Getting Around Via Metro

Since I last blogged on here, I have used Metro bus service several times. Oddly, I haven't used MetroLink lately, but that's because the bus routes I have been taking to and from work and home meant MetroLink didn't actually play a major role in my travels. When I last used the service daily instead of frequently, I used numerous bus routes AND MetroLink frequently and was happy with the vast majority of my experiences.

So, 2009 hits and the cuts come for mass transit in St. Louis - especially in the county. It's been well-documented how hard the cuts were for regular riders who lived or worked in West St. Louis County as well as other parts of the Missouri side of the region. Thousands of workers were literally quitting their jobs or being forced to find alternate forms of transportation to their jobsites as a result of the route cuts. It hit me some, but not severely, as my best routes allow me to get to and from work in less than two hours in most cases. In fact, if I take the bus that goes near my workplace, I can get to the MetroLink station closest to my house LONG before the route I used to take which included a different station and a wait for the train and the additional stops through several other stations: in short, it cuts off a lot of time. That's on the way home. It's still usually a hit-and-miss proposition if I have to get to work at a later time because certain bus routes I usually take now run less-frequently in the middle of the day. But I sure am grateful that the routes near my residence still exist. I know it is not the same for tens of thousands of St. Louisans.

Over the past couple of weeks, the board at Metro was given good news that there would be some money coming from bills passed in Congress and the Missouri state government. It's good news for many whom altogether lost a stop which will return OR for those who needed more frequent runs of the current lines, but it's not going to mean the return of service to hundreds of miles of streets in our region.

For now, some consolation can be had that there will be some routes coming back IF money returns to the coffers. But that is a rather big "IF" hanging in the balance for so many.

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I've said this in the past, but it bears repeating: If you haven't been a rider on the Metro Transit system in St. Louis lately, you are NOT ALLOWED to make judgment on whether or not it is a viable system.

Whether you know it or not, Metro's existence in the St. Louis region is a NECESSARY part of life...not an option...a NECESSARY form of transportation for good times and bad times. Should you not believe it now, wait for the rest of the nation to rebound from the depressed times long before St. Louis County rebounds.

I'll try to leave St. Charles County alone for the time-being, although there are so many reasons to call residents there "short sighted" when it comes to mass transit, as well.

Gotta run off to the traffic lanes and see the Big Bend overpass before it is demolished soon. Remember --- Big Bend closes at Highway 40/I-64 on June 1st. Aren't you glad that the Hampton overpass has reopened?