Rant, Stl Metro

[cardinalkarp]

People in the county don't want a train running through the backyard of their $300,000+ houses.

Not saying their right, just saying that's part of it.

Not many 300k houses are planted right next to the hwy which in most cases would be where the metro would run.

Yes there are, everywhere.

Down hwy 70 (which is where the metro is)? I would doubt they plan on bringing it out hwy 40 considering the amount of construction that's already going on there. But if they were going to do it now would be the time.

[New Pagodi]

Here's my plan:



We have the red/central line that connects downtown, Clayton, U city, etc. The branching off off that we have
the green line that goes to the airport and st charles
the purple line going to alton
the seafoam line (I'm bad a picking colors) going to Arnold and all the new suburbs out there.
the blue line going to Fenton and all the factories out there.

Right now I have the red line going through Ladue which will never happen, but you get the idea. So if all of you could just put me in charge, I'll get started right away.

[paskal]

We have the red/central line that connects downtown, Clayton, U city, etc. The branching off off that we have
the green line that goes to the airport and st charles
the purple line going to alton
the seafoam line (I'm bad a picking colors) going to Arnold and all the new suburbs out there.
the blue line going to Fenton and all the factories out there.

We're not too far away from this with the current routes:

1) Build east on 44 from Shrewsbury to the stadium to complete the loop.
2) Build southwest on 44 from Shrewsbury to get out to Fenton.
3) Build west on 70 from the airport over to St. Charles.
4) Build east on 70 from north hanley then north to get to Alton.

Fun Google Maps of the system:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8& ... &z=11&om=1

[Radbird]

Denver's not much different. Light rail that only goes south of downtown.

They're planning on building a line alongside the Boulder turnpike, but that'll take 20 friggin' years.

[TheoSqua]

I took the metro back from the cards game (btw, walking to 8th and Pine beats the heck out of waiting at the bush stadium stop for an hour) and it took 35 minutes for a train to finally come. The east-bound track had 5 (FIVE!) trains go by in the same time span.

[Socnorb11]

When I went to St. Louis for a Cards/Cubs game last month, I parked at Hanley(?) out by the airport, took the link to the stadium, and back to Hanley after the game. It was incredible fast......... I didn't wait even one minute going either way.

But it sounds like that's not the norm?

[cardinalkarp]

When I went to St. Louis for a Cards/Cubs game last month, I parked at Hanley(?) out by the airport, took the link to the stadium, and back to Hanley after the game. It was incredible fast......... I didn't wait even one minute going either way.

But it sounds like that's not the norm?

That hanley station gets trains through there pretty often. Its one of the bigger stops. That's the one when I take metro, which is rarely, I hop on.

[clement]

It's hard to build a metro system from scratch in a large metro area, but better late than never. It's even more challenging when the whole metro area has been developed and planned with automobile as the primary (and pretty much only) mode of transportation in mind. The more spread out and more area that a city/suburb area takes up, the more expensive and difficult it is to have an effective public transportation system. That's the dilemma cities like St. Louis face in trying to catch up.

[Popeye_Card]

When I went to St. Louis for a Cards/Cubs game last month, I parked at Hanley(?) out by the airport, took the link to the stadium, and back to Hanley after the game. It was incredible fast......... I didn't wait even one minute going either way.

But it sounds like that's not the norm?

That hanley station gets trains through there pretty often. Its one of the bigger stops. That's the one when I take metro, which is rarely, I hop on.

Since all the trains come through all of the stations, wouldn't the frequency be the same at all?

As for building new lines, its completely a NIMBY thing. Everyone wants public services until it inconveniences them.

Personally, I prefer a streetcar system anyway, which the city is pursuing. F the outer suburbs, as far as I'm concerned. If you want convenient/fast urban access, then live in the urban area. Plenty of houses available.

[maddash]

Trust me, I hate ridding the bus as much as anyone here... but the Metro rail system isn't the only game in town. There's an extensive bus system in the St. Louis area that takes you to quite a few places.

Of course, you'll never convince certain people (and I'm one of them) to ride a bus over a mass-transit system on rails. The best you can hope for is to make a bus look like a streetcar - people seem to be ok with that.