St Louis MetroLink Review - The Light Rail That Travels To Farmers Fields
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 9 апр 2020
- Back in 2019, I traveled to St. Louis for a business trip. At around the same time, I watched a bunch of New York City Subway Route Reviews by the Super Subway Bros. I thought it might be a cool idea to review the transit systems/light rail/subway lines of Toronto and the world outside of NYC, without the foam aspect, and with more analysis.
Please note, this is my first attempt at a voice over so it's not going to be a great review. It is also the first of 2 parts. Let me know what you guys think and what I should improve on. I really enjoyed making this video and would like to eventually try future reviews like this. 
Авто/Мото
0:19 😏
Subtle shoutout there.
St. Louisan here. Super stoked you covered our transit system but one small comment followed by a larger comment: At 5:40, the blue line does trace the Mississippi River from the south, but then it bends west and traces the _Missouri_ River after that point, not the Mississippi. Just to clarify.
Second, I actually think St. Louis _City_ has a lot of potential to develop into a really walkable/bikable/transit-oriented city. In 1876, the City separated from St. Louis County which permanently restricted the physical size of the City while the population continued growing, eventually, to 800,000, before declining in the post-war decades. At its largest population size, it had a pop. density comparable to modern-day Chicago, Philly, or Boston. That meant the city had to develop for a dense population and much of that density is still there, even if the population isn't. The much less dense and sprawlingly suburban St. Louis County and St. Charles County, however, are another story.
It's amazing we've built this much on the Missouri side considering the state has no interest in funding it. Only subsidizing car commutes is a concern for the state.
That’s why transit should be handled by the feds NOT states
Are you joking?
@@rorypaul153 No, MO has $2.8B in general revenue to subsidize driving, only peanuts for any other transportation mode.
@@rgbose I mean Missouri literally is looking to expand Amtrak service in the State and has penciled $38 million in the state budget for 2025, right now it’s just about $11 million. And Missouri spends way more on public transit than other Republican states. Not to mention, local public transit is mostly a local and federal thing, states aren’t expected to spend that much on it.
@@rorypaul153 I hope the Amtrak expansion happens. Again it's amazing what we're been able to do locally in STL with MO mia, which only concerns itself with local transportation by car.
This line reminds me more of the old-style "interurban" railways that were prevalent in suburban and rural America in the early 20th century.
the good ol days :(
(for rail)
A line to down town right from a military base is a great idea, since military members are so prone to drunk driving. However, it simply just does not run late enough. They should really poll the base and see if there's enough interest in a later, Express service
I lived in St. Louis for about 10 years and honesty the metrolink is good but the two lines are so limited we need more line
Interesting info, but dude, tone down the Wagner - I can barely hear you over the music
Mendelsohn actually, but I get what you're saying. Generally I'm a terrible speaker but hopefully my music choice, volume, and spoken audio quality will be better during the next vid.
I as a regular rider of the entire Metro system and when I used to volunteer at the headquarters, I used to see hundreds to thousands of complaints pouring in. I would have loved to see Metro go further west now since major employment centers are sprouting up all over. St. Louis also has another mode of public transit that is as famous as the MetroLink and that is the Call-a-Ride paratransit service. I am sure that many of us older Americans could remember when we stepped out of line at school, the teacher would say that we blew it for everybody. And that is what the idiots like the violent drug dealers has done with their disgusting behavior. They blew it for everybody. In Europe, they have trams with fare card readers. Which means if your fare card is empty and you don't have cash, you don't ride.
There are fare evaders in every single country, even in countries with low crime rate. Even if you have a card system, people will still try to avoid paying fares. This is a cultural issue. The best you can do is build effective turnstiles at each station.
@@hsun7997 even then metro chip cards can be cracked if needed. There is workaround with everything. Greetings from Berlin, Germany
Take the train to the tractor.
Light rail promotional ad.
I would say a big problem for this is system is the safety of it (or at least the perception of safety). While they do a good job patrolling the stations and trains, a lot of the immediate area (especially downtown/East St Louis) are in some particularly dangerous areas of the city. That's been a concern with expanding it as any town it expands into seems to bring a certain perception of risk (for instance, the Galleria Mall has a transit stop nearby and has gone downhill in part from it)
Yep, St. Charles, one of the areas that he highlighted as in need of service from the line, has repeatedly voted against expanding the MetroLink to the region almost entirely because of safety concerns. I'm normally someone who rails against the perceived public safety concerns of improved public transit, but Metrolink's safety issues are actually completely real. It's a shame.
Ah yes thinly veiled racism nice
@@philipm3173 Ah yes...making everything about race when the world is clearly more complex. Nice
@@viewdeview7848 clutch those pearls a little harder sweetie
@@philipm3173 Aww well I hope you get the help you need bud.
Sometimes you plant a tree in whose shade you'll never rest.
Metrolink is a mix of an extremely productive corridor running from Lambert Airport to downtown St. Louis, and two very lightly-used branches serving low-density exurbs. The frequencies in the core are excellent, and given that it has a completely dedicated right of way, it basically operates like a metro system there. Lots of new development is sprouting up around the stations as well!
I'm from St. Louis, so I can give an insiders perspective. Metrolink has all been built in my lifetime. I actually lived past the last station in Illinois. My mom works at BJC Hospital and doesn't even take the train unless there is a lot of snow/ice and that is as you said because it takes forever to get from Shiloh-Scott to St. Louis.
The line started as just the red line and expanded into Illinois. Before Metrolink there were three bus systems: Metrobus, which covered all of the Missouri part of St. Louis City, St. Louis County and the surrounding area, then St. Clair County Transit did buses for St. Clair County, and finally Madison County Transit, which also has Illinois suburbs and exurbs. Along w/ getting Metrolink, Metro took over bus service in St. Clair County, but Madison County Transit still exists today and is a standalone system that has a lot of bus stops that integrate with Metro.
Metrolink was always supposed to extend to Mid-America Airport. If you ride the trains and get to the end of a line, they have always had Mid-America Airport on the rolling marquee signs. The issue is Mid-America was built to be a feeder, regional airport that would take some heat off of Lambert Airport. The problem is, the demand never came. Over the years they have had a few very, very small airlines who offered zero to one flights a week and not really to destinations St. Louisans are clamoring to go to. Most recently we had Allegiant Airlines, but I'm not even sure if they still fly into there.
As a result Mid-America has basically been relegated to a few flights every once in a while. They don't even have permanent staff who work there during the day, only when a flight is leaving or arriving. Beyond that, Scott AFB uses it as an extra runway, possibly some cargo comes in or out from there, and the parking lot can be used for large-scale car storage.
There have been rumors and some actual plans for other lines over the years. One of them would have gone North to South along the Mississippi River on the Missouri side. You can find this one on Google if you dig enough. I've always selfishly wanted a line similar to the one in St. Clair County that went through Madison County. A lot of why new lines are never built comes down to NIMBY-ism and also not wanting to fork over the money for transit. There was even talk back in the day that connecting towns and suburbs to the city and low-income neighborhoods, like East St. Louis, would bring bad people from those neighborhoods to commit crimes in their towns, so that of course scared people, even if it is inherently false.
Some fun facts about Metrolink: Several stations downtown are underground and it travels across the Mississippi on Eads Bridge, which is currently the oldest bridge in St. Louis. The Blue line originally only went to Emerson Park on the Illinois side, but because Emerson Park is in the middle of East St. Louis and crime at the station was high (muggings, assaults, etc.), they moved it to Fairview Heights Station, but there were (and possibly still are) some Blue line trains that only went as far as Emerson Park.
I would say the greatest ridership for the Illinois side is during sporting events, the Metrolink stops at every major sports center (Busch Stadium, Edward Jones Dome, and Enterprise Center), other than that, some people use it to commute, some to go to the city for pleasure, and some to go to the airport for a flight. It is true there are farm fields, but basically only from College Station to Shiloh-Scott, the rest runs mostly through Belleville and then Fairview Heights.
I forgot to add, while Boeing does have a site at Shiloh-Scott, it's actually closer to the interstate near Mid-America, so you wouldn't actually want to walk from the Shiloh-Scott station. It's a few miles away.
Thanks for some of the history. It’s really unfortunate that the development at mid America never came to be.
@@Token_Nerd I think it was just misplaced investment, to be honest. Lambert has only shrunk as an airport. We got the 2nd terminal and new runway that we don't really need anymore and we used to be a hub for one of the airlines, but now we aren't so it's not a super busy airport.
Also, the reason it doesn't go more westward? RACISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The suburbanites don't want the "urban" population coming through their neighborhoods. They might bring "crime"1
I’m still amazed that they’re actually still moving forward with extending the MetroLink to that airport… to which some would claim that said airport’s mere existence is a textbook example of a pork barrel project.
I’d imagine just studying on extending the Blue Line from its existing terminus to run directly along a completely rebuilt St. Clair Avenue/Lincoln Trail just to Bunkum Rd/Union Hill Rd would overwhelmingly likely generate FAR more ridership than ANY MILE OF THE RED LINE east of the existing Swansea station. That entire Lincoln Trail neighborhood seems like quite the opportunity for redevelopment of all businesses along that immediate corridor at very bare minimum… I’d say all the way to IL 159 or St. Clair Square, but Metrolink presently has a laundry list of public safety, bad publicity, and image issues that need to tackle accordingly before even thinking about asking the general public outside of STL city limits if they want any more Metrolink.
The problem is that transit funding in the U.S. relies on local matching funds, and Missouri refuses to provide the appropriate level of local investment to actually fund extensions into the more populated areas. Meanwhile, Illinois has significant investments into transit, even outside of the Chicago metropolitan area. Nearly half a billion is spent "downstate" every year on transit (Downstate Operating Assistance Program). The St. Clair County portion was originally envisioned to link Lambert Airport with the MidAmerica Airport when Lambert was too crowded to expand any more (pre-9/11 when TWA had its hub at STL). In 2019, the State of Illinois announced extending the red line to this airport beyond Shiloh-Scott Station in hopes of providing good transit to the growing airport business park there, at a cost of $99 million. If St Louis were completely in Illinois, those dollars would easily go to the growing west suburbs. But because Illinois doesn't like sending its money over to Missouri, we get underutilized transit. What's sad is that the lower ridership in Illinois makes applying for federal grants even more difficult because the riders per mile in the entire system are lower than they ought to be--making competitive grants even harder to get. One last note: in 2009, when Missouri voters turned down a sales tax to fund the Missouri MetroBus system, one of the creative ways Metro got around this was to use Illinois money to fund MetroLink trains that went into Missouri. In other words, Illinois taxpayers paid for transit in Missouri. This was remedied in 2010 when St. Louis County voters approved the sales tax for transit. A very similar situation occurs in and around Atlanta, because various counties regularly vote down transit taxes for expansion of MARTA, leaving Gwinnett County out of the envisioned system.
Feds should cut funding to areas that don’t invest in infrastructure and do it themselves
Then the city should match the funding like KC did with the streetcar
I just came across this channel. I love it! These videos are really detailed and factual, and presented in a way that isn't boring or monotonous. St. Louis' MetroLink is definitely unique, as it is one of the last few systems to use rollsigns, and it's weird lines through the middle of farms. Great videos!
Important to note that places like St. Charles and Chesterfield explicitly voted against any sort of public transit integration in order to avoid the crime that comes with it
To be more blunt, St. Charles County was (in the '90s) and still is very white (roughly 90%), and a very large portion of residents voiced concerns over the fact that the MetroLink would connect the county with a places where black people make up a significantly higher proportion of the population (basically, between the airport and just north of the Central West End, and East St. Louis). St. Peters' mayor at the time, Tom Brown, framed many of the city's residents, who'd "fled" from North County, as "victims" (the population there alone grew from under 500 at the 1970 census to over 45,000 20 years later and, to this day, is over 90% white).
As someone from Fenton, I think this is the first time I’ve ever heard Fenton mentioned on the internet. I would absolutely love an extension to Fenton, but that’ll never happen. Fenton doesn’t even have bus service yet. And I’m going to be moving to Chicago in ~2.5 years anyways.
Correction: Actually I’ve seen Fenton on the TV once while visiting Taiwan. Fenton, or really more Valley Park has major flooding problems, apparently bad enough to make the news in Taiwan
They are going to be building a north-south nice streetcar network serving a lot of the nearer in walkable neighborhoods of St. Louis
Also, really liked the background music
10:00 in the video- From East St. Louis, IL to just east of the Belleville station was the former L&N Evansville to St. Louis line. From College on was just built to access the air force base. There's a few more lines they've talked about like the north south route, but I wish they'd put more money into the city roads which are far more used than the light rail system. Potholes everywhere and traffic lights using timing sensors from the 60's!!
I think the reason the line disproportionately serves the left bank of the Mississippi might have something to do with cost.
• Freight rail companies were happy to part with Eads Bridge for next to nothing; they had no use for it since the loading gauge was too restrictive.
• The right bank is denser & has fewer places to put a rail line that run near the main activity & population centres.
As a bistate agency, a line had to be built into Illinois despite having unserved higher density areas in Missouri. Was this the best corridor for an Illinois route? And should they have ended the line sooner, maybe at Fairview Heights? That likely would’ve been adequate to serve the mostly car-owning population in the eastern suburbs. With all that said, besides being politically important, service to MidAmerica was seen as necessary at one point. Lambert was bursting at the seams and there was a push to develop a second commercial airport here. TWA’s subsequent bankruptcy ended this apparent need. Now we’re left with an underperforming outer end of the Red Line which has no easy fix.
Thanks for this looking forward to part 2 .👍
The areas that would benefit from transit options genuinely don’t want them. I’m St. Louis, public transit is often associated with crime and the urban poor. There’s a fear that transit development will lead to increased crime rates.
hey!!! so glad I got to meet you last night on the Blue Line!!! good luck in San Francisco!!!
Thanks! I’ll let you know the next time I’m in St. Louis
The music in the background reminds me of the music that NFTA Metro plays in their Light Rail stations over the speakers
Worse is yet to come
I would love to see you finish this someday!
In the works
Background music is basically drowning out the narration, it's unbearable. I'm going to get through the video because I'm a transit nerd, but look out for audio output imbalances next time
Just skirt Canadiana, particularly its Rotton-Ø. Canadians - as opposed to Canadiens - crave attention, possess no identity, and bear poor insight too abominable to mete out any potent review...its peoples are *too* careless to be addressing...merely the west's *dopiest* 🍸
Agreed...far too loud. Gave up on it.
Check out my comment above! Could not agree with you more! So many videos contain unnecessary (and annoying) music which does absolutely nothing to enhance the presentation. It does, however, as you pointed out become a distraction and competition for the viewers' ears! Another thing that bugs me are the videos where the camera mic picks up the wind and become like static! That could be remedied; find where the mic is and cut a small piece of foam material and place it over the mic! I was watching one video the other day and the wind noise was persistent and ruined the video for me! I love that you call yourself and "transit nerd"! I share your interest and affection for the urban transit scene world-wide but I coined the term "urbanrailer" back in 09! In effect, they are synonyms! I'm a New Yorker who fell in love with the subways, buses and trolleys (we no longer have) when I was a kid umteen centuries ago! In the railroad world, urban systems are often ignored or treated like an disliked step child but pound for pound, the urban transit scene is just as vital to a nation as the broader railroad scene!! IT's only in recent years that model train manufacturers have begun to include models of the various urban systems! Lionel offers NYC model trains As a kid, getting on the train was so exciting; back then you could look out the front car window something that has disappeared with the new, sleeker designs!
the practice of copying corporateria laughably reveals the dearth of originality borne by their (so-called independent) compilers....surprisingly! youth are by far! the most delinquent at this videographed copycatting
I'm listening on earbuds and it was absolutely fine. Hmm
That's really great stuff! Congrats and keep going on.
Oh... And please, do one in Ottawa, especially as you mentioned you don't like it in your video! I've been there once and used the old trillium line, the confederation one was still under construction.
Greetings from Brazil.
Rode this to Busch Stadium from Clayton and back to Clayton after the game, was a very good ride after a fun baseball game!
If I've ever learned anything about public transit lines and development from the London Underground, it would be that those agricultural areas might turn into urban areas pretty quickly in the future.
Like queens ny?
Its definitely expanding. It would be ideal for them to go to O'Fallon Illinois, especially since many military live in Illinois. The major problem is many don't wanna ride the train to Saint Louis because it stops at a lot of dangerous areas. I think it would be used way more if there was a train that bypassed those areas but we all know that would cause alot of drama
St. Louis has lost about 2/3 of its population since 1950. Even if it started growing again, I'm guessing it will be infill development.
It really does seem as it services East St Louis better than the western suburbs that are more involved with the city itself. My mom is moving from close to her work all the way out to Wentzville, which is almost an hour drive from her work, which she’s still going to go to. It’d be so much more convenient if MetroLink connected St Charles and St Louis counties
Even before the well publicized public safety issues on the trains/platforms at times, St. Charles wanted absolutely no part in Metrolink when they started building it.
I think a super big part of why the line out to the AFB made sense was because Mid America Airport was supposed to take over from lambert, and then twa died and demand for slots at lambert relaxed
They’re talking about expanding the line into midtown going north south on Jefferson avenue.
St.Peters resident here, there were plans to expend metro link out to here but it got voted down.
i'D HONESTLY LOVE TO TAKE A TRAIN DIRECTLY TO THE STADIUM FROM STCHARLES
Oof you hate the Ottawa LRT? Wouldn't definitely like to see a review! Liked!
Thanks for the support. I do not hate the Ottawa LRT, but as an engineer, the way they executed it makes me cringe.
It seems as though they wanted to build more of a subway line with the low costs associated with Light Rail. While it was definitely cheaper, there are a lot of aspects (specifically the low floor vehicles, the poor bus route planning, the poor construction, and the poor reliability) that severely ruin the line as a whole for me.
There's also my irrational railfan opinion on the Citadis vehicles themselves (I was never a fan of Alstom for anything other than High-Speed Rail) and my general dislike for the vehicle design.
I genuinely hope Ottawa's LRT gets better and that the city learns from the past mistakes of cheaping out on everything. The city badly needs good rapid transit.
I will say, on a positive note that at least they got the barrier-free bus transfers right.
@@Token_Nerd You need to make a video on this topic.
Very very nice video!!!
hi did you ever post that second video? Thanks!
The second video’s production has been delayed due to covid. I simply do not have enough stock footage to create the second video, and haven’t been able to head down to the US since the start of the pandemic.
@@Token_Nerd Would it help to get some stock footage from a local? I know some people who may be interested!
Pretty good review!
Mid America was for many years an abandoned airport. It is runway is connected through a long taxiway through the woods to Scott AFB so the airport remained in use by them, Boeing, and for freight more recently. The passenger numbers declined over many years till they reached 0 in 2011. New passenger flights were added starting in 2012 and now Allegiant airlines moves 303,000 passengers a year through the airport. Even with the pandemic passenger numbers are only down 28% from last year. Ive flown at the airport twice before and it was a very positive experience compared to Lambert which has declined over the years.
Great start! Love the background. Well researched, and I appreciate the mention of not being able to find a source on a rumor. Makes me believe you're doing your homework. I don't like the way it ended though. I doubt I'll tune into another video just to hear your opinion. It would probably be more productive to incorporate your opinions into this video instead.
Mainly split it because I ran out of footage lol.
I definitely wouldn’t have split it otherwise
I can't imagine this system having more stops. I took it from the airport to Shiloh-Scott, and thought the ride would never end. I decided to just drive to the airport and pay the $7 a day for parking.
Same as BC Transit. When you mentioned Translink :-)
You showed a picture of Clayton when talking about the North Hanley station.
So the entire St. Louis system, 75 km long, carries around the same ridership as TTC King Streetcar line alone, 10 km long.
It carries about half as much actually. The line is probably closer to the 6 km long spadina line in terms of ridership.
How much would it cost to get from shrewsbury to Forsyth
We need like 5 line, I think 2 loop ring lines would also be epic.
a little insite, the plans to mid america aport are in the works, they plan to start construction in 2024, currently they are reciving bids for the project
We used to joy ride on metro when we were teens
Most of the initial routing was done over existing abandoned rail lines...so right of way acquisition was easy.
After spending millions $$, for a feasibility test for the north -south extension proposal, there has been no further movement by Metro. I believe my city would greatly benefit the thousands of North city and South City residents who frequently use buses, trains, and more buses to daily go from north-south-north...the new NGA federal campus will hopefully push the need and priority the North-South Extension and its feasibility positive test a reality.
Thank you and well done on your first ep. You may want to work on your audio levels, lower the music, fix transitions and the level of audio you drop in. Also, less melodic music may be less distracting.
First one of your vids I've watched - great info, but I hope you've dealt with the sound issues. About a third of your commentary ended up being buried in the bg music. Mute the soundtrack, and get a better mic.
The Metrolink already serves the most dense areas of St. Louis. St. Louis has like 6 major highways surrounding it and crossing it, such that you have to own a car in order to get around (unless you live in Clayton, WashU, or Central West End). The city was built for cars and has a lot of urban sprawl. Also people don't like Metrolink because lots of black people take it (since they probably can't afford a car).
They should build affordable housing in Illinois by the existing stations.
Cool. I'm in this video
Oh lol.
ruclips.net/video/mtZ0BsRC9Y4/видео.html Here is the video I mentioned in Miles in Transit’s recent livestream. If this doesn’t work it’s CMT MO channel (Citizens for Modern Transit) the video is Talking Transit and the one about the North/South connector from June 9 2022
The cars still have street level doors even though it’s entirely grade separated
It’s for crew changes
Those "Empty" farmers fields normally grow your food or food for animal feed for more food.😉
We appreciate farmers, but that doesn't necessarily mean that type of land use can support light rail.
I think a Pittsburgh version would be great
Was actually thinking of the PAAC next
@@Token_Nerd
PAT, or Port Authority.
The light rail system is called "The T".
Nobody calls it by the full name and that acronym definitely makes you sound like a tourist LoL
I think this line may eventually go to Indiana just east of the Illinois-Indiana border.
Oh american transit planners.. liking to build transit from a parking lot in the middle of nowhere to downtowns to then another field. All of them with uninspired, generic transit system agency names..
Ah 5:41 That's the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
What’s that map at 10:00 ?
Railmap
@@Token_Nerd thank you
Railmap if I remember correctly.
Part two?
Covid has kind of thrown a wrench at part 2.
@@Token_Nerd F
someone should hire u to do this for all city metro rail systems. id love to see someone do that
I like this video
Even if your voice is too weak for the music 🎼 🎶 🎵
When are going to answer that question? St. Louis Native
I am a St. Louisan. The reason the Metrolink doesn't serve significant suburbs is because those suburbs and counties have fought not to have rail. This is, sadly, the priduct of racism. Chesterfield an St. Charles County refuse to have anything connected to East St. Louis. I have lived here 44 years. Truth hurts.
This was actually something I was going to partially address in part 2 (whenever that comes out lol, I’m so bad at being consistent, but Covid had a factor to play)
Well, St. Louis is a dirty dangerous chocolate city.
Also another reason why Metrolink has more stations in Illinois because the state of Illinois provided more funding for rail Transit. Missouri's finances are completely screwed up, and the state is almost broke. There's a reason the light rail only goes through the city of St Louis and St Louis county, because they have the money to fund such things.
You’ve definitely got the finances backwards. Illinois is definitely the broke state, Missouri has record surpluses.
Good video but the music???
There are no trains every 5 minutes, it is every 10 to 20 minutes. Also the parking structure yo showed is at the Clayton / Central station, not North Hanley
The information was presented pre-pandemic, stuff has changed since. The parking structure thing was me being lazy tho lol
Rotton-Ø...oh well
53000/day? Sounds like this line is losing money hand over fist. Would love to see the financials.
Public transit isn't necessarily intended to be profitable. Instead, it is often intended to ease road congestion. If you have ever driven on the rural roads and highways on the IL side, you'll know that they are the responsibility of the IDOT and are generally poorly maintained. The metro line is funded by participating counties that want something better than the roads.
Kinda convenient lol
The Farmers will use the Metro to transport their veggies to the Market
Iirc Mexico City has a rail line used for both light rail and freight.
You’re hard to hear over the music
400mil bruh
there is a reason why there is no development...because its Illinois
Too bad too especially inside in the southern part of the state were the main focus is it in Chicago
stop calling the Norristown High-Speed Line light rail.
it's not light rail.
it's more like an interurban mixed with a metro.
It's because most of the city is in MISSOURI. A very RED state that could not care less about transit. Same reason Kansas City has such a poor transit system. Even though the metro areas want and need transit, the state does not support or fund transit, so they are on their own, making it much more of a challenge.
The Feds need to take it over completely
The people in St. Charles and Arnold are too rich and too good for metrolink.
People in Arnold are definitely not "rich"
@@hsun7997 depends where you go in Arnold.
I dont want Metrolink anywhere near me until safety and cleanliness improve.
a good portion of the line through the east side and Belleville was in fact built over the former Louisville & Nashville line which was owned by CSX Transportation and was abandoned by the railroad.