When it comes to getting people out of their cars, the region’s bus and light-rail system has room to spare. Metro has created a website devoted to the Highway 40 project, dontgetstuck.org.

METROLINK TRAINS

Capacity: The Metro transit agency says MetroLink trains can serve about 50 percent more passengers than it does now during peak times. Capacity going one direction in an hour is 3,600. The 12 trains per hour
running in a given direction, eastbound for example,now carry about 2,400.

Changes: MetroLink added one westbound train to accommodate workers at the West County hospitals, (a bus route in Clayton connects to those hospitals), but the system can’t add any more. Because the lines heading east from Lambert and Clayton share track from Forest Park eastward, the 10-minute intervals between trains means that trains are running the shared track every five minutes. And cars cannot be added to trains because the station platforms cannot accommodate longer trains. But the trains do have seats and standing room to handle more commuters.

METRO BUSES

Capacity: The buses can double their ridership. That means 25,000 more people can ride during the busy daily commutes, according to Metro.

Changes: When a five-mile stretch of Highway 40 closes Jan. 2, Metro will add more buses and redraw some of its bus routes — especially those serving sprawling west St. Louis County. MetroLink trains will generally
run on their current schedules.

PARKING

Metro has counted more than 13,000 available spaces at its 48 park-and-ride lots throughout the bus and light-rail system. On an average workday, the lots are two-thirds filled. “We have excess capacity,” said
Todd Plesko, Metro’s director of planning and system development. “We want to encourage people to try the system whenever they can.”