrote:Delmar is still a mess with lanes deadending into trolley stops with no warning, for example.

They need signage up asap. That's dangerous. Some lady nearly sideswiped me on Saturday.

moorlander wrote:They need signage up asap. That's dangerous. Some lady nearly sideswiped me on Saturday.

I agree. The city seems comfortable with it as it's been like that for a while now. I get the impression that ucity has been the trolley's priority for a while and the work in the city somewhat of an afterthought. No one to blame for that, imo, aside from the city streets department not pressing the trolley folks more.

It'd be great to see the Loop Trolley secure a corporate naming sponsor to help contribute to the operational costs. This seems to be an increasing trend among smaller transit projects, with the Cincinnati Bell Connector, QLine (Quicken Loans/Detroit), TECO Line Streetcar (Tampa), and HealthLine (Cleveland Clinic) all providing recent examples.

Ameren would probably make the most sense.

FWIW, I contacted the City Streets Dept, and they say Delmar won't be repaved until Spring. The trolley contractor, however, is supposed to be maintaining temporary lane markings until then.

framer wrote:FWIW, I contacted the City Streets Dept, and they say Delmar won't be repaved until Spring. The trolley contractor, however, is supposed to be maintaining temporary lane markings until then.

Which likely means we have months of the same dangerous situation. Not sure it'll do any good, but I'll drop a note to my alderman about it.

^ there was a rumor that she was going into the infamous SW corner of Skinker.

arch city wrote:Per the last episode of "Welcome To Sweetie Pie's", owner Robbie Montgomery said she was planning to open a hamburger joint on the DeBaliviere strip. She cited the "tourist trolley" as motivation.

Here's the shopping center

Arch City, do your recall if this strip mall as part of TOD RFP tied to Metro's parking lot to south? or anyone? Recall at one time that Metro was trying to get development happen on its parking lot. Maybe structured parking tied to mixed use project, etc.

That whole stretch of DeBaliviere is definitely ready for some new construction.

Is there any way to put pressure on the trolley company to make Delmar a bit safer until this project is complete? I've opened a CSB issue and contacted my alderman, but neither approach seems to have been very effective and I had a near accident on that stretch of road yesterday.

^Good luck. I've complained directly to the City Streets Dept. twice, and both times they said they'd look into it. It's still a complete free-for-all.

The theory is people drive more carefully in the face of uncertainty. Not happening?

I seem to recall hearing that accidents went down for a while when . . . the Netherlands? . . . switched to driving on the correct side of the road. And then a year or so later they went right back up where they'd always been. On the other hand, I'm sure there were individual folks who had more accidents that year than previous years, even if the larger statistic said accidents were down. Small samples are funny things, and our own anecdotal experiences tend to have a rather small sample size. Not saying this isn't a problem . . . Just . . . curious about the data.

KMOV - Loop Trolley construction complete, but months of testing is ahead

http://www.kmov.com/story/34165092/loop ... g-is-ahead

There are still so many questions about this, including basic stuff like fares. Kind of amazing they're this far along without knowing what the fare structure is going to look like.

Have they strung wire? I need to get back up that way. Haven't been to the loop in a month or two.

^All the wire is strung, all the track has been laid. Delmar between Des Peres and DeBaliviere is still a mess, but everything else is looking pretty good.

Wires are strung up. I personally am concerned about the rapidly deteriorating quality of the concrete median containing the tracks between Des Peres and DeBalivier. The new concrete is already looking very damaged especially on the station in front of the old Wabash station. In other parts they have simply reused the existing curb that protected the original planters. It's clearly out of place, has weeds still growing out of it, and looks awful. Way to make the project look run down before it even opens.

Just look at the most recent streetview (October) As of last week it looks even worse. I don't know if it was bad materials or that St. Louis drivers are just that bad but something needs to be done. The city either needs to find a way to maintain these on a very regular basis or replace the curbs with something more durable.

I was also disappointed to find that the trolley doesn't actually loop around by City Hall or the History Museum, I always thought that aspect of the project was cool.

I am very impressed however with the DeBalivier streetscape. The Tracks are completely separated and on the side of the road. Landscaping is beautiful and the stations look good (although not nearly as nice as in KC). The rest of the stations are currently empty slabs of concrete. Hopefully that will change.

In conclusion, the overall workmanship seems to be significantly worse that the KC line. In classic St. Louis style this project has been over budget and very underwhelming. The transportation aspect is still an enormous asset to the Loop, and will pay large dividends. I just worry that this will eventually go the way of the Washington Avenue streetscape.

^ IMO every paved and concrete surface along Delmar in the Loop needs to be torn up and re-poured. The street and sidewalks look like sh*t and, as you pointed out, the elevated trolly platforms are already looking beat-up. i wish we could have nice things, but too many St. Louisans just don't give f*ck.

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote:DeBalivier

FYI - DeBaliviere
Agree it's much improved. I wish some of the curb cuts for auto-oriented land uses went away and blocked streets were opened.

Some crosswalks are missing or awkward. Portions of sidewalk that had texture now don't. Street light poles have bigger bases taking space away from sidewalks.
I like that the crossing Delmar at the Wabash station is much easier with the refuge created by the trolley station

Anyone been by the maintenance facility/old Delmar High building lately? Look good?