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www.metrostlouis.org

We are proud to introduce a new look for the home page of Metro’s official website Metrostlouis.org!

We have been working hard at Metro to redevelop and redesign the Metrostlouis.org website.  The complete rollout of the Phase One of the project includes a redesign of the home page. Note, this new look and feel is only for the homepage. We wanted to provide an easier “dashboard” into the content our riders use the most.  The homepage prominently displays a trip-planning function, schedule and route info for MetroLink, MetroBus and Call-A-Ride, rider alerts, links to our blog and our long-range plan website, and other relevant transit news.

The other big change is the use of Google Transit as our public-facing trip planning application. Many users have preferred the interface and ease of use of Google Transit. Hopefully this change will make it easier for everyone to plan their trips on Metro’s system.  Google Maps also offers transit directions on smart phones, including information on nearby bus stops and earlier and later trip times.

Also note our social media links in the bottom right corner to our official Facebook fan page and Twitter feed. We are encouraging riders to become Fans and Followers to receive rider alert, important info, and provide feedback to Metro.

Phase Two of the new website includes a total re-working and redesign of the interior pages (yes, we know they are ugly and unfriendly; that is why we are working to change that for you!). Not only will the interior pages match the look and feel of the home page, but you also will see the following changes:

• New menu navigation – we feel the site can be better organized
• Many updates to content, including friendlier use of maps and schedules
• More media content to help you use the system
• Rider stories and experiences

The new website should be finished in the next several months.

Now, we want your feedback. Please leave a comment below!

Kids love trains.  I’m pretty sure trains rank up there with puppies, cartoons, giant lollipops and sprinklers.  Why?  Maybe it’s because trains look like giant versions of the toys we played with on wooden tracks.  Trains are fast, big and can whistle!  And they provide a fascinating look into the engineering, mechanical and operating principles of rail transportation.  Metro offers free tours of our MetroLink facility located on Ewing in St. Louis City near Market Street.  What do these tours have to offer students of all ages?

• How do MetroLink trains run?  (Pssst! Through electricity suspended from catenary lines above the tracks.)
• What happens in the train hospital?
• How is the engine of a light rail train different/similar than an automotive combustion engine?
• How do we fix trains when they have problems?  Especially the REALLY big parts.
• How do we clean trains?
• What type of engineering work does it take to design and/or maintain light rail trains?
• How do trains stop? How do we apply the basic principles of friction to stop trains?
• What do all of those buttons do?  How much does the operator “drive” the train?
• How do we keep trains running to over one million miles???

The tour of the MetroLink facility also includes a look into our communication center, where dispatchers keep track of EVERY bus and train on the system.  The MetroLink communication system shows exactly where the train is and how the tracks and other technical components are operating.  It is where they “talk” to the system.  Students can also watch security dispatch monitoring images from cameras we have throughout the system.

MetroLink Training Manager Suzanne Whitehead said tours also focus on other interesting aspects of the operations, like which jobs are required to keep the system running (everyone from engineers to mechanics to operators to computer programmers) and what types of jobs are available for people who want to work in transit.  She also hopes to integrate a scavenger hunt-type activity for riding on MetroLink that pays attention to its mechanical, design and land use features.

And the tours are not just limited to kids…if you’d like to take a tour and find out what light rail is all about, you just need to schedule ahead.  After all, it’s your public transit system.  Come see how interesting it looks from the bottom up.

Metro engages in two areas of activity: one, transit operations for MetroLink, MetroBus and Metro Call-A-Ride, and two, capital projects.  “Capital” projects are projects that add to the infrastructure of the system – think buses, railroad ties, bridges, and buildings. Major repairs, too, like replacing parts of the track or the overhead catenary system, come out of our capital budget, much of which is funded by grants from the federal government. These projects help maintain the region’s investments by keeping the system running, and through enhancement projects, running better.

The bridge over Vandeventer Avenue, which held two MetroLink tracks and one freight rail track in the Central West End of St. Louis, was 80 years old and falling apart.  Really, it looked like it was physically sagging.   The $5 million replacement project was possible thanks to a federal grant.  Crews began work on December 26, 2009, and the bridge returned to service on December 31.  Watch a time-lapse of the demolition and construction of the Vandeventer Bridge in six days:

(If you can’t see the embedded video, click here.)

The bridge’s makeover will eventually include streetscape enhancements and replacing a crumbling retaining wall, and will be completed in early spring.  In addition to making the bridge safer to carry MetroLink train cars, the project also increased the bridge’s height clearance for automobilies.  This was Metro’s first “Design-Build” project, where Metro works with one contractor to both design and build the project to avoid time delays and added costs.

So the next time you are driving or walking on Vandeventer Avenue, come check it out!

Thanks to the Post-Dispatch, Metro holds a live online chat every other Wednesday at noon, hosted on the Post-Dispatch website. You have to have a login set up on the STLtoday website, but you can submit your questions any time before or during the chat once you’re logged in.

We also keep a transcript of past live chats on Metro’s Newsroom page (click the “Chat Transcripts” tab at the top).

Drop by the Post-Dispatch and submit your questions, even if you can’t be available for the live chat at noon; we’ll link the transcript here when it’s available. This is your chance to ask questions about anything and everything Metro-related: The long-range planning process, the results from the first round of public workshops and what’s in store for the second round of public input; how long the $12m appropriation from the State of Missouri will last; questions about the Vandeventer Bridge project; essentially, anything and everything you’d like to know.

UPDATE: Here’s the link to the Metro Live Chat transcript, thanks so much for your questions!

In the excitement and chaos of planning big Thanksgiving dinners and plotting our Black Friday shopping routes, we at NextStop just want to pause a moment and say, Thank you. Thank you for making NextStop a part of your daily or weekly routine. Thanks for reading, for linking, and for thinking about what’s going on here.

Thanks for all the emails we receive, and suggestions for posts, questions, and criticisms.

Thank you, all of the commenters who come here and make this an interesting place to read and write. I’d like to especially thank RTBones, Jazzy Jeff, TPlesko, Claire-ian the Librarian, and JimmyZ for your dedication to providing thoughtful, critical feedback, and support on all sorts of urban and transit issues.

Thank you, Alex Ihnen, for guest posting. Thank you, Steve Patterson and Jim Barnthouse, for doing ride-alongs. Thank you, Dotage St. Louis, UrbanReviewSTL, Citizens for Modern Transit, St. Louis Urban Workshop, Curious Feet, and all of our friends on the internet who link, tweet, talk, and support us.

Thank you, Miss Metrolink and your prom-planning friends, for keeping life interesting and fun.

Thank you, interns Matt and Melissa, for helping start the ball rolling. Thank you, Dianne and Angela in our Communications Department, for getting us started and keeping us on track.

Thank you, Paul in IT, for all of your technical support and your guidance and knowledge.

Let’s be real: It’s been a tough year everywhere, economically. People lost their jobs. Transit agencies all over the country, including ours, are struggling with cuts to service, fare increases, staff reductions, and a population that needs transit more than ever. We think that by carrying on these discussions and trading these ideas, and by participating in the planning and dreaming, we’re all helping improve transit for the region. Thanks for being part of it.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, from Courtney, Jennifer, and Todd.

St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern and Metro President Bob Baer chat before the ribbon cutting.

Yesterday, Metro’s Engineering Department celebrated the successful completion of the new paint booth facility that I mentioned previously. A small ribbon-cutting ceremony was held yesterday morning out at the Illinois MetroLink Yard facility in East St. Louis, where the paint booth was built.

Dust Collection Apparatus (aka vacuum hose)

The new paint booth facility was constructed by Plocher Construction and, thanks to the project team’s hard work, the project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. The new facility has two parts: a “prep” area where the vehicles are cleaned and prepared for painting, and the paint booth itself, which has a massive filtered ventilation system and a whole lot of lighting. There’s also a smaller shop area where small parts can be prepped and painted as well. The setup includes a “dust collection system” (i.e. vacuum setup) and an exhaust system that keep bad particles from escaping into the air. (more…)

In July 2009, Metro installed the public art piece Hive by sculptor Janet Lofquist at the Delmar Transit Plaza on the corner of Des Peres and Delmar Avenue.  Public art is one aspect of the federally-mandated transit enhancement projects that Metro completes each year, and is an important component of the vitality of public transit.   Public art in transit helps improve the appearance, use and safety of our system, and to date more than 150 art projects have been installed and/or performed through our Arts in Transit program.

Watch below to find out more about Hive and why transit agencies like Metro invest in public art.

Last Friday, Metro’s Board of Commissioners announced that Bob Baer, who has been serving as interim CEO since early last year, will stay on at Metro as the permanent CEO. The St. Louis Business Journal has a nice article about the news (as well as a much better picture of Mr. Baer than what I posted below from the executive briefing the other day). We should have announced this great news on the blog on Friday, but we were busy scurrying around getting ready for the launch of our long-range plan! The blog team plans to sit down with Mr. Baer sometime very soon and talk to him about his goals for the agency and also what he has managed to accomplish in the past 22 months. Check back here for that very soon.

Speaking of which – did you know that you can subscribe to the blog so that it comes directly to your inbox every day? Click on the big orange RSS button at the bottom of the right-hand column, copy the NextStop RSS feed URL and in your Microsoft Outlook inbox, right click “RSS Feeds,” choose “Add New” and paste the URL. Voila! NextStopSTL in your inbox whenever we post a new article. We love the RSS – you’ll never miss another important bit of Metro news.

As our readers are aware, Metro has been making many changes over the past two years under the leadership of our current President & CEO, Bob Baer. This blog has been one such change.

Now here comes a big change: Under Mr. Baer’s leadership and that of our new Chief of Planning and System Development, Jessica Mefford-Miller, and in cooperation with the region’s planning body, East-West Gateway Council of Governments, Metro is now working on the development of a long-range transit plan for the St. Louis metro region. The plan will consist of three parts:

• 5-year short-range plan;
• 10-year mid-range plan;
• And a 30-year long-range.

When completed, each stage of the plan will be prioritized and will detail funding levels not only to build but to operate  and maintain any enhancements and expansions to the current transit system. This planning process will be unlike anything that Metro has done before.  Over the past two months our market research team has been identifying an initial baseline “pulse” of what the region thinks about transit, the current transit system, and hopes for transit in the future. Now we’re moving into the community engagement phase of the plan development, and the crucial factor in this process is you. Read more about the planning process below the jump. (more…)

Our long-range planner, Mark, attempted to attend the big TIF public hearing on McKee’s Northside redevelopment plan last night. As many of you know, the city marshals were turning people away at the door because the hearing room was full to capacity. One of those people turned away at the door, unfortunately, was Mark.

Metro watches local development proposals and projects with great interest, since of course part of creating new development or infill development is making provisions for people to get around the development area. I had attended one of the earlier meetings on the Northside proposal, and at that presentation I heard that the developers are in fact thinking about how to tie the development into the MetroLink system, perhaps even constructing a trolley circulator that would move people throughout the developed area and then south to a MetroLink station.

We’ll be interested to see what comes of the proposal; but we’re already impressed with the public’s level of engagement with this project and with the process that was again displayed last night in the number of people hoping to get in and speak at the hearing. Approve or disapprove of Mr. McKee’s vision, we should all agree that it’s fantastic to see people so interested and engaged.