Transportation

Passenger on Bird-Stricken AA Flight Describes "Acrid, Panicky Reek of Burning Plastic"

Last Friday evening, American Airlines flight 1186 roared out of Lambert International Airport, headed for Chicago-O'Hare. But by the time it hit 5,000 feet, it had collided with a bird, and had to turn back (this has happened at Lambert more than a couple dozen times so far this year). Here's how i ... More >>

Flying High: Happy Hour to Arrive at Lambert at 4 a.m.

The airline industry needs cash in a major way. Overall profits were down some $3 billion last year, and so airlines have started rolling out well-publicized, much-maligned fees for things like checked bags and carry-on luggage. (Enjoy using that armrest for free while you still can.) Thankfully, ... More >>

The People vs. Public Transportation

Editor: Tef Poe is an artist from St. Louis City. Through powerful imagery and complicated honesty, he has earned a reputation as one of the best rappers telling the story of St. Louis, which is about much more than one place. Poe has been featured in music publications such as XXL and Urb Magazine. ... More >>

"Security Concerns" Force US Airways Flight to Land in St. Louis

​A US Airways flight form New York to Phoenix this morning made an unexpected stop at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Jeff Lea, spokesman for the airport, tells Daily RFT that the plane landed at 7:50 a.m. because of a "security-related concern." Passengers were taken off the plane. An in ... More >>

Metropolitan Area Transit Riders Alliance Hopes to Fight the Metro Transit Blues

MATRA's goals include the creation of a citizen's alliance board to give input on local bus routes.​Right now, Edward Williams Jr. is taking the bus. All around him are the signs and sounds of a ride that is not going ideally: He is late, and apologetic error messages are coming from a robotic ... More >>

Receding River Allows Amtrak to Restore Full Service to Kansas City

Amtrak: Now free to move about Missouri.​Amtrak will restore full service between St. Louis and Kansas City beginning Wednesday. Flooding along the Missouri River forced Amtrak to reduce its runs between the two cities earlier this month after Union Pacific switched more of its freight traffic ont ... More >>

Swollen Missouri River Forces Amtrak to Reduce St. Louis to Kansas City Service

The Union Pacific line west of Jefferson City as viewed this morning.​Flood waters along the Missouri River have forced the Union Pacific railroad to divert its freight trains to a line of track the carrier shares with Amtrak. The resulting congestion has forced the passenger train to temporarily ... More >>

Another Report Links MetroLink to Rowdy Teens in the Loop

KMOV-TV (Channel 4) is the latest media outlet to report concerns from Delmar Loop store owners that rowdy teens are venturing into the entertainment district by way of MetroLink. The station says a MetroLink security guard told their reporter off-camera that it's "overwhelming" when as many as 60 t ... More >>

St. Louis Gets New Airline Only For Pets

What will they think of next? petairways.com​Today Lambert - St. Louis International Airport announced that Pet Airways will add the city to the 14 other destinations currently served by the airline. Pet Airways offers to ship your pet in style for fares starting as low as $99. According to the ai ... More >>

Chopper Down in West County; Missouri Highway Patrol Pilot Killed

The crash site (blue marker) is just a mile or two from the airport.​A Missouri Highway Patrol helicopter crashed around 11 a.m. this morning in unincorporated west St. Louis County killing the pilot. He was the only person in the aircraft. No one on the ground was injured.According to reports, th ... More >>

Claire McCaskill: Champion to Flight Attendants

image via​American Airlines announced today that it would rehire 545 furloughed TWA flight attendants, and Sen. Claire McCaskill is pumped. TWA and American Airlines merged in 2001, and 2,500 flight attendants, many of them employees for the former TWA, were laid off with the right to reclaim ... More >>

The TSA Gets Put on Notice -- And Yes, Removing Your Shoes at the Airport is Idiotic

It is high time the TSA get its comeuppance for  airport screening indignities.​On March 29, 2009, Steve Bierfeldt was detained in a small room at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and interrogated for a half-hour by the Transportation Security Administration. Bierfeldt's ... More >>

What Are We Supposed to Do About All Those MetroLink Freeloaders?

Tunrstiles work just fine at San Francisco's BART, but then, that's a heavy rail system​One argument wielded by Proposition A opponents of hiking the St. Louis County sales tax a half cent to restore and expand Metro transit services is that there's too many  f ... More >>

Prop A Leader: Transit Tax Must Pass or Region is in Deep Trouble

​Chesterfield Mayor John Nations, the man leading the charge for Proposition A campaign, spelled out the dire consequences that could befall the entire metropolitan region if the transit tax fails to get a thumbs-up from St. Louis County voters next month. "If it is defeated," warned N ... More >>

Show-Me Institute Hopes to Derail MetroLink Expansion

Would MetroLink expansion be worth the cost, or just another, well, trainwreck?​The conservative think tank Show-Me Institute dispatched an op-ed column to local media on Friday blasting Metro's plans to expand light-rail in the region. Coincidentally (or not), Friday was also the day Metro presen ... More >>

Recalling that Near-Disastrous Flight From St. Louis to Chicago on September 28, 2007

Should this plane have been grounded? According to a new study, more than 65,000 flights should have been over the past six years.​Since 2003, at least 65,000 U.S. airline flights should never have been permitted to leave the ground because shoddy repair work and improper maintaina ... More >>

Why Is St. Louis Not Part of the 2010 No Pants Subway Ride?

But before answering that titular query you might be wondering, "What the heck is the no pants subway ride?"Excellent question. It's quite simple really: a group of hundreds of people (or in New York, thousands) rides the mass transit sans trousers. Confused onlookers gawk and gape and hem and haw. ... More >>

MetroLink Prom This Friday Night

​It started last year as a joke. Two devoted MetroLink fans -- Liz Kramer and Claire Nowak-Boyd -- wanted to do something special to show their support for Proposition M, the ballot measure that would provide the light-rail system with tens of million of dollars in additional funding. Their idea? ... More >>

Video: Hive, the Latest Piece of Metro Link Art, is Dedicated at Delmar Stop

Photo: Nick Lucchesi"Hive," the latest piece of artwork featured at a Metro stop, was dedicated last night.​ Last night at the Delmar Loop Metro stop, "Hive," a honeycomb-on-acid sculpture by Minneapolis-based artists Janet Lofquist, was dedicated to the public, although anyone who's been by the c ... More >>

Metro Restores Some Bus Services; No Changes to Metrolink

Photo: Nick Lucchesi​The St. Louis public transit agency, Metro, today restored some of the bus service it was forced to cut March 30 due to budget shortfalls.The return of those bus lines comes as Metro takes advantage of a one-time $12 million appropriation from the state legislature. MetroLink ... More >>

Rep. Russ Carnahan Files Legislation to Aid St. Louis Transit Agency

flickr.com/photos/stlphotobloggerU.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-St. Louis) filed a bill in Congress yesterday that would allow public transit agencies such as Metro to use federal transit funding for day-to-day operating expenses. Under current law, transit systems located in areas with more than 200,00 ... More >>

St. Louis to Chicago in Under Four Hours By Train

It may be possible in the not-too-distant future. Yesterday President Barack Obama unveiled plans for a high-speed rail network throughout the United States. A Midwestern route -- with a hub based in Chicago -- could go online in 2012 connecting the Windy City with Milwaukee and Detroit. Another lin ... More >>

Reminder: Don't Drive and Drown this Month

Wikimedia CommonsApparently people do very stupid things in March, which is why the month is home to about a dozen different prevention weeks. My favorite thus far is the following pearl I received yesterday from the State Emergency Management Agency. The department has dubbed March 16-20 as "Turn A ... More >>

More MetroLink Fallout: Post-Dispatch Editorial Board Farts in RFT's General Direction

Out-of-control shoplifting at the St. Louis Galleria. Violent attacks in the Delmar Loop. Is MetroLink a vehicle for crime?

Cover of the August 21 Print Edition

Trolley Song: A new source of funds pushes forward the plan for streetcars on Delmar Boulevard

Changing of the Guard: What derailed Metro's contract with the world's largest security firm after just 44 days?

St. Louis Gets a Grand Central Station (Sort Of)

Takin’ It to the Streetcars

Tom Sullivan Takes on the Post

Best Public Works Project

MetroLink Expansion

Letters

Week of April 14, 2004

Trolley Follies

In the race to return streetcars to St. Louis, Lacy Clay and Joe Edwards chart two very different courses

Best Boondoggle

The Lambert Airport expansion

Best Bus Route

Garden Express

Tailspin

Lambert's billion-dollar expansion hangs on a wing and a prayer: The numbers no longer add up

He Can't Blight City Hall

Bridgeton Mayor Conrad Bowers fails to persuade Lambert Airport officials to buy him out

White-Trash Junction

Amtrak's station was supposed to be temporary -- a quarter-century ago

Golden Rails

Sure, MetroLink's expensive -- so's your Lincoln Navigator

If You Build It, They May Fly Elsewhere

High-dollar airport expansion rolls on despite fewer flights, loss of TWA

Busywork

Stepped-up airport security is more sizzle than steak

Something Has to Give

Bi-State prepares to cut suburban routes that, by all logic, should have been packed

Letters

Week of July 11, 2001

The Transit Authority

Bi-State is losing riders and money. Mike McGrath, who has driven a bus for more than a year, thinks he knows what's wrong.

The Foggy Flight Of TWA

The only thing St. Louis can count on is uncertainty

St. Louisans, Start Your Engines

Missouri again thumbs its nose at the area's mass-transit needs

You Can't Take the "Me" Out of Metrolink

Terminal Illness

Twenty minutes from downtown, the $300 million MidAmerica Airport is ready and waiting for business -- any business. Trouble is, Lambert is killing its chances of attracting commercial traffic.