Written by Courtney
Last Updated:: July 20, 2009
From East-West Gateway Council of Governments:
East-West Gateway has initiated a conversation about the future of the St. Louis metropolitan area. The purpose of the initiative is to develop broad goals to guide planning and policy decisions for a healthy future. While the underlying impetus for the project is to inform our long-range transportation plan, the scope is broader than transportation. Decisions about transportation investments are strongly connected to larger civic questions of land-use, fiscal health and business growth; a better understanding of these broader questions will help East-West Gateway make more informed transportation decisions. We also believe the time is right to open the conversation to a broad constituency around the region to discuss strategies for the challenges we face over the next 25 years.
At this early stage, East-West Gateway is inviting a diverse group of individuals to complete a short survey that will help identify the major challenges facing the region and the key regional strengths from which we can build for a more prosperous future. The questionnaire should take less than five minutes to complete and can be found here.
The results will be posted on the East-West Gateway Web site at the end of July. The survey results will be used to frame the conversation over the coming months. If you are interested in receiving e-mail updates on the project as the process moves forward, please e-mail East-West Gateway at renewingtheregion@ewgateway.org.
You heard them people! Voice your opinion on what you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the St. Louis region, and what you think we need to work on for St. Louis’ future.
[UPDATE: Link broken before; fixed now.]
Written by Sandy
Last Updated:: July 15, 2009
The Summer road construction season is here! We are all too familiar with summer road maintenance or repaving or whatever it is they’re doing as we crawl through the Work Zone.
The same summer maintenance happens on MetroLink and it will require single track service during many evenings and weekends so we thought we would give you a better idea of what Metro is doing to improve your trip. In this instance, it will be particularly difficult to see exactly what was done after the work is completed.
Sections of the overhead catenary wires – which provide electricity to power the trains — are being replaced. The trains collect the electricity through the pantograph on top of the train. The pantograph has a carbon shoe on it that rides along the copper wire which then experiences some wear over time from that pantograph contact. The Traction Power Electricians inspect the wire every night to determine when it needs to be replaced, and some of the wire on the original MetroLink line is ready to be replaced. To do it properly, power must be turned off and the area cleared of trains so the maintenance crew can work safely and efficiently. Here is our rider alert for the work being done between July 20-26 and here is the alert for the work to be done August 3-9.
One thing you will notice when we are finished is the new wire will have its shiny copper color visible for awhile. It looks a little strange at first, but will turn black shortly with the exposure to the weather.
Written by Todd H
Last Updated:: July 10, 2009
I’m a HUGE fan of Google. Searching, news, images, video, mapping, finance, etc etc, you name the app, and I dig its functionality and added task value. Now I have a new reason to love Google – Google Analytics! We use Google Analytics to check on our blog’s performance elements such as readership, content effectiveness, and connectivity with the transit community, as well as the general blogosphere. Since our ’soft launch’ last month, we’ve discovered that in the first 30 days of business our visitors represented 299 cities, 40 countries, and five continents. Wow, that’s pretty cool if you ask me.
The maps below are copied directly from what we see inside the Google Analytics program. In the first map, a darker shade of green represents a country with higher levels of visitors. The city map speaks for itself. It’s pretty amazing to think about how NextStop is connecting with people all over the world.
On behalf of the NextStop blog team, thanks to all our readers for your interest in joining our conversations about transit! It’s been a great experience so far, and we look forward to many more discussions in the future!
Google Analytics Country Overlay
Google Analytics City Overlay
Written by Sandy
Last Updated:: July 10, 2009
While we search far and wide for interesting links for this blog, sometimes the best can be found close to home. Check out this article in the St. Louis Beacon about everything we are doing to get ready for August 3 when we will be restoring part of the transit service cut last March. We continue to thank our funding partners at the Missouri and federal governmental levels for funding this temporary service restoration.
Written by Todd H
Last Updated:: July 2, 2009
For those of you who are interested in learning about some of the finer details that went into Metro’s Restoration 2009 decision-making process, be sure to check out our new Featured Video. Dianne Williams sits down with Metro’s Acting Chief of Planning and System Development, Jessica Mefford-Miller, to talk about what to expect with the August 3rd implementation of Restoration 2009, as well as some of the planning creativity that was required during this challenging effort. An insightful video – I highly recommend its viewing!
Written by Sandy
Last Updated:: June 30, 2009
A “bus bridge” is the use of MetroBuses to “bridge” between MetroLink stations when the train cannot continue its normal schedule due to a rail blockage or operational problem. (There are times when a blockage or operational problem occurs and our controllers can use a “single track” — one of the two existing tracks — to keep trains moving. Single track operations move at slower speeds, however, since trains use one track to travel in both directions but in alternating patterns.)
There are two kinds of bus bridges, ones that are scheduled in advance, and here is a Rider Alert that was posted for a planned bus bridge.
For an emergency bus bridge, the situation varies depending on the day, time of day, type of incident, number of stations affected and length of service outage. Here is a Rider Alert posted when there was an emergency electrical outage.
We encourage customers to check our Rider Alerts during bad weather and sign up for Metro’s RSS feeds for notification as Alerts are posted.
