The proposed $1.1 billion MetroLink Green Line to expand light rail in St. Louis, Mo., has been canceled and Bus Rapid Transit will be considered for the corridor connecting Jefferson Avenue, Chippewa Street, and Fairground Park, according to St. Louis Public Radio and other local media outlets.
The 5.6-mile north-south Green Line (see a map at right and a project video below) would have linked to the existing MetroLink light rail service at a new transfer station near Scott Avenue.
The project was slated to connect residents to growing job centers in Downtown West and Midtown, as well as to educational opportunities and healthcare services.
As part of this project, 12 new light rail vehicles and a dedicated maintenance facility at the existing Ewing Yard were proposed.
“The project would have been uncompetitive and out of reach for the city’s current funding stream, St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said in a statement,” St. Louis Public Radio’s Chad Davis reported Sept. 24.
“‘It’s imperative we have a project that meets our objectives and qualifies for federal funding, which is necessary to make the project viable,’ Spencer said. ‘Unfortunately, the Green Line, as proposed, has a $1.1 billion price tag for just 10 stations and less than 6 miles, making this project out of reach for our current funding stream and uncompetitive for federal funding.’”
“Spencer said she looks forward to looking into other transit projects, including looking into bus rapid transit opportunities in the Green Line corridor,” according to Davis’s report. “‘I’m excited to explore what bus rapid transit, along with a multi-modal component, can offer our citizens, visitors and the competitive federal grant administrators,’ Spencer said.”
Bi-State Development (BSD) has been responsible for leading the project planning, design and construction; it was expected that once the Green Line was built, Metro Transit, a BSD enterprise, would operate and maintain it. The City of St. Louis has been working with BSD and its Project Management Consultant, Northside-Southside Transit Partners (a joint venture of HNTB, KWAME Building Group, and KAI 360 Construction Services), “to make sure each step of the federal planning process is followed and that the public is involved,” according to the Green Line project website. City residents voted in 2017 for a tax increase to support light rail expansion on the north-south corridor.
According to the St. Louis Business Journal, BSD “says in new documents that the train orientation was unlikely to win key federal funding.” The BSD Board, it reported, “is set Friday [Sept. 25] to consider amendments to its agreement” with Northside-Southside Transit Partners. “If the board approves, it will instead work on a ‘bus rapid transit’ plan along the same line,” according to the Journal.
St. Louis Public Radio reported that Cara Spencer and BSD five months ago “paused plans to develop the north-south track”. Spencer “said then that she was concerned about costs and whether the track was likely to receive federal funding”; BSD “was able to continue its environmental review of the MetroLink plans but ceased applying for federal funding” through a Federal Transit Administration Capital Investment Grant (CIG), according to the news outlet.
St. Louis Public Radio said that the expansion application was approved last year under the FTA’s New Start Program; a CIG “could have covered up to 60% of the funding.” The environmental review and 30% design would need to be completed before a CIG could be awarded.
According to the St. Louis Business Journal, “A Bi-State official said Tuesday [Sept. 23] the agency did not submit for the grant. Bi-State CEO Taulby Roach previously said the window to submit for that grant would have been in August.”
BSD “was ‘directed’ to start planning for a potential bus route … , documents slated for approval by the agency’s board Friday said,” the Journal reported.
On Friday, Sept. 26, the BSD Board officially took light rail “off the table,” according to St. Louis Public Radio. It voted “to begin studying a north-south bus rapid transit system instead.”
“I’m personally a little disappointed,” Taulby Roach said in an interview with the news outlet. “I’d love to build Metrolink, but the reality is, we have to advance projects to both our D.C. partners and to Room 200 in City Hall that make economic sense.”
“The decision to choose light rail over electric buses often involves a trade-off between long-term benefits (e.g., capacity, permanence) and upfront costs,” according to the Green Line project website, which has not been updated to reflect the change in plans. “While light rail vehicles are more expensive initially, they historically provide higher capacity and attract more riders.”
