ST. LOUIS — Flooded train cars. Uprooted rail beds. Sliced fiber optic cables.
All told, flooding damage to the MetroLink light rail system will cost $18 million to $20 million, Taulby Roach, CEO of Bi-state Development, estimated on Wednesday.
The destruction is concentrated between MetroLink’s Forest Park-DeBaliviere and Delmar Loop stations, which were inundated by floodwater from Tuesday’s historic rainfall.
Early Tuesday morning, the train safety system MetroLink uses to monitor its cars and rail lines registered a dead zone between the two stations caused by flooding, leading operators to stop, power down and evacuate a nearby train at the Delmar Loop station.
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There, the train was stuck in rising water and flooded. It will cost $5 million to replace it, Roach said.
Floodwater tearing through the train tunnels cut fiber optic cables used to send signals along the rail lines.
The rock structure supporting Metrolink’s rail bed was destroyed and will need to be repaired.
A critical communication system at the Forest Park station was claimed by the flood, and it has unique parts that are difficult to replace.
MetroLink is only running its blue line between University City-Big Bend and Shrewsbury stations and its red line between Central West End and Shiloh-Scott stations while services through the damaged stations is suspended. Buses are the shuttered lines.
Roach estimated it would take at least two weeks for repairs to be completed.