St. Louis flooding crippling MetroLink light rail system longer than first expected

Written by RT&S Staff
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Officials say it could take months before the St. Louis MetroLink is fully operational again following the flood event last month.

Flooding that smacked the St. Louis area a month ago is still soaking any plans to get the Metro light rail system up and running like normal again.

The agency now says it will be several months before the MetroLink system fully recovers, as delays continues to plague a couple of lines. The cost of the flood damage is in the millions. Shortly after the massive rain event officials thought the system would be back up in a couple of weeks.

The epicenter of the flooding problems is on a 2-mile stretch between the Forest Park-DeBaliviere Station and the Delmar Loop Station. The DeBaliviere signal house, which is needed to handle an intersection of the red line and blue line, has been destroyed. Without the switch the blue line cannot connect with the red line at the Forest Park-DeBaliviere station. Other signal houses and communication systems also have been damaged, which has led to system delays.

Approximately 5 miles of ballast also was victim to the flooding and needs to be replaced.

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