Imagine if every month, hundreds of miles of St. Louis city and county roadways are demolished.
This has already happened to the street your house is located on and getting to work has increased from a 30 minute commute to a 60 minute commute. Worst of all, this trend is showing no sign of stopping anytime soon. Although this would cause outrage and immediate action among residents and government officials across the country, this is precisely what is happening for transit riders in St. Louis.
Since 2009, bus service has been repeatedly slashed. Although some service was restored thanks to Proposition A in 2010, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a series of bus service cuts that accelerated with the operator shortage. This trend shows no sign of slowing down, with service reductions as recent as June 2023- nearly three years after the pandemic. Continued reductions in service reduce rider confidence and ridership, reducing fare revenue and furthering service reductions. As Metro/Bi-State focuses efforts on Metrolink security theater and planning for the North-South Extension, we are now left with a bus system that is on critical life support. |
A look at changes in daytime bus frequency since 2019
Weekday Daytime: 2019 vs 2023
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Weekend Daytime: 2019 vs 2023
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So what can we do to reverse this transit death spiral?
- Metro/Bi-State needs to increase operator wages to above the national average. Currently, bus operators make at or slightly below the national average. However, other cities such as Cleveland's GCRTA has largely been able to avoid the severe and continuous service cuts that St. Louis experienced thanks to paying 30% above the national average.
- The state of Missouri needs to make more state transportation funds available to transit agencies such as Metro/Bi-State for operations. Missouri spends $1.41 per capita on transit- an increase from $0.28 per capita. However, this is still significantly below the national average of $7.34 per capita.
- Federal transit funding must be able to be used towards operations. Currently, federal transit funding can only be used for capital projects such as rail stations and new vehicles. This creates a situation where agencies may have the ability to repair and upgrade infrastructure but do not have the operators to make full use of these capital investments.