Health & Fitness
Celebrating 20 years of MetroLink in St. Louis
Citizens for Modern Transit has been involved with MetroLink since the very beginning. With the help of a small group of business people, elected officials and interested citizens, who collectively understood the positive impact transit could have on our region, they formed the local transit advocacy organization in 1985 known as Citizens for Modern Transit. The group had a simple mission – to help bring light rail to St. Louis.
The organization’s hard work, coupled with the ability to creatively secure local matches for federal funding, aided in the opening of the MetroLink line in 1993 to record ridership with the first trains leaving from historic Union Station. More than 180,000 boardings were reported during the first three days of MetroLink operation (July 31, August 1, and August 2, 1993). MetroLink recorded more than 3.7 million boardings within its first 5 months of service, and last year, MetroLink had 17 million passenger boardings.
In FY12, average weekday ridership was 53,723 on MetroLink alone. Combined MetroLink and MetroBus ridership topped 147,000 boardings on an average weekday. Since its arrival in St. Louis, cumulative MetroLink ridership tops more than 300,000,000. Now that is a great way to get around!
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MetroLink has become an integral part of the St. Louis community over the last 20 years. President Clinton, elected officials,visitors and St. Louisans have taken a ride over its 20 years history.
There are two maintenance facilities for the MetroLink system, 37 stations, 20 free park-ride lots and 2 rail yards.
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MetroLink Timeline
- Original alignment, July 1993 – 17 miles long
- St. Clair Corridor, May 2001 – 17.5 miles long
- Shiloh-Scott Station, June 2003 – 3.5 miles
- Cross County, August 2006 – 8 miles
- Renovation of Grand Station, August 2012
Look for events this weekend on Metro and next Wednesday, July 31 the actual Anniversary date of MetroLink's opening in St. Louis including a promotion with 105.7 THe Point (http://www.1057thepoint.com/metro/) if you ride MetroLink with Tony Transit.
The most pressing question is where should St. Louis go from here with MetroLink?