NextStop Blog

Last Friday’s tornado left a profound mark on our city, with severe storms causing extensive damage, power outages, and disruptions across the region. While our hearts are heavy for all those impacted, we are moved by the incredible acts of kindness, courage, and unity that continue to shine through the region: from neighbors checking in on one another, to volunteers lending a hand in recovery efforts.

Restoring Transit Services

Metro Transit was not immune to the tornado, which created service challenges for several days. We are pleased to report that service on all MetroBus routes and on MetroLink Red Line and Blue Line have been fully restored. Some MetroBus routes are still experiencing detours as needed to allow for power restoration work, cleanup and storm repairs.

Around 2:45 p.m. on Friday, MetroLink loss power at three electrical substations, as well as communications along several sections of the light rail system. The power outage along with damage and debris on the overhead power lines required our team to establish two bus shuttles – one between Wellston and Central West End Stations on the Red Line, and one between Maplewood-Manchester and Central West End Stations on the Blue Line. Crews worked tirelessly to evaluate the damage, make repairs, and resume service as quickly as possible, which was made more difficult due to the extent of damage in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Our team was able to restore Red Line MetroLink service on Saturday morning (5/17), and fully restore Blue Line MetroLink service between the Shrewsbury-Lansdowne I-44 and Emerson Park Stations on Tuesday morning (5/20).

MetroBus and Metro Call‑A‑Ride faced their own challenges. Call‑A‑Ride updated their customers if there were delays, and had to make adjustments to trips and pickups to navigate around storm damage. Service on the #95 Kingshighway, #18 Taylor, #41 Lee and #42 Sarah was suspended or limited after the storm due to downed power lines and traffic signals, debris, and other road obstructions that created safety hazards along the route. All MetroBus routes have resumed regular service.

Please join us in sharing a special thank you to the entire Metro Transit team for their tireless efforts during and after the storm. Thanks to their hard work and professionalism, we were able to restore transit services quickly and keep our customers and team members safe with no reported serious injuries, even with storm damage to several Metro facilities, MetroLink infrastructure and several MetroBus vehicles.

How You Can Help

While the road to recovery won’t be easy, our region is known for showing resilience and strength in times of adversity, and coming together to help one another.

Greater St. Louis Inc., is compiling a list of supplies needed for the tornado recovery, where you can donate, and other resources. Click here for more information.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has also assembled a list of resources for anyone who wants to help, or needs help, with tornado recovery: https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_fa46f767-e0fd-4f44-acb1-8bd9a36a55ae.html

Oftentimes, the greatest act of kindness is simply being there for others when they are in need.