They should have invited some of their customers as well. Personally, I think metrolink should have been expanded right away in all directions, following the interstate highways. I can only imagine the ridership they would enjoy if they had service to and from Arnold/Fenton, even Festus, Chesterfield, St. Charles, etc. If only people hadn’t been so shortsighted as to vote it down, because criminals might come…yeah, a criminal is going to ride the link and then carry all the items they stole onto the train and no one will think anything of it. Good grief!

Putting Metro down interstates is not a great idea. For one, MoDOT is not keen on sharing their right-of-way with others. Second, you would have to disrupt traffic on those interstates for years while trying to build the thing. And how are people going to board? You can’t just add a station in the median of the interstate - there is no room for that (and having it go from the middle to the side for stations over and over is structurally impossible). There is no room to build next to interstates either unless land is bought up in huge quantitites, which is incredibly cost-prohibitive.

I believe people would use light rail if it was available to them, but no one wants to pay for it, so we will never see a complete system in this town in our lifetime.

As to this “summit”, what in the hell does Dooley, Slay, McNary, and Schoemel know about transportation in the first place? If you ask me they are talking to the wrong crowd. Some of these people are to blame for the Cross County Extension going by Wash U instead of the Zoo and Forest Park Community College where it would have done more good…

Sounds like someone has never heard of a park n ride lot or been to DC, Maryland or Virginia where the rails DO run right down the highway. Naw, it’s MUCH better to build another bridge or to re-pave the one you are using entirely too much (Like the 70 bridge).

Send the rail to where the people are. The fastest growing counties are on the outskirts. (And St. Charles, what short sited thinking you showed so many years ago! I guess if you don’t ever leave your home you don’t want Metrolink!)

Tim - I would disagree in a big way, Metro cross county going on the other alignment would have been a huge mistake (past the zoo). Simply put, Wash U is a very large employer, a world renown institution (why not have rail acces from the airport to the institution) and maintains a much larger student base then the community college. A good raim day or cold winter day drives down any meaningful chance of ridership at an attraction such as the zoo.

The most heavily used transit and successful systems are based on getting people in and out of employment centers and central business districts. Just look at Chicago, New York, Boston, etc. We should emphasize connecting the employment centers we have and keep it at that. Employment centers offer a steady/consistent group of riders five out of seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.

That is why the Westport Plaza (Daniel Boone) route in West County is much more preferred by planners then going down Hwy 40 for this area. Westport area is the County’s densest region of employment with a street/sidewalk grid preferably for buses and pedesterians. Imagine driving to a Chesterfield park n ride lot, get on a metrolink to go down Hwy 40 for two or three miles, get off, and then trying to get to one of the multiple office/medical buildings lining the highway without a car. Hwy 40 has always been a no go since office development has been allowed happened along the corridor rather then downtown or in a cluster. I wouldn’t go that trouble for 5, 10 or maybe 15 miles because I would probably drive half of that to get to a park n ride in the first place.

Momof1girl - I would also disagree that metrolink should be sent everywhere. St. Charles and a good part of St. Louis county don’t have dense employment centers and residential is sprawled. Most people would have to take a good walk to the bus station, take the bus to the train, take a train, and then find a bus that might possible pass through their workplace or hope its walkable. I think their is still some selective routes that are desired but fixed transit is limited for us. Otherwise, spending a lot of money for underused fixed rail with a lot capacity doesn’t make sence to this taxpayer.