urbanSTL

Thanks for the field monitoring. I will forward your comments to the Chief of Metrolink and Senior VP for Operations. It will be a topic for our Tuesday staff meeting.



I certainly agree with you.

I'm glad you are listening!

and agree!



Thank you!!!

I drove over to the Crate & Barell in Clayton today, then walked over to the Metro station just to see how close it was. I parked in that lot where the movie rental store used to be, and I noticed warning signs posted everywhere regarding parking in the Boulevard area.



I think the reason the Boulevard and Galleria are so leery of the Metro is they fear Metro riders will use their (free) parking lots for all day parking while they go to work or whatever. And it could be a legitimate concern. But then I'm just guessing.

I found myself in the Brentwood/170/Eager/Hanley a number of times this weekend.



Projects around the apartment found me going to Target, Borders, Bed Bath & Beyond, Lowes and Best Buy. Poor planning on my hand resulted in me making 5 trips to that area. (Hint: always measure two or three times before going to the store. One time will not do.)



I was amazed the number of times I saw (presumably) Wash U. students walking with supplies from stores in that area to the Metrolink “Brentwood I-64” stop.



1. Trip 1 to Target/BB&B: coming into the plaza I saw a group of 6 students all carrying a bunch of stuff walking out of the plaza and turning the corner onto Eager. When I was leaving there were two gals (one carrying a case of water under each arm) waiting for the light in front of Dierbergs.

2. Trip 2 to Borders: a group of 4 college students waiting to cross Brentwood at Eager with lots of “Whole Foods’ bags. They were either heading to the Metrolink station or waiting for one of the buses.

3. Trip 3 to BB&B and Best Buy: slowed down to check the crowds out at the Metrolink station. Lots of people down there: most with shopping bags of all types.

4. Trip 4 to Lowes: WUSTL Red 2 bus goes by me. Very full with people standing.

5. Trip 5 to Lowes: since my curiosity was up I again swing by Brentwood Station. Lots of college age “kids” standing on the platform with lots of shopping bags. A couple more coming down the hill with Target bags towards the station or to catch a bus.



All I can say is I’ve never seen so much foot traffic in that area.

I'd have to agree. Brentwood I-64 has been big every day including each day this weekend as well as Labor Day. I'm surprised because pedestrian access to the Promenade is atrocious, and to Dierberg's isn't much better, as you have to walk a hundred yards south and then all the way back around the fence to get to the parking lot. I did a Target/Trader Joe's run too. On a nice day like Sunday it wasn't too big of a deal, but common sense things such as sidewalks would be nice.

bprop wrote:I'd have to agree. Brentwood I-64 has been big every day including each day this weekend as well as Labor Day. I'm surprised because pedestrian access to the Promenade is atrocious, and to Dierberg's isn't much better, as you have to walk a hundred yards south and then all the way back around the fence to get to the parking lot. I did a Target/Trader Joe's run too. On a nice day like Sunday it wasn't too big of a deal, but common sense things such as sidewalks would be nice.

Providing a easily walkable and maybe partially covered stretch over to at least dierbergs seems like an important piece of the puzzle...Who can we talk to to suggest these changes?

Ridership on Metrolink has been solidly above 75,000 boardings for a weekday now even when there is no baseball game. On a game day we were over 80,000. Pre-Shrewsbury, ridership varied from 44,500 without a game and upwards of 54,000 with a game. (While this may be meaningless, the 2020 total boarding estimate for the full Metrolink was estimated at 86,000 boardings. I can anticipate some 120,000 boarding days in a few years during a major all day special event.



Park Ride usage is very strong in Illinois. Even Emerson Park is starting to look strong. Park Ride availability in Missouri still has away to go. On non games days, we have had upwards of 560 cars in the 800 car Shrewsbury lot. There are less than 20 spaces unused at Brentwood which is surprising. People still may not know this station exists. Even the Forest Park lot has some spaces left, but not too many.



Ridership is trending up on Shrewsbury, but there is a long way to go. There is a lot of transferring between Lambert and Shrewsbury.



Some of private high schools are inquiring about bus access from the Shrewsbury line to their schools.



Peak loads are pretty balanced and the extreme loads we had in Illinois are now more spread out. There is one schedule gap on the Lambert Line causing some complaints about loads. (between 2:53 pm and 3:18 pm) I won't go into details about why we have this gap, but I am going to have to fix it.



A one day summary of bus ridership on August 28th, was about 110,000 which suggests no major loss of ridership on the bus system. Remember that Metro lost many many passengers when the St. Louis City Schools shifted all of their high schoolers to school buses. Average daily ridership in August is usually pretty low ...in the 90,000's. This estimate for the 28th is very preliminary and may end up being revised.



Combining Metrolink and Metrobus looks like we could be upwards of 185,000 to 190,000 on an average weekday. Last year, without Shrewsbury, we were in the neighborhood of 150,000-160,000 boardings. If this holds up, this is a big increase for Metro.



We will not have any estimates of the change in transferring passengers for quite a while.

Those numbers are fantastic - what would be the result of a consistent increase in ridership above that predicted? Would north/south line development move more quickly? Would the county see the benefit and approve a metro tax?



Thanks a million for the numbers - some of the more informative posts anywhere on the board.

This is fantastic!



Any plans on possible replacing station parking lots with garages and mixed -use development if the market swings back nationally into another high urban lifestyle push?

Busdad wrote:Ridership on Metrolink has been solidly above 75,000 boardings for a weekday now even when there is no baseball game. On a game day we were over 80,000. Pre-Shrewsbury, ridership varied from 44,500 without a game and upwards of 54,000 with a game. (While this may be meaningless, the 2020 total boarding estimate for the full Metrolink was estimated at 86,000 boardings. I can anticipate some 120,000 boarding days in a few years during a major all day special event.



Park Ride usage is very strong in Illinois. Even Emerson Park is starting to look strong. Park Ride availability in Missouri still has away to go. On non games days, we have had upwards of 560 cars in the 800 car Shrewsbury lot. There are less than 20 spaces unused at Brentwood which is surprising. People still may not know this station exists. Even the Forest Park lot has some spaces left, but not too many.



Ridership is trending up on Shrewsbury, but there is a long way to go. There is a lot of transferring between Lambert and Shrewsbury.



Some of private high schools are inquiring about bus access from the Shrewsbury line to their schools.



Peak loads are pretty balanced and the extreme loads we had in Illinois are now more spread out. There is one schedule gap on the Lambert Line causing some complaints about loads. (between 2:53 pm and 3:18 pm) I won't go into details about why we have this gap, but I am going to have to fix it.

A one day summary of bus ridership on August 28th, was about 110,000 which suggests no major loss of ridership on the bus system. Remember that Metro lost many many passengers when the St. Louis City Schools shifted all of their high schoolers to school buses. Average daily ridership in August is usually pretty low ...in the 90,000's. This estimate for the 28th is very preliminary and may end up being revised.



Combining Metrolink and Metrobus looks like we could be upwards of 185,000 to 190,000 on an average weekday. Last year, without Shrewsbury, we were in the neighborhood of 150,000-160,000 boardings. If this holds up, this is a big increase for Metro.



We will not have any estimates of the change in transferring passengers for quite a while.

Thanks for the info Busdad.



Can you look at another scheduling gap you might have?



On weekdays on the new line going eastbound there is one train that departs Shrewsbury/I-44 at 8:37am and goes out of service at Grand around 9:05am. Now I can catch this train at 8:55 am at the Skinker Station and just figured that I can just switch to a Airport originating train at Forest Park, CWE or Grand to continue my trip east. The problem is that the next train from the "old" line also goes out of service at Grand. (This train starts at the main terminal at 8:43am and goes out of service at 9:08 at Grand)



So if you want to continue to downtown you have to wait for another train that doesn't come around until 10 to 13 minutes later. In addition to lengthening trip time this also leads to some heavy loads at the Grand station. Needless to say I do everything I can to catch the train that leaves Skinker at 8:45am. If I do catch the 8:55am from Skinker I get off at Forest Park because the platforms at CWE and Grand get uncomfortably crowded.



Can you see if one (or both) of these trains could continue to Emerson Park and go out of service there? I think you've got the loads to justify it.

dweebe wrote:


Can you look at another scheduling gap you might have?



On weekdays on the new line going eastbound there is one train that departs Shrewsbury/I-44 at 8:37am and goes out of service at Grand around 9:05am. Now I can catch this train at 8:55 am at the Skinker Station and just figured that I can just switch to a Airport originating train at Forest Park, CWE or Grand to continue my trip east. The problem is that the next train from the "old" line also goes out of service at Grand. (This train starts at the main terminal at 8:43am and goes out of service at 9:08 at Grand)



So if you want to continue to downtown you have to wait for another train that doesn't come around until 10 to 13 minutes later. In addition to lengthening trip time this also leads to some heavy loads at the Grand station. Needless to say I do everything I can to catch the train that leaves Skinker at 8:45am. If I do catch the 8:55am from Skinker I get off at Forest Park because the platforms at CWE and Grand get uncomfortably crowded.



Can you see if one (or both) of these trains could continue to Emerson Park and go out of service there? I think you've got the loads to justify it.

We are transitioning into the 15 minute base headway. Ideally, you would want to pull those two trains into 29th Street. There are trains coming from Shiloh that pull into to 29th, but would be better from a customer standpoint pulling into Ewing.



Because both Missouri and St. Clair County Transit are extremely tight for money, we pull out of the 10 minute service as soon as we see that the loads can be accommodated.



I will look at the trip by trip loads in the next week or so, because we have to make our decisions for November very soon.



We have added a shuttle trip in the one gap on the Lambert line that is causing a significant problem. As we ramp back from 15 minute headways to 10 minute headways, we have a gap of 25 minutes between 253 pm and 318 pm departing Lambert. Loads hitting Delmar have exceed 250. On Monday, I will add a train departing 308 pm going only as far as Grand. Passengers going beyond will have to transfer to the next train (which will go to Scott Shiloh even through it originated from Shrewsbury. (it will be 4 minutes behind which is our limit for train spacing.



We have also noticed amazing Thursday and Friday standing loads after 10:00 pm from the Wash U area heading for the Landing. A couple of regular Metrolink riders were amazed to see student after student pouring onto the trains at Forsyth, Big Bend and Forsyth to hit the bars. When asked how they planned to come home since the last train was just before midnight from the Landing, some of the kids said..no problem, we will take cabs. These were trains with over 200 persons onboard.



This is certainly a new market and a different demographic for Metro. It would be nice to have a 1:00 am and 2:00 am Landing to Shrewsbury trip on Friday and Saturday night. That won't happen soon however.

Xing wrote:Is St Clair County really as tight on money as St. Louis? I thought Illinois was more than generous in assisting Metrolink with funds…? BTW, I always applaud St Louis area residents with their ability to locally fund transportation, even with Missouri's pitiful contributions.

St. Clair does not face the crisis that Missouri faces in FY08. However, St. Clair had depleted its bond reserve fund which must be refunded. Additionally, St. Clair has major new obligations in funding its share of the Shrewsbury line. If you add these obligations to the District's desire to construct a Fairview Hts turnback and then operate peak hour service currently terminating at Emerson to Fairview, the District must be careful with its funds.



Don't be so complementary of St. Louis' ability to fund Metro locally. St. Louis has basically used its Federal 5307 capital funds to provide what might be provided by the State. (Used for Maintenance.) Locally, there is the 1/2 cent sales tax and the Prop M 1/4th tax, but St. Louis County uses 45 % of its 1/2 tax for highways. St.Clair County locally committed to tax itself 3/4 cent sales tax (1/4 cent and 1/2 cent tax) which are dedicated to public transit. So St.Clair has actually committed more local funds that the Missouri side of the River.



Finally, Missouri has been cutting service fairly steadily since 1980 to make ends meet. From my perspective, St. Louis has done a poor job providing funds to sustain a public transit system.

Metro is going to have cut transit service by 25 percent next year unless the sales tax increase passes. Metro plans to release a list of service reduction in november which will happen in july 2007 unless metro gets more funding from some source. The reason for the huge 28 million deficit next year is retirees health insurance, inflation, bond repayment and the cost of the operation the cross county extension.

The Dierbergs walkway is an amazing hassle. If you provide mass transit, it seems only logical to provide for safe, convenient pedestrian walkways.



http://makeashorterlink.com/?S426516CD - pictures of walkway from Metro Brentwood I-64 stop to back of Dierbergs.



At LEAST you can get through with the Dierbergs stop; with the Maplewood/Manchester stop - fences, tracks and a rocky cliff keep you from going to Walmart, Sams, Lowes, Olive Garden, Red Lobster and Applebees.



http://makeashorterlink.com/?B5A4426CD - picture of the fences and tracks.



Who is responsible for this?



Tom Shrout says - here -



http://cmt-stl.org/blog/2006/09/more-on-dierbergs.html



That it was because of parking and riding fears that Dierbergs objected.



This is a seemingly valid concern. But only until the monster of a parking garage opens on the other end. Then, this situation must be changed. Using mass transit needs to become a transparent and natural activity engaged in by everyone.

Do we have any new numbers on ridership? I am curious to know if the number of passengers has continued to increase several weeks after the new line has opened.

At least from my observations, it seems to be doing better than opening week. I've noticed more cars using the Lansdowne lot. Sunnen and Forsyth(!) still seem to be quiet stations, at least when I travelled by. The amount of passengers heading east at U City-Big Bend around 7-8pm was totally surprising the other weekend. I think we picked up more people at that station alone than anywhere else on the new line.



Looks good to me.

TIABstl wrote:At least from my observations, it seems to be doing better than opening week. I've noticed more cars using the Lansdowne lot. Sunnen and Forsyth(!) still seem to be quiet stations, at least when I travelled by. The amount of passengers heading east at U City-Big Bend around 7-8pm was totally surprising the other weekend. I think we picked up more people at that station alone than anywhere else on the new line.



Looks good to me.

I don't think ridership will really increase until River Des Peres Ave is reopened next spring. Right now it's closed between Chippewa and Gravois. That means people from south county are cut off from the Landsdowne station unless they take a 10 minute detour.

^I'm one of those people stuck with the detour. I really miss driving River Des Peres. Sure its a dangerous road, but I love it in autumn and where else can I oggle at all the usually fine joggers along the trail on my route to work? Why does it take a year to build a small 4 lane bridge?

Because any road work the city does takes an extremely long time. The Broadway and Lansdowne bridges are two recent examples. Compare them to how quickly the Lemay Ferry and the Compton Ave bridges were done (about 3 months each).

^Those bridges took so long because of issues with utilites having to be relocated. Compton and Lemay Ferry had none and that's why they were torn down and rebuilt so quickly. Chouteau has all sorts of issues from utilties to toxic soil.



Anyways, RDP should be open by early December.

From your responses I guess you must work for the city or one of the companies that does construction for them. Using the utility explanation is a cover-up for poor planning. A few more recent city road construction boondoggles include the Eads Bridge, Washington Ave, Maryland Plaza, Southwest Ave and the Kingshighway and Hampton Ave viaduct replacement.

Fred Weber also received gigantic bonuses for the projects you cited. Southwest bridge the contractor ran off with the money never to be seen again, and the others really did have issues with utilites only allowing half the work to go on at a time. Don't know anything about Hampton, that's before my time. Anyway, this is off topic.