All three of the St. Louis’ regional transit funding partners have now approved Bi-State Development’s requested appropriations for the operating budget for the region’s transit system for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) and the 3-year capital budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2027.

Through contractual agreements and local sales tax revenues, St. Louis County, the City of St. Louis, and St. Clair County Transit District will provide approximately $312 million of support for the $328,980,534 operating budget and the three-year capital budget of $1,037,311,983.

 “The funding provided by our partners reaffirms the region’s belief that good public transit is critically important to the growth of our region,” said Taulby Roach, president and CEO of the Bi-State Development, which operates Metro Transit as one of its enterprises. “We remain committed to serving as good stewards of the public monies entrusted to us to serve our customers throughout St. Louis County, the City of St. Louis, and St. Clair County, Illinois.”

St. Louis Funding

The funding commitments help to ensure Metro Transit continues to operate essential MetroBus, MetroLink, and Metro Call-A-Ride services in all three jurisdictions, as the organization continues its work to stabilize and grow ridership by strategically investing in programs that are safe, secure, equitable, and efficient for all customers. 

Bi-State Development has maintained operating expenses with an average growth rate of 1.98% over the last six years, despite an intense labor market driving higher salaries and benefits costs, rising inflation costs, and supply chain issues.

The organization’s goal is to remain below 2% average expense growth in the future. The FY25 budgeted operating costs are 4.4% higher than the prior year due mainly to increased labor and benefit costs.

“Bi-State Development is focused on finding efficiencies through system and process improvements and revenue enhancement through improved ridership as part of our fiscal responsibility strategic initiative,” said Roach.