MO: 2 St. Louis bus rapid transit route options would go east into downtown
Two final options for proposed dedicated bus lanes would go farther east in the downtown area than the now-scuttled MetroLink expansion line.
Open house-style sessions will be held this week to provide information and get citizen input on the two bus rapid transit options, beginning with one from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Rung for Women, 2717 Sidney Street. There will be no formal presentation, but staffers will be on hand to answer questions.
Another open house will be 5-7 p.m. Wednesday at the Polish Heritage Center, 1413 North 20th Street.
A virtual session will be at 7 p.m. Thursday. To participate, register at https://bit.ly/GreenLineMay2026.
The route, referred to as the Green Line, would have buses running more frequently than on standard routes. It would likely include stations at all stops, along with dedicated lanes and signal priority at stoplights.
Both bus rapid transit options aim to connect the north and south sides of the city via the Civic Center transit center at 14th Street and Clark Avenue.
"There really isn't a clear favorite, and they both have their merits," Bobby Hosack, the Green Line project manager, told the East-West Gateway Council of Governments board last week.
He said the public input from this week's sessions will help planners devise a preferred alternative, which is expected to be submitted in June.
Hosack, with the HNTB engineering firm, said bringing the proposed line past the Civic Center station was "vital" because it already serves numerous existing Metro bus routes as well as the MetroLink red and blue lines. Moreover, the station is adjacent to Amtrak and Greyhound bus stops.
The Bi-State Development Agency, which runs MetroLink and the area bus system, and the city last September pivoted to the bus rapid transit plan after dropping a MetroLink expansion because of cost concerns.
Each of the two optional routes would link the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Chippewa Street on the south side with Natural Bridge Avenue and North Grand Boulevard.
However, Hosack said public feedback so far has shown significant interest in taking the line farther north and south.
So, he said, planners have added a proposed southern extension to Meramec Street and a northwest extension to Goodfellow Boulevard near the city-county border.
Whether they would actually be pursued would depend in part on final cost estimates, he said.
Each route would run about 11.5 miles, including the extensions, about twice as long as the scrapped MetroLink proposal. Each route would have about 23 stations.
Both options would start on the south at Meramec and South Broadway, go north on Broadway to Jefferson, north on Jefferson to Chouteau Avenue, east on Chouteau to 18th Street, north on 18th to Clark and then east on Clark to the Civic Center station.
Then the two options diverge.
One route would go east on Clark to Tucker Boulevard and north on Tucker, 13th Street and North Florissant Avenue to Palm Street. The route would then go west on Palm, which turns into Natural Bridge, and go west to Goodfellow.
The other route would go north on 14th from the Civic Center station to Olive Street, west on Olive to Jefferson, north on Jefferson and Parnell Street along the west side of the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency headquarters to Natural Bridge, and then on to Goodfellow.
The scrapped MetroLink Green Line would have stayed straight up Jefferson from the south side to the north side.
Bi-State CEO Taulby Roach has said the bus Green Line, at $400 million to $450 million, would be much less expensive than the $1.1 billion light rail project and have a better chance at getting federal money needed to pay for the bulk of the cost.
Local officials also hope to tap a special sales tax passed by city voters in 2017 for the MetroLink north-south line. Some aldermen want an election on repurposing that money to be used on a BRT line.
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