Relying on “technical findings” and feedback from the Loop Trolley open house, East-West Gateway has made some decisions regarding track design. Single track east of Delmar Metrolink station (above) is “in” while the double-track in the East Loop (below) is “out”.
What does this mean? The single-track has fewer utility impacts and is estimated to save $5M in construction costs. Presumably headways would need to be greater with a single track, or at least the option to increase them may disappear. However, with DeBaliviere also planned for single-track there must be a double-track bypass somewhere east of the Delmar Metrolink station (though I have not seen detailed plans for this). My take is that this was purely a money decision. Anyone see an operational benefit to this decision?
The second decision is to run the single-track on DeBaliviere to the east of traffic and adjacent to the sidewalk and greenway (first image below). Well, this may negate my “purely a money decision” cynicism as the chosen option was stated to cost $300K more. According to the Loop Trolley Company the chosen option also provides less safe boarding and requires a more narrow greenway to be built to the east. So why was this alignment chosen? Who knows, no reasoning is given.
East-West Gateway also selected nine station stops. Locations include: The Missouri History Museum, Forest Park Metro, Crossroads College Preparatory School, Laurel and Delmar, Delmar MetroLink Station, the Pageant, the Tivoli, the Market and Trinity or Kingsland.
Finally, a decision regarding the western terminus of the Loop Trolley was left unresolved. Either a Loop or Stub will be constructed near University City City Hall.
{western terminus Loop}
{western terminus Stub}
