Metrobus Restoration August 30

I recently received an e-mail from the nice folks at the Citizens for Modern Transit which spelled out the latest bus restorations that will occur at the end of this month, on August 30. Honestly, though, I have to admit I hardly ride the buses anymore, now that the new train schedule works so nicely with my commute to Wash U. However, if I did take #2, I realized my old bus stop at Brentwood and Rose would no longer exist as they are rerouting Metrobus #2 to not loop around the Brentwood Industrial Court anymore. I know there were always 2 or 3 ladies who regularly exited the bus right there (at the White Building where the DD's Irish Pub and Karaoke Bar lives), so hopefully they will still be able to get to work. Instead the bus now continues north of the Walmart all the way to Big Bend, and then takes Big Bend all the way to the St. Louis Community College at Meramec Campus. That is definitely a nice route for people to get to Meramec, but that will take them a looonnnggg time along Big Bend. It will take about 30 minutes to get from the Brentwood Metrolink station to the Meramec campus which would give any student plenty of time to get some homework or studying done on the bus. Luckily, if I still want to catch Bus #2 instead of the Metrolink, I can catch it at the Galleria where it will actually stop on every trip Northbound and Southbound now (it did not in the past.) Before it only stopped at the Richmond Heights station or up at the corner of Clayton and Brentwood (right under I-170) so stopping at the mall is actually much more convenient for the many employees and patrons of the mall who would no longer have to cross Brentwood Boulevard. It does arrive a little earlier in the mornings (7:11, 7:41, 8:11, etc) at the mall so I would definitely have to hustle a bit to make it at 7:41 there, although I should be safe with a Metrolink pickup at 7:47 or 7:59 just a skip away at the Richmond Heights station. I am not sure which would be faster to the Wash U campus, taking the Metrobus at 7:41 or the Metrolink at 7:47.

Speaking of the Washington University campus, I posted a PDF of my Metrolink stop weekday schedule for the Skinker and Big Bend stations on my handy, dandy online Blue line schedule. This is what I have posted on the board in my office to make sure I do not miss a train in the evenings! So far I have never missed the one I was planning on riding.

Since during bad weather (like the recent heat warning days) I more typically "park and ride", I am also interested in any changes in the parking conditions at both the Brentwood and Richmond Heights stations. Someone at work here said that at Brentwood we can now park on any floor of the Meridian garage, but when I looked there the signage seemed the same so I parked on the 6th floor as usual (a nice place to park when it is 100 degrees outside to keep your car cool!) The small Richmond Heights lot gets pretty full by 8:00am every day, so I was also curious about parking at the Boulevard garage or surface lot for Metrolink parking. How will they know if people are parking for a store or restaurant on the Boulevard or if it a Metrolink patron? Do the people there even care? I cannot imagine the large covered Boulevard garage is ever close to being full. Why did they not make that a Metrolink "Park and Ride" lot too?