Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

Will provide transit agencies like Metro with real-time interaction between the vehicle fleet and dispatch center for safer and more efficient operations.

The Rail Transit Team Achievement Award is given to the system with the highest rail operator and maintainer team combined score. The winning team members from St. Louis-based Bi-State Development Agency were Robert Yawn, Christina Hicks, Chris Lynch, Kevin Moore and Matt Fisher.

Supporters of the bill, which would block local restrictions banning concealed handguns on city buses and trains, say it will create a safer environment on public transportation by deterring criminal behavior.

Higher gas prices will be one significant impact on the cost of operations. The agency purchases approximately six million gallons of fuel annually, and the overall increase in fuel cost is expected to be $6 million for the year.

At an awards presentation in Scarborough, England, last week, IAP2 honored projects from New South Wales and Logan City, Australia; Vancouver, Canada; Washington D.C. and Phoenix. Vancouver's TransLink won IAP2's Innovation Award, with Metro placing second.

Robert Baer is credited with helping lead the successful campaign to pass a half-cent sale-tax increase in St. Louis County last April that enabled Metro to restore service reductions and finance future expansions and new services.

John Nations, a partner in the St. Louis office of Armstrong Teasdale and currently in his third term as mayor of Chesterfield, Mo., will succeed Robert Baer in late October. Baer has served as president/CEO since December 2007.

By the end of July, Metro will be able to announce even more improvements to be made in the final round of service restoration on August 30.

The budget also includes funds to restore transit services cut in 2009 and freezes on salaries and hiring.

Voters in nearly all parts of the County voted to approve Proposition A, which set a sales tax of one-half of 1 percent to fund public transit for the region. Prop A's passage in the County also triggered a one-quarter of 1 percent sales tax in the City of St. Louis that voters there approved in 1997.