urbanSTL

1) Agree that this behavior is annoying and cutting down on it would be nice. The gates will probably cut down on unhoused people riding the trains more than this anti-social stuff though.

2) St. Louis people are kind of melodramatic about behavior on the train. You can’t take a red line in Chicago without several drug dealers passing between trains, cigarette and weed smoking, people sleeping on it, human waste, drinking and loud music, getting asked for money, fights, somebody losing it or completely tweaking out, women getting harassed. Like I’m not sure I ever had a day without at least a couple of those things going on every day when I worked up there.

3) We should strive to be the best though. Public transit behavior issues in the US are an unfortunate part of another thing we deal with that seems to be mostly nonexistent in other countries. We do well keeping the trains clean here (very clean relatively to US system), but some stations like Delmar Loop and Forest Park Debaliviere should be much more full of regular commuters than some of the issues these stations see. I think it may have to do more with development around it than the gates but we will see. We need to leverage our system much more, so hopefully this incrementally helps discourse around metrolink and ridership

Doesn't Chicago have gates?

Chicago has gates. 

dweebe wrote: ↑

May 01, 2025

delmar2debaliviere2downtown wrote: ↑

May 01, 2025

2) St. Louis people are kind of melodramatic about behavior on the train. You can’t take a red line in Chicago without several drug dealers passing between trains, cigarette and weed smoking, people sleeping on it, human waste, drinking and loud music, getting asked for money, fights, somebody losing it or completely tweaking out, women getting harassed. Like I’m not sure I ever had a day without at least a couple of those things going on every day when I worked up there.

You're right. I guess I should delete my post because we don't have it bad. 

It truly is sad how bad the Chicago EL has declined. The red line is a disaster with many of those things happening at the same time on a single train. I think the last time we were there, we switched trains 3 times in a single ride on the red line because of smoking, mental health breakdowns etc. It feels worse now than during the malaise 1980s when I'd go up there as a kid to visit cousins.

What worse is in St. Louis you have private security on their phones and ignoring everything. In Chicago it's full uniformed officers doing it.

Not delete your post. Just notice that St. Louis natives and the news really seem to be very critical of metrolink and it kind of sets the discourse about the system. A lot of transplants like myself hear “don’t take the train” when we talk to natives. There’s also the spiral theory that also haunts our downtown as well that when people say “nobody takes the train here” or “nobody goes downtown”, those things become true.

But certainly not saying just because it’s not as bad as the Chicago red line (which probably has the worst consistent public transit behavior and environment of anything I’ve ridden) means we can’t discuss metrolink behavior. I agree we need to work on it because we fight other battles of convenience, frequency, proximity to stations so we can’t afford the safety problem on top of that

Chicago has waist high gates that people routinely just hop over.

Debaliviere91 wrote: ↑

May 01, 2025

Chicago has waist high gates that people routinely just hop over.

This and people will hang out by the turnstiles and ask you to pay for them or for money. Neither do I find to be the biggest deal but unhoused people and panhandlers like to stay close to the gates as a spot. The former won’t be an issue with the new metrolink gates, the latter may become more of a frequent thing which may backfire on safety concerns (particularly the downtown stations)

delmar2debaliviere2downtown wrote:

Debaliviere91 wrote: ↑

May 01, 2025

Chicago has waist high gates that people routinely just hop over.

This and people will hang out by the turnstiles and ask you to pay for them or for money. Neither do I find to be the biggest deal but unhoused people and panhandlers like to stay close to the gates as a spot. The former won’t be an issue with the new metrolink gates, the latter may become more of a frequent thing which may backfire on safety concerns (particularly the downtown stations)

Agreed. The gates will help with homeless and mentally ill people loitering on the train, which will have the biggest impact on safety and perception of safety.

The smoking, loud music, etc won’t go away and is just a reality of public transit in every city.

I've been doing some tours/meetings with folks at Metro, trying to figure out why they launched the gates before the fare system. 
Later this month there should be an announcement on the new fare system and validators. The bus rollout will come first as they've been installed on the buses already. Some drivers have already soft launched it despite Metro begging them not to. 
Everyone keeps swearing it'll be January when the fare system will connect to the gates on Metrolink platforms. The next phase of gates will be installed soon but they will be kept open until they can connect to the fare validators. 

If you ever find yourself unable to get through with a guard, you can call or text Metro security. They can remotely open gates in an instant. I watched them do it. They have a camera center that rivals the real time crime center and watch everything, which makes me even more confused why they are still having people getting stuck at gates when guards go to the bathroom or just MIA. 

Given the infamous STL County PD napping scandal it doesn't take much imagination to figure out why that might be.

flipflopju wrote: ↑

May 01, 2025

I've been doing some tours/meetings with folks at Metro, trying to figure out why they launched the gates before the fare system. 
Later this month there should be an announcement on the new fare system and validators. The bus rollout will come first as they've been installed on the buses already. Some drivers have already soft launched it despite Metro begging them not to. 
Everyone keeps swearing it'll be January when the fare system will connect to the gates on Metrolink platforms. The next phase of gates will be installed soon but they will be kept open until they can connect to the fare validators. 

If you ever find yourself unable to get through with a guard, you can call or text Metro security. They can remotely open gates in an instant. I watched them do it. They have a camera center that rivals the real time crime center and watch everything, which makes me even more confused why they are still having people getting stuck at gates when guards go to the bathroom or just MIA. 

If you press the help button, they'll answer and open the gate for you. I do it at the Union Station Clark Street side at least 50% of the time.

I've been able to use my Transit app to scan my ticket when boarding buses. It's pretty seamless and easy when it's working, which seems to be about a third of the time. 

I'm looking forward to when I can do that with the MetroLink gates. 

Ebsy wrote: ↑

May 01, 2025

Given the infamous STL County PD napping scandal it doesn't take much imagination to figure out why that might be.

They did make us all go into the tour with cell phones off and referenced that exact incident

flipflopju wrote: ↑

May 01, 2025

Auggie wrote: ↑

May 01, 2025

flipflopju wrote: ↑

May 01, 2025

I've been doing some tours/meetings with folks at Metro, trying to figure out why they launched the gates before the fare system. 
Later this month there should be an announcement on the new fare system and validators. The bus rollout will come first as they've been installed on the buses already. Some drivers have already soft launched it despite Metro begging them not to. 
Everyone keeps swearing it'll be January when the fare system will connect to the gates on Metrolink platforms. The next phase of gates will be installed soon but they will be kept open until they can connect to the fare validators. 

If you ever find yourself unable to get through with a guard, you can call or text Metro security. They can remotely open gates in an instant. I watched them do it. They have a camera center that rivals the real time crime center and watch everything, which makes me even more confused why they are still having people getting stuck at gates when guards go to the bathroom or just MIA. 

If you press the help button, they'll answer and open the gate for you. I do it at the Union Station Clark Street side at least 50% of the time.

Though some of the public comments from last month's Board meeting seemed to say they had trouble with this at other stations, notably Delmar. I wonder if the call button is broken there. 

It may. I don't use Delmar so I wouldn't personally know. It's still bad that it's even something I have to do half the time at Union Station. An actual failure on Metro's behalf and I really hope they actually get the new payment system fully installed relatively soon after the gates are done.

The Metro App is going to either be very interesting and I hope they do it correctly. I visited Washington DC in 2023 and 2024 and it was very handy to just download the app and use it as opposed to messing with the ticket machines.

Auggie wrote: ↑

May 01, 2025

The Metro App is going to either be very interesting and I hope they do it correctly. I visited Washington DC in 2023 and 2024 and it was very handy to just download the app and use it as opposed to messing with the ticket machines.

You can technically download the new app now. It's called Metro RideOn! From what I've heard, it should be fairly user-friendly. 

App

Will it have the apple swipe functionality? I haven't had a physical card or visited the Ventra app for CTA in three years. I'm down to just swiping my apple watch when boarding the bus or entering the turnstiles. 

addxb2 wrote: ↑

May 02, 2025

Will it have the apple swipe functionality? I haven't had a physical card or visited the Ventra app for CTA in three years. I'm down to just swiping my apple watch when boarding the bus or entering the turnstiles. 

It looks like it should, if it's using Masabi Justride as the fare collection system as the screenshots above indicate: 

Choice of apps and fare media

Justride delivers passengers’ choices. Riders can choose from many different options to pay for their fare: from bank cards and Apple Pay, to adding cash to their transit accounts to ‘tap and ride’ with a smartcard or their mobile phone. They can also choose to buy their tickets in a number of popular mobility apps such as Transit app, Uber, Moovit and Lyft.

On the other hand, CityNerd was just in Australia visiting Melbourne and Sydney, and he complained about not being able to use his watch to pay for transit in Melbourne. Justride lists Melbourne as one of the cities using their platform. I have no idea if that's an issue with Justride itself or if that's a feature that is available but that Melbourne hasn't implemented for whatever reason.

Apple watch functionality or lack thereof is an extreme example of a first world problems.

Ebsy wrote:Apple watch functionality or lack thereof is an extreme example of a first world problems.

Fair… or should I say Fare.

I’m more so asking because it (tap to pay) is the functionality I expect from agencies when visiting in 2025. For example, if I land somewhere and have to spend more than 5 mins setting up an app or visiting a kiosk to take public transit, I’m probably going to take a Lyft. I’d rather just swipe my credit card via Apple Pay.

My travel expectation is that 100% should be done without having to move my wallet from my bag. Taxi, flight, hotel, food, transit, etc. should be done via phone app or digital payment.

addxb2 wrote: ↑

May 05, 2025

Ebsy wrote:Apple watch functionality or lack thereof is an extreme example of a first world problems.

Fair… or should I say Fare.

I’m more so asking because it (tap to pay) is the functionality I expect from agencies when visiting in 2025. For example, if I land somewhere and have to spend more than 5 mins setting up an app or visiting a kiosk to take public transit, I’m probably going to take a Lyft. I’d rather just swipe my credit card via Apple Pay.

My travel expectation is that 100% should be done without having to move my wallet from my bag. Taxi, flight, hotel, food, transit, etc. should be done via phone app or digital payment.

Do you remember if Metro had any signage or QR prompts about digital payment when you arrived? Sometimes the tech’s there, but it’s buried under bad user design