MetroLink Parties
Cross County MetroLink will finally start running Saturday, August 26th. Rides will be free on Saturday and Sunday, with "revenue service" starting Monday, August 28th.
At least two big parties are planned:
WashU hosts "Opening Doors" community festival from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM on Saturday, on the parking lot in front of Brookings Hall.
LinkFest will be held on River des Peres Boulevard at Lansdowne Avenue, across from the Shrewsbury-Lansdowne-I-44 station, from 2 PM to 8 PM on Saturday.
There will also be a "sequential ribbon-cutting" at each station between 11 AM and 2 PM Saturday.
Free rides for all on the new route should run from about 12:15 PM to 10 PM Saturday, and 10 AM to 4 PM on Sunday.
Enjoy!
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3 comments:
Since bus changes don't take effect until Monday, transit dependents will have fewer means of accessing free rides over the weekend, other than taking trains west of Forest Park.
Running their last runs on current routes this weekend, there will be some service at major cross-streets, like Skinker or Manchester, or the recently opened Clayton MetroBus center. But until Monday, no buses will connect with Brentwood, Sunnen, or Shrewsbury, the former two not yet on MetroBus routes, while the latter one only presently on the 92-Lindenwood, which lacks weekend service and will make its last run Friday evening.
Of course, come Monday, there will be many more bus connections to the new stations. For example, seven routes will serve the Shrewsbury station. While ridership will easily depend on improved service to both existing and new patrons, I think the "free rides" weekend is aimed more at potential new riders.
Even the new Richmond Heights station will lack buses over the weekend (new routes starting Monday). I hope those new to Metro testing out Cross-County realize that they won't always have to walk to the Galleria in the future.
To be fair, the Shrewsbury station and the LinkFest site are within a short walk of the #11 Chippewa line, which runs pretty frequently and late into the evening on Saturdays.
The Richmond Heights station is not directly served by pre-existing routes, but several routes serve the vicinity of Saint Louis Galleria just under I-170. And the 'old' #52 (via Dale) does run on Eager, as does the 'old' #47 (on Saturday only) by the Brentwood station.
I remember back in '93 when MetroLink first started, there were three days of free rides, (July 31, Aug 1 and Aug 2). Aug 2 also included free bus rides all over town! That was cool -- and the trains were just packed. I remember thinking one train was swaying so much, it might just fall over under the weight of all the passengers at Convention Center station that weekend.
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