New #98 Clayton Chesterfield MetroBus Route Begins Monday, March 30

Click here for route map and schedule

Today, Metro’s Board of Commissioners directed the Metro Staff to negotiate an agreement with the City of Chesterfield that will allow creation of a new bus route to serve key employment centers in West St. Louis County. The new route, the #98 Clayton Chesterfield, will be created through a public-private partnership between the City of Chesterfield and Metro, with the added assistance from a Federal grant. 

The #98 will serve the areas previously traveled by the #258X West County Rapid, but will not serve the branch of the route that formerly traveled to Wildwood. The route will proceed west from its origin at the Clayton MetroBus Center to the Ballas MetroBus Center, and then to key employment centers including St. Luke’s Hospital, the nursing care facilities along North and South Outer 40 Roads, Chesterfield Mall including the MetroBus Park-Ride lot, Spirit of St. Louis Airport and Chesterfield Commons. Buses will run every half-hour during rush hour and every hour during mid-day and evenings. The new route begins on Monday, March 30, 2009.

“This does not replace the service that is being discontinued on Monday,” said Ray Friem, Metro’s Chief Operating Officer of Transit Services. “It’s a scaled down alternative to what had been offered to one of the fastest growing corridors in our region. But it does provide a vital link between the rest of the Metro system and the largest concentration of employment centers that the new smaller system would not have been able to reach.“

This route is made possible by a Federal JARC (Job Access Reverse Commute) grant, funds committed by the City of Chesterfield and area businesses, and Metro. Metro received JARC funds to respond to traffic mitigation caused by construction on I-64.

“I have been very impressed with the responsiveness of the businesses in my community who say that public transportation is a priority and is important for our workers,” Chesterfield Mayor John Nations told Metro’s Board as he made the proposal today. “Many commuters use public transportation to get from the City of St. Louis, even from Illinois, to get to jobs in Chesterfield. I have had employers tell me over the years that we would have even more job growth in Chesterfield if we could find even better ways to get people to the jobs in Chesterfield.”

Metro President and CEO Robert Baer thanked Mayor Nations for his leadership in organizing this effort to connect people with jobs. Baer also noted that the Metro made a request to the State of Missouri for emergency funds to cover the transit service deficit for one year. “If the Agency receives the requested funds from the State of Missouri, service would be restored, but not before at least July,” Baer said.