ST. LOUIS COUNTY — The region’s transit agency on Friday released a map revealing four new MetroLink expansion alternatives, all extending from north ºüÀêÊÓƵ into north ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.
Each route would begin at Natural Bridge Avenue and North Grand Boulevard, the terminus of a planned route that would go to the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency headquarters northwest of downtown.
Three of them would end at the North County Transit Center on Pershall Road in Ferguson, just south of Interstate 270, where several Metro bus lines stop.
The four proposed alternatives would lay tracks:
- West along Natural Bridge and north on Goodfellow Boulevard, then northwest on West Florissant Avenue to the transit center.
- West on Natural Bridge, then north on Jennings Station and Halls Ferry roads to the transit center.
- Natural Bridge to Lucas and Hunt Road to Halls Ferry to the center.
- Along Natural Bridge farther west than the other three, turning north at Florissant Road near the University of Missouri-ºüÀêÊÓƵ and ending at Hereford Avenue in Ferguson. Hereford becomes Chambers Road farther east. This route would allow riders to transfer to an existing MetroLink line at the UMSL North station.
People are also reading…
The alternatives were outlined by AECOM, an engineering firm working for the county to develop a potential MetroLink extension dubbed the North StL County Community Connector.
AECOM also studied potential routes for the proposed new city line, called Northside-Southside, for ºüÀêÊÓƵ officials.
The city line is expected to run on tracks in or along major streets, in contrast to existing MetroLink routes that mostly operate on separate alignments.
Taulby Roach, CEO of the Bi-State Development Agency — the regional transit agency that runs MetroLink — said in a text message late Friday that the county route would be run along streets as well.
The AECOM material also said the North County area was studied for the extension because it has more population, employment, housing density and households without vehicles than the county average.
The area also has more neighborhoods that have experienced disinvestment over the years.
Those and other factors are likely to make it attractive in competing with projects from other metro areas for the federal money needed to help cover the cost, the firm said.
AECOM will now get public reaction and put together cost and ridership estimates before recommending a preferred alternative later this year.
Where to locate MetroLink routes has caused controversy in the past. About two decades ago local leaders hashed out where to put the line that now hugs the north end of Forest Park and ends in Shrewsbury.
Last spring, Roach, ºüÀêÊÓƵ Mayor Tishaura O. Jones and County Executive Sam Page announced they were endorsing a change in the previously designated preferred route for the Northside-Southside line.
Under that revision, the line would run along Jefferson Avenue from Chippewa Street past the new pro soccer stadium to the NGA site. It would then follow Parnell Street along the western end of the site, then go west along Natural Bridge to North Grand.
That revision still needs approval of the regional East-West Gateway Council of Governments.
AECOM, which in 2018 had estimated a price tag of $667 million for the earlier city route, is now working on an estimate for the one pushed by Roach, Jones and Page.
The chances for getting significant federal money for new lines here improved in 2021 when Congress passed a major infrastructure funding bill.
But Jim Wild, the Gateway Council’s executive director, said it’s unlikely that applications for federal money for new routes here can be submitted until 2025 at the earliest. He said the feds require additional detailed planning before the applications can be turned in.
Among details to be worked out is how the part of the potential route to North County that falls within the city — along Natural Bridge and possibly Goodfellow — would be paid for.
City voters in 2017 approved a sales tax to help pay for eventual MetroLink expansion. The amount raised so far will approach $70 million by July, city Budget Director Paul Payne said Friday.
The county also has a sales tax fund that can be used for transit expansion; about $163 million was available as of the end of last year, county spokesman Doug Moore said.