Residents across the St. Louis region seized opportunities this week to learn more about and offer feedback on a proposed 5.6-mile, north-south MetroLink expansion route called the Green Line.
Bi-State Development led public meetings on Tuesday in north St. Louis and Wednesday in south St. Louis where attendees could read multiple posters about the proposed billion-dollar expansion and offer their direct feedback to members of the transit agency and its consultants on the project.
The agency will host a virtual meeting next Tuesday as well.
The meetings are meant to kick off the yearlong environmental review process and come after some of the initial design and engineering work that’s already been completed, said Jessica Gershman, assistant executive director of planning for Metro Transit.
“It’s a chance for us to hear from the public,” she said. “[Making] sure we are unearthing all concerns about potential environmental impacts, and that we are figuring out how to mitigate anything that might arise.”
That includes noise, vibration to property, impacts to green spaces, historic preservation and others, Gershman said.
Some residents at Wednesday’s meeting raised specific concerns, such as how construction may affect their historic home, but many arrived simply wanting more information about the massive proposed project.
“I wanted to know more about the changes to the alignment,” said Downtown resident Joseph Gordon. “It looked like a few of the stops were removed. I also wanted to know about the plans for the bike lanes on this alignment.”
Benton Park resident Mary Clemens said she came to the meeting without much knowledge of the project and wanted to see how it compared to other options.
“It’d be exciting to have this but also that I’ve heard people talking about why don’t we just get electric buses and save all the money and the work that you’re putting into this?” she said. “Why do people think this is a really great option as opposed to something else that you have a little more [flexibility]?”
Gordon and Clemens shared other attendees' feelings, lamenting how limited St. Louis’ current public transportation offerings are.
“I’ve taken the bus here a few times — didn’t care for it,” Gordon said. “I would love to sell my car. Don’t even get me started. All these payments for this old piece of junk just to keep it alive.”
Many residents said they have to drive even if that’s not their preference, but the proposed Green Line would alleviate that reliance. Tower Grove East resident Suzanne Hart said a major barrier to public transit use is how infrequent buses and trains are compared to other major cities like Washington, D.C., or Chicago.
“In those cities, one of the reasons transit can be so robust is because it’s the easiest choice to make, and I would love to see that be the case here,” Hart said. “I unfortunately do a lot more driving than I want to. Having a north-south [light rail] alignment when the city is north-south aligned to begin with would be awesome.”
Hart added she hopes the Green Line could catalyze better transit service in the region by offering a spine that more bus routes could build off of.
“Any transit system worth its salt operates on multiple levels. Not only do you have a rail element but also buses and ideally good walking and biking.”
But some attendees balked at the $1.1 billion price tag associated with the project.
“I just feel like we’re putting our priorities out of whack,” said Gravois Park resident Charity Powell. “Can we get some improvements in the area and then maybe let’s talk about spending a billion dollars?”
She said she wanted to see more direct investment into her community before spending a massive amount of cash on a train line that may not be highly used. “I feel like there are other things we can do to improve our public transportation without throwing away money.”
Marine Villa resident Michael Ferguson agreed.
“There are no destinations down here to justify spending this much money,” he said. “I have yet to see a full bus drive up and down Jefferson here.”
But to Christina Goodwin, of Benton Park West, a train on Jefferson would go a long way to calming traffic in the way she wants to see. She added she’s been hit multiple times as a pedestrian on Jefferson.
“One of the things St. Louis is really lacking is good infrastructure for transit and walkability,” Goodwin said. “It’s one of the ways in which it’s not up to [the caliber] of cities where lots of young people want to move. I think having Metro accessibility would make the difference for our neighborhood.”
Gershman, with Metro Transit, said this kind of feedback is crucial for the project as it’s still in an early phase. The environmental review process will last another year with more opportunities for feedback from residents, neighborhood associations or meetings that the agency will incorporate into the design of the project, she added.
“If people say, ‘Please come to my neighborhood meeting,' we’re going to come,” she said. “We want to make sure that we are engaging with people and meeting them where they are.”
The plan is to have the environmental review and project engineering completed for construction to begin in 2027, with service beginning in 2030, Gershman said.
