re: Random Mizzou/St Louis/SECT question - Does anyone use the Metro in St Louis?

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The only drawback is that its hurt the local bars and restaurants around Busch stadium.

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I was afraid the Battery (Braves area around the stadium) would feel cheesy and fake, but they really did a good job with it. It's really nice, especially compared with Turner Field which was a stadium surrounded by parking lots of the interstate. Being able to get there an hour before, get a drink at a bar, go to a bar postgame, etc is something we haven't had since the Braves have been in Atlanta.

I'm not a huge fan of the location (even if it is within walking distance of my office), but the stadium and stuff around out itself is pretty solid.

According to the American Public Transportation Association, here were the top cities for daily average ridership for both Light Rail and Heavy Rail during Q4 2016:

1. New York- 8,918,400/day
2. Boston- 779,000
3. Washington- 751,600
4. Chicago- 749,700
5. San Francisco- 610,500
6. Philadelphia- 393,800
7. Los Angeles- 354,700
8. Jersey City- 270,900
9. Atlanta- 214,500
10. Portland- 124,200
11. San Diego- 114,500
12. Dallas- 101,500
13. Denver- 75,900
14. Minneapolis- 72,900
15. Miami- 70,300
16. Seattle- 69,400
17. Salt Lake City- 64,300
18. Houston- 56,600
19. Phoenix- 51,200
20. St. Louis- 45,800
21. Sacramento- 41,300
22. Baltimore- 26,800
23. Lindenwold, NJ- 36,500
24. Staten Island- 32,200
25. San Jose- 29,900

So 20th in the US.... which is about where St. Louis ranks in terms of metro size. Obviously 45,800 riders per day during the week is not overwhelming.

My issue with it is aside from connecting the airport to downtown, there is not much coverage by their metro. I was there a few months ago but decided to rent a car because many of the areas of town I thought I'd likely want to go find someplace to eat were not covered by the metro rail.

If you are just connecting from the airport to a downtown hotel near the arena, then its definitely fine.

Yea - and it is lite rail which is definitely slower than a subway system.

The cutoffs are always interesting in terms of ridership

Tier 1 - New York Metro
Tier 2 - Boston/Washington/Chicago/San Francisco
Tier 3 - Philadelphia/Los Angeles
Tier 4 - Atlanta

Tier 5 - everyone else

Tiers 1-4 are mostly subway systems and everyone else is lite rail. It shows in the ridership numbers.

Some of those cities have a lot of track (Dallas is one), but the lite rail thing is just not a great sell for an entire system.

Wish I was there......head on over to the Hill sit back at Rigazzi's or Charlie Gitto's....don't think you can go wrong at either one....and Gioias has some of the best sandwiches in St. Louis....skip the tourney and just eat .....it's an underrated food town.....I used to like Mike Shannon's too bad it closed down

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Do people use it much?

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Not after dark

ETA: I've taken the metro down a bunch of times during big baseball/hockey/football games at night (especially world series because it gets nuts to try to park), but never taken it home. That's probably the best way to do it, just Uber back to where you're staying.

I've got a fair stake in bitching about that place.

Legit had a car stolen, they found it last July, a year later after I had moved.

Wanna guess where?

I'm gonna guess north st louis or the river

It's fine. Have fun while in STL. It's a great city.

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You will never catch this RED riding MARTA with the denizens of Fulton Co.

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For clarity, Fulton is the best county in the metro and DeKalb people are currently trying to keep literal shite from coming through their faucets because their county has Somalia level infrastructure

Gwinnett is garbage and Cobb is a bunch of Salt Life douches all trying to get into the one good high school in the county