ST. LOUIS – MetroLink is hosting public meetings on improving security and expanding the light rail system.

These public meetings will be happening Monday and Tuesday. MetroLink will be revealing results of its online survey about its planned expansion. Safety has also been a recent concern.

Breaking ground on the project is still a few years away. The expansion currently in the project management phase. A new north-south route would run along Jefferson Avenue, from Chippewa, to Natural Bridge. That’s phase one of the project, and it’s estimated to cost around $850 million.


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Phase two would extend service into north county. The federal government’s ‘New Start Program’ provides up to $4.6 billion a year to capital transit projects, like the Jefferson Alignment MetroLink Expansion.

Bi-state and the city will work together on the securing the funding for this. However, they’ve said in the past, 40% of the project will be paid for locally. The city of St. Louis and St. Louis County in partnership with Metro Transit and Bi-State Development will reveal results of the online survey, which, 2200 plus people took.

It’s also understood that Metro is working on new security gates at some of its 38 MetroLink stations. So that will be talked about at these meetings as well

Here’s what the CEO of Bi-State Development Taulby Roach told FOX 2 about the importance of public input several weeks ago.

“Part of this process is we need to be soliciting the public about how a station location might fit their neighborhoods,” Roach explained. “Look, this is about working ourselves into the fabric into all the parallel communities and neighborhoods.”

Monday’s open house is from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Beyond Housing in Pine Lawn.
Tuesday’s open house is at Doorway on North Jefferson Avenue in the Jeff-Vanderlou Neighborhood.