urbanSTL

If i want to ride from shrewsberry to the airport, at forest park do will I have to get off and wait for another train? I don't want to end up downtown...

^This has been said in this forum before, but someone going from Shrewsbury to Lambert would need to transfer at Forest Park, but if headed Downtown, no transfer is needed.



Downtown is the bigger magnet and its trips are much more likely to be a daily trip for commuters than an airport. Thus, single-ride service to Downtown from the new I-44 and I-64 (US 40) park'n'ride stations will help boost ridership on the new extension, especially when such service also links Clayton and Downtown with a single, quick train ride.

I can understand why the Red Line has only two cars per train, but why the Green Line too?

I'm driving down I-44 today and noticed two metrotrains sitting on the overpass in shrewsbury. If that is Metro's way of advertising, it is fabulous. It was pretty neat seeing the interior of the trains lit up at 5 in the morning. Maybe Metro plans on opening soon!

Saw this all weekend... agreat advertising and marketing scheme!

stlmike wrote:I can understand why the Red Line has only two cars per train, but why the Green Line too?

Why spend money to build platforms for three or more cars on the new Shrewsbury Stations when all of the stations east for Forest Park including the downtown stations can not handle three car trains? If Metro is going to build three car stations, it will need to do it for every station from Emerson to Shrewsbury to make it beneficial.



If the community begins to use Metrolink with peak loads where we are unable to accommodate the passengers without greater frequency in the core or with going to three car trains, it will be necessary invest some very large amounts of capital funds to resolve this problem.



When the designers and Metro were evaluating options to reduce expenses on Cross County, a number of very important items were cut out. One such cut was an option to build a branched structure to permit Metro to add a branch going north and west to Page and Westport. The thought at the time was that we would never be able to extend the system anyway so why waste that money. That was a fateful decision because a West Port extension via I-170 to the rail alignment west to Westport would be a very strong branch. To do it now will be very costlly and may make construction under operation impossible.



When Metro opted too delete this future thinking feature of the design, it would have been impossible to also suggest building stations for three car trains when the cost of the stations east of Forest Park was not available.



With adequate funding we could have done a lot of things.

If the community begins to use Metrolink with peak loads where we are unable to accommodate the passengers without greater frequency in the core or with going to three car trains

The lines at metrolink during a game or during a popular event is enough to warrent a longer redline train, if it weren't for the difficulty in the subway stations. Have you seen the lines after a ballgame? Even more people would be using it if they could bring the lines down. The only complaint I ever hear about metrolink to the ballgame is that the line is too huge.



You might say, it's just a ballgame. It's only so many days of the year that the station is that packed. True. But it's also the games and the big events that overload the parking garages and make some people think that we need even MORE parking. It's the entertainment industry that always claims to need more and more parking and constantly neglects our urban fabric with suburban style planning.

Metro can't waste to money to extend platforms for special events. All special services would likely be complently elminated next year without more funding.

stmdqmw wrote:Metro can't waste to money to extend platforms for special events. All special services would likely be complently elminated next year without more funding.

It was short sided of Metro not to build in the capacity to expand stations- especially on the new CC expansion. That being said, if you can't reasonably expand all the stations, then its worthless (unless somehow you implement an express train that goes from the events coorisponding station downtown to all the park and ride metro stations) Its a nice idea but I would say you should choose one or the other - new stations or better existing stations - you can't expect both in ANY capacity...

^And the clear choice is new stations. New stations that generate new ridership is clearly a better use of highly limited funds than expanding old stations to "handle baseball/special events traffic".



The M-link is not a baseball shuttle system for suburbanites, it's a regonal transit system and it does that job well. We need to focus on increasing the amount of daily riders, not allowing special event goers to pile into train more efficiently a few days out of the year.

^^ my point exactly -- and if those people who travel once a year only see it when its really crowded - maybe they will say "hey this is a great system but we need more money for this" Wishfull thinking? I mean that could be a good PR campaign - get those crutial votes we need for more $$ by appleaing to people who pay taxes but don't really utilize the system....

Metro should only increase special service if the sales tax increase passes and i do agree that it might convice more people to vote for it who don't use the system often.

^Definitely, if there were more MetroLink lines out of downtown then there wouldn't be such a crush of people after special events waiting for trains.

what metro should have done is (im not sure they didn't try this already) have the trains lined up right after the fireworks, knowing that the people would all be leaving the fair at the same time. By this i mean litterally have the trains parked back to back to back in both directions so that when one fills up, it pulls away and there is another train litterally right there. At least at the station at Lacledes landing, this would show to people that metro is attempting (which i know sounds bad - as i know they are trying very hard - but its precieved by people who never ride that they could do more)



More lines out of downtown would definately help - but for the next 8 - 10 years (or more) we will have to deal with the bottle neck in some fashion...... something better can be done.

For safety reasons, trains can only get about 5 minutes apart. What happens now after special events is that trains do sort of line up-- westbound from the shed just east of JJK and/or pocket-track east of Emerson Park, as well as eastbound from the shed just west of Union Station. But those waiting at a Downtown station only see a train every 5 minutes, not one immediately behind another.

Let's just face the fact that we're a long ways away from having a complete light rail system, so we can't expect it to run like a complete system since it isn't. St. Louis is lucky enough to have the majority of it's major events downtown, which is more than you can say for a lot of cities, and it's really a boost for the city. The problem, is that our mass transit is trying to catch up to the demand for the major event transit riders.



The new lines should not focus on getting people in and out of the area as fast as possible during special events, but on creating the best mass transit system St. Louis can get.



Another issue is that the city needs to do a better job of offering people options in staying downtown after the game, instead of heading right towards the MetroLink stop. A big benefit will be the Ballpark Village, but even a completed Chouteaus landing, and an improved southside will do wonders for keeping those people downtown longer.

Trent, thanks for that heavy dose of common sense.

A blurb from the Sunday PD:



Deb Peterson Column - 7 July 2006

Citizens for Modern Transit - a pro-transit group in the St. Louis area - sent out a memo saying Metro has set the last week of August as an "unofficial" date for opening MetroLink's Forest Park-to-Shrewsbury expansion. Metro has been predicting an October opening. Dianne Williams, a spokeswoman for Metro, said Friday that the transit line hopes to open the expansion before October but does not expect it to be as early as August. She said the agency is waiting for delivery of 16 fans, each weighing 3,800 pounds, that have to be installed in the tunnels through which the rail line will travel. Once some of the fans have been installed, she said Metro will have a better idea of when the expansion can open.

<A HREF="http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/c ... cument">PD link</A>



I visited the CMT web site but found no memo about the unofficial opening.

and I'll be on a cruise...



Would love to do this!

ill be at school darn

An up official update. Metro announcement of Shrewsbury line start up is reportedly planned for Friday, August 4th.



Jet fans for tunnels from Germany are scheduled for arrival in St. Louis by Tuesday and and Wednesday, August 1st and 2nd. Metro will work 24-7 to install all 16 fans on August 2nd. With testiing the fans could be fully installed by August 7th. Plan is to install four fans per day.



Full system simulation may start on August 14th (or perhaps earlier). Schedules are written and will be reviewed by operations shortly. This will go on for a week or two.



Open house for disabled passengers on new alignment is scheduled for August 15th.



Look for full startup on August 28th. All timetables have been delivered. New Missouri system guide (bus book) will be delivered tomorrow.



If the announcement is made August 4th, Metro ambassadors will be out at Stations and Metrobus centers distributed timetables and education customers about the changes on Monday, August 7th.



Lots of exciting news soon.

Thanks for the update. Sounds good.

full startup on August 28th

Why have a $10 sneak-peak several days before full system startup?



Are there any Free days planned for generating major public awareness?