Bi-State will pause next phase of MetroLink Green Line work

It’s now official: MetroLink’s Green Line expansion plans are on hold.

Taulby Roach, president and CEO of Bi-State Development, tells SLM that new Mayor Cara Spencer asked the agency to hit pause. “I have met with the new mayor who has a long career of strongly supporting transit,” he says. “Mayor Cara Spencer has asked us to hold on the MetroLink Green Line plans until we can get her more information on the viability and competitiveness of that project. We are grateful for her interest and support, and are looking forward to working with the Spencer administration.”

Civic leaders had hoped to get hundreds of millions in federal funds to build a $1.1 billion north-south MetroLink line, running primarily along Jefferson Avenue from Chippewa to the National Geospatial Agency in North City. They already had a buy-in from voters; in 2017, city voters rejected a tax to fund a new Major League Soccer stadium, but said yes to a one half of one percent sales tax to create “a dedicated funding stream for the planning, engineering, design, and construction of the North South MetroLink alignment.” Approximately $60-70 million has accrued.

Bi-State received approval to spend up to $10 million of the accrued sales tax, with another $10 million coming from its capital funds, on engineering and design work. (To date, Roach says, Green Line expenses total approximately $13.9 million.)

Spencer stresses that that work will continue. She does want, however, everyone to go back to the drawing board before any additional funds are spent on the project. She says the chance to take a closer look at the project—and potentially reconfigure it—should not affect the timeline.

During the mayoral campaign, Spencer contrasted the 8.5-mile plan most recently advanced by Bi-State with a previous proposal, which ran 17 miles through downtown and into South St. Louis County. 

Spencer tells SLM that is still her position, saying that the reduced scale of the project makes it significantly less competitive for federal funds. “No light rail can be completed without federal matching dollars,” she says. “Massive changes that were made in the last three years made it far less competitive to get necessary matching federal dollars.” 

Spencer adds that several years ago the city paid millions of dollars to transit consultants, including noted urban planner Doug Farr, to weigh in on how the light rail proposal could be more competitive for federal funds. “They outlined what the city should be doing,” Spencer says. “None of that was done.”

Indeed, the Green Line likely faces much bigger headwinds than just the new boss at City Hall. Namely, the new boss in Washington, D.C., is not just hostile to funding the kind of large-scale public works projects that his predecessor, President Joe Biden, prioritized, but likely hostile to the details of St. Louis’ plan in particular.

As the Business Journal has noted, the estimated costs-per-rider of the most recent Green Line plan were significantly higher than other plans vying for federal funding. But its local backers thought they had a way around that: They could pitch the route as catalyzing development in North City.

Then, in March, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that his agency was rescinding Biden-era criteria that “injected a social justice and environmental agenda into decisions for critical infrastructure projects.” 

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Transportation is getting back to basics — building critical infrastructure projects that move people and move commerce safely,” he wrote. “The previous administration flouted Congress in an attempt to push a radical social and environmental agenda on the American people. This was an act of federal overreach. It stops now.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated around 9:20 a.m. to include a bit more context about which work continues on the Green Line, and which is being put on pause. The headline was also updated.