St. Louis Gates Its Light-Rail Stations

Light rail suffers the highest crime rates of any mode of transit and this is largely due to the honor system of fare payment. St. Louis Metro is addressing this by adding gates to its light-rail stations. Unlike most cities, St. Louis can do this because its light-rail system is entirely separated from streets and sidewalks.

Gates have been installed in four of the region’s 38 light-rail stations, but Metro hasn’t yet installed fare systems. Until it does, it has security officers standing at each gate to check that customers have paid their fares before they are allowed to go on the platform. Metro expects to have gates at all 38 stations installed by January 2026, but hasn’t said how soon it will have fare payment systems installed.

Light rail has been a failure in St. Louis as Metro carried more bus passengers before it built its first light-rail line than bus plus rail passengers in 2019. Expansions to the light-rail system in 2001, 2003, and 2009 also were followed by declines in bus plus rail ridership.

In 2004, Metro predicted that by 2025 its light-rail system would carry 80,000 passengers a day. The closest it got was 54,000 in 2014; by 2019 it had shrunk to 41,000 and over the past year it was just 22,000.

Despite this terrible record, Metro wants to spend about $1 billion building a new north-south light-rail line to complement the existing east-west lines. Unlike the previous lines, the new line won’t have a separate right of way, which means it will be difficult to install gates at light-rail stops that mostly will be at city sidewalks or the center of city streets. While I hope this line doesn’t get funded, if it is built, Metro’s solution to this problem could be a model for other light-rail lines across the country.