Metro Transit-St. Louis to test single-car trains

Metro Transit-St. Louis next month will begin a pilot program to operate single-car trains in daily service instead of two-car trains.

Starting Oct. 2, the single cars will operate seven days a week throughout the 46-mile MetroLink system in the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County in Missouri and St. Clair County in Illinois, agency officials said in a press release.

"The pandemic has changed our region in a number of ways, including how people travel and how they use transit," said Charles Stewart, the agency's chief operating officer. "We’ll be testing single-car service this fall to see if more flexibility on MetroLink makes better use of our workforce resources and provides opportunities to try out new innovative options that may better serve the changing travel patterns of our MetroLink riders."

Metro Transit officials believe that operating single-car trains offers the following advantages:
• one train car is more efficient for security personnel to patrol;
• wear and tear on machinery is cut in half; and
• service can be provided more efficiently at current ridership levels.