Engineers measure structural details of a Loop Trolley car on Sunday March 26, 2017, during a stop at Delmar Boulevard and Des Peres Avenue as it is pulled via pickup on it first test on the full route. Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com
The long-delayed Loop Trolley will finally begin ferrying paying customers Thursday morning, the line’s operating company announced Monday.
The 2.2-mile line will start operating shortly after a 10:30 a.m. dedication ceremony at Delmar Boulevard and Limit Avenue — the border between University City and St. Louis.
After months of testing and employee training, federal and state regulators have certified the $51 million line as ready to go.
The line will run from the western end of the Delmar Loop in University City to the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.
A news release issued by the Loop Trolley Co. said the line is bringing St. Louis and St. Louis County together and positioning the Delmar Loop area as a top destination and community in which to work and live.
To symbolize that, city and county officials will drive a ceremonial “golden spike” at the city-county line — tying back to the 1869 golden spike ceremony in Utah that marked the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
In its initial months, the line will run only Thursdays through Sundays, starting each day at noon. Service will continue to 8 p.m. Thursdays and Sundays and to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
That’s because renovation of one of the line’s three operating cars has yet to be completed. Once all three cars are available sometime next year, the line’s days of service will be expanded, trolley officials say.
When construction began in March 2015, trolley officials said they expected the line to open in late 2016.
“I’m thrilled and I think the St. Louis community is looking forward to this in a great way,” Joe Edwards, the Loop businessman who has pushed for the line the past two decades, said Monday.
Fares are $2 for a two-hour fare and $5 for an all-day fare. Passengers 65 and older and people with disabilities can ride for half-price.
Looking at the history of streetcars in St. Louis
Jake Herin, left, and O.H. Deuchert get ready for their shift on May 21, 1966, the last day of streetcar service. Both men had been streetcar motormen their entire careers. Herin had the sad honor of taking the evening's last run.
Crowds gather in the middle of 12th Street (now Tucker Boulevard) on June 13, 1940, to see the first of 100 streamlined streetcars that St. Louis Public Service Co. had bought for its lines. The company offered free rides that day. In the center background is St. Louis City Hall. (Post-Dispatch)
A view of Fourth Street from Morgan (now Delmar Boulevard), looking south. St. Louis' electric streetcar system encompassed 40 different lines and 450 miles of track. The original cars were pulled by mule in the 1800s. Above, streetcars roll south on Fourth Street from Morgan (now Delmar Boulevard) in the 1880s.
Postal workers pose for a photograph on North Broadway in 1903. Streetcars carried mail sacks along their routes, and distributed them to the carriers, who then carried the mail door-to-door. (Post-Dispatch)
Workers at a scrapyard tear up old streetcars on May 29, 1966, a week after Bi-State discontinued its last streetcar service. Salvage companies were interested mainly in its copper wiring and heavy-gauge steel parts. (Post-Dispatch)
A streetcar in 1915 on the Bellefontaine line, the longest line in the city. It ran from the Walnut Park neighborhood in far north St. Louis to Virginia and Primm avenues in the far south side. A round trip took 2 1/2 hours. Inside the car is motorman George Lee Stehem. On the cowcatcher is conductor Les Petrie. (Post-Dispatch)
Public Service Co. workers clean up debris from a streetcar collision on Sept. 30, 1940, The Page Avenue car shown in the photo had jumped a switch on Washington Avenue at 12th (Tucker) and collided with an oncoming Park Avenue streetcar. Five people were injured. Many streetcar routes used Washington downtown. (Post-Dispatch)
A mule pulls a streetcar in the St. Louis during the 1870s. File photo
Clang, clang, clang went the trolley! With gasoline rationed, streetcars of all sizes and ages were pressed into service for the one-city World Series in 1944. The view is south on Grand Boulevard at Dodier Street, site of Sportsman's Park (later Busch Stadium) until May 1966. St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Staff
FILE PHOTO 1938. Buses, streetcars, trolleys and autos are all part of the traffic at the intersection of Sixth Street and Washington Avenue. PD STAFF FILE
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 125TH ANNIVERSARY -- Streetcars Stalled by Power Failure at Rush Hour. Southbound streetcars jammed with passengers on their way home in the 5 o'clock rush yesterday afternoon, halted on Twelfth boulevard, between Locust and Olive streets, because of a power failure. Power on Olive street, between Broadway and Eighteenth, and on lines adjacent to Olive, went off at 4:57 o'clock and current in trolley wires was not restored until 5:35. An investigation is under way. PHOTO BY A POST-DISPATCH STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER.
This view, looking east on Cass Avenue at 15th Street, shows the trash and rocks blocking the St. Louis Transit Co. streetcar line during the 1900 strike. The vandalism was attributed to striking transit workers.
A newspaper artist's rendering of a streetcar motorman abandoning his car at Washington Avenue and 13th Street at the urging of strikers on May 8, 1900, when the strike began. (Post-Dispatch)
A view of the future Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, looking southeast above Washington Avenue and Third Street in 1935. At left is the streetcar station for service over the Eads Bridge to East St. Louis. To the far right is the Municipal Bridge, renamed the MacArthur Bridge in 1942 in honor of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. (Post-Dispatch)
A Hodiamont line car jumped the tracks at North Sarah Avenue and plowed into a building on March 11, 1946. The Hodiamont line ran from the Wellston Loop to downtown St. Louis, and had its own right-of-way for part of its run through the heart of north St. Louis. Without having to complete with cars and trucks, the streetcars could reach higher speeds along that stretch. In this incident, the westbound streetcar jumped the track at Sarah, glanced against another streetcar and plunged into the building at 933 North Sarah. Fifty-eight people suffered mostly minor injuries, including 16 patrons of the Eureka Social Club on the street floor of the damaged building. The accident, at 5:31 p.m., tied up commuter traffic for several hours. (Post-Dispatch)
Second-graders at Bayless School ride the Hodiamont line downtown with their teacher on May 6, 1966. The teacher took her students on the ride shortly after the city announced that buses soon would replace streetcars on the Hodiamont run, the last one left that still ran streetcars. (Lou Phillips/Post-Dispatch)
Mark Schlinkmann
Mark Schlinkmann is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
