I finally ventured down to explore the new Metrolink train station undeground at the intersection of Skinker and Forest Park Parkway (right near Kayaks and Washington University.) This is some video I took using my Treo 700p.
Train arriving:
Train departing:
You’ll notice in the second video the neat light changing artwork along the walls, as well as a soothing soundscape. Quite nice, I thought.
More pictures from the excursion:
41 responses to “Video of St. Louis Metrolink underground station at Skinker and Forest Park Parkway”
I have always loved mass trnasit travel and have always been hoping that they extend into Edwardsville, Illinois. It is up by highway 2-70 and 2-55.
The MetroLink is a very nice system, but I have only ridden it once when I was 4 years old. I do want to ride the new section sometime. I live in Edwardsville, Illinois, which is about 30 minutes of a drive northeast of St. Louis. It is located right on highway 2-70, west of highway 55, and east of highway 2-55. MetroLink’s 20 year plan doesn’t mention anything about extending to Edwardsville unfortunately. To see a map, just go to http://www.metrostlouis.org/, then go to custom search, and search for “Metro Strategic Plan and Budget FY 2008”. one of the results is called “Metro Strategic Plan and Budget FY 2008”, but you have to scroll down to get to it. The map of what the system will look like in the year 2028 is on page 60 of the pdf, and the page is titled “Metro 20 year vision”. I hope they add more than what the map says, because it says nothing about extending to Edwardsville!!!!!!!! I hope they do
hi
MetroLink Rocks!
Have you ridden on the whole length of both lines on the MetroLink before? Please type a reply comment if you have. I have always wanted to ride on the whole MetroLink, but I’ve only ridden it once, and that was when I was young, so all I remember is that the seats were very comfortable and the station was nice.
Have you ridden on the entire MetroLink system before?
Jim,
I haven’t ridden the entire length, just segments.
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Gabriel
Hello. I want to apologize that I gave you an e-mail address that I made up that doesn’t even exist. I just wanted to tell you how awesome your website is, and how amazing your videos are. I also knew that you would love the information about the MetroLink 20 year vision map, and love to see that it is going to extend so much in the next 20 years. I am only 12 years old, and my whole family shares an e-mail address. My parents don’t want me giving it to any websites at all. I am really sorry that the e-mail addresses I gave you don’t exist, and I will always support you and your website. I love the MetroLink videos that you make, and I can’t wait until you make more. Also, I just want to say that I also support Obama! Go Obama!
I live just 30 miles northeast of St. Louis, right by highway 2-70 Edwardsville, Illinois. It is just 25 miles north of the Fairview Heights MetroLink Station. I will come back to visit your website frequently, because I love your videos, and can’t wait to see new ones! I promise I won’t make anymore comments.
Jim,
It is fine for you to leave comments. That’s what the comment box is for. I’m excited that you’re participating in the Web. Good job.
Thanks for your input. 🙂
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Gabriel
I have traveled a lot because my dad is an American Airlines pilot. When I was in second grade in October 2002, we took a 2 week trip to England and France. We toured all over London on the classic red city buses. Then we rode the train up to the Lake District Nat. Park, about 100 miles north of London. It is a beautiful natural area with large, lush, green hills and deep blue lakes. We rode on a historic steam train in the Lake district called the Little Ratty. It was small! We rode through the Channel Tunnel from England to France, and we rode the Paris Subway all over Paris. We also took the TGV down to Southeastern France. It was a fun trip, and even though it was 6 years ago, I still clearly remember every little detail.
When I was four years old, back in New Years day of 2000, My dad had a trip to Chicago, so we got to go with him. We rode the El train a lot. We went on the Sears Tower, too. During the date that the Cardinals won the World Series in 2006, we were in Washington DC watching it on the news. The Washington DC Metro is a very nice subway system. I really enjoy riding trains. I have ridden trains many times in my life, mostly whenever we visited Chicago.
My family and I are probably going to ride the MetroLink today! The Clayton Station is across the highway from my grandparents’ house, so we will start at the Clayton Station, and go to Forest Park to watch a juggling show. Then we will go from there to Union Station, because some family friends own a condominium out by Union Station. After that, we will ride back to Clayton Station and go back to our Grandparents’ house. I have ridden the MetroLink before, once or twice when I was about 4, but this will be the first time I’ve ever ridden the new line! I will tell you at the end of the day if we happen to decide not to ride the MetroLink after all.
Hi,
I didn’t get to ride the MetroLink yesterday unfortunately, because we had a change in plans and didn’t even get to see the juggling. My parents did say that maybe we can ride on the new extension some other time, because now they know that there is a station next to our friends’ condominium that I mentioned in my previous message. I won’t get my hopes up.
_
Jim
Jim,
I’m sorry you didn’t get to ride the train yesterday. It would have been a great day to ride MetroLink. I’m sure you’ll get your chance to ride it again soon. Maybe you can take it to go to a Cardinals game sometime?
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Gabriel
We’d take the MetroLink to a Cardinal’s game, but the nearest MetroLink is a 25 miles away from us. We also have 4 people in my family, me, brother, mom, dad, and it would cost quite a bit of money to get passes for all of us, so despite the high gas prices, driving would be cheaper. We live in Glen Carbon in Madison County, Illinois, which is right on highway I-270, between I-255 and I-55. Since the nearest MetroLink station from our house is about the same distance as St. Louis is from our house, we figure, “Why bother?” I guess it’s kind of impractical. I’ve been trying to help our family plan an all-day trip to St. Louis, so maybe we can ride MCT (Madison County Transit) buses to downtown St. Louis, and from there maybe we can get Metro day passes and ride. It is about a 30-45 minute drive from our house to St. Louis, so we go there frequently, but usually we only go to the zoo or else go to our grandparents’ house in Ladue.
I saw your picture that was marked “Worst President Ever”. Is that President Bush in the picture? I totally agree with that statement if it is. I can’t wait until I’m old enough to vote. Maybe this country will have more decent presidents in the future (like Obama).
In Madison County, we have a transportation system called MCT (Madison County Transit). It is a very good system. It includes lots of buses, and over 85 miles of bike trails. I am 13 years old (my birthday was July 7th), and MCT gave out Free Summer Break Bus Passes for students from 7th grade through High School (ages 12-18). I got my bus pass at school, and I am going to use it to go to downtown St. Louis sometime for free*, and then I’ll ride on almost the whole MetroLink system (from the Clayton Station all the way to the Fairview Heights Station in Illinois. To learn more about the Madison County Transit, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_County_Transit. I created this Wikipedia page myself! If you want to learn more about bus services, go to http://www.mct.org/. If you take highway 2-70 across the river into Illinois, you would be entering Madison County. I can’t wait to take this big trip!
Sorry about the duplicate comments, my computer messed up. Our computer has been very problematic lately.
Jim, no problem about the comment (I fixed it for you).
That is great that you created a Wikipedia page about the Madison County Transit system! Good job! 🙂
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Gabriel
I like the picture of you holding the broken oars at the wedding anniversary…the look on your face is kind of like, “Oopsies…heh-heh…” keep up the awesome pictures, I check them out frequently. I saw the pictures from your Mexico trip. My family goes on a big trip every year because my Dad is an American Airlines pilot. Last year from Saturday July 7th through Friday July 13th we went on a cruise through California and Mexico. We spent July 7th flying out to L.A., July 8th we spent touring L.A., then July 9th was when we started the cruise. It was on the Royal Caribbean Monarch of the Seas. On July 10th we were in San Diego, July 11th we were at Catalina Island, and July 12th we were at Ensenada, Mexico. On July 13th we got off the ship back at L.A., and flew home. This year I’m going to get to go on my 3rd cruise, and it’s going to be from New Orleans to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. It will be in early August. It’s a 5 night cruise! My family isn’t rich or anything, we just get free flights on American Airlines since my dad is a pilot, and cruise lines always give pilots travel DEAL$ since he “Flies people out to their ships”. He only flies in the 48 contiguous states. He doesn’t fly international flights. My dad gets a vacation from work every year, and we take the best value trip that we can find that is during his vacation, by looking all over cruise websites to find the best price. It always takes forever to find the best deal, but we always find good deals.
When I’m old enough, I’m going to join YouTube and Flickr. Many people have complimented my photography, and I’ve had some pictures shown on The Weather Channel (It’s a national TV channel that people can watch if they have Dish Network (channel #214), Charter Cable (channel #99), or DirecTV (channel #362). The meteorologists complimented my photography and said that I was like a young Ansel Adams (that’s a nice compliment.) I can’t wait to join Flickr and YouTube once I’m old enough to get my own email address. We use a family email address, and my parents don’t trust websites like that with it, so I won’t be able to join any of those websites until I get my own email address.
Jim,
My wife’s dad is a pilot too (he works for Northwest Airlines and has to commute up to Detroit from STL every time he works).
Is it your parents that don’t want you to get your own email address yet? I think you could probably get one right now at gmail.com (Google’s free email service that is my personal favorite to use) if you wanted to.
Keep up the good work doing photography and writing.
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Gabriel
I’d be glad to get my own email address, but my parents don’t think that I’m old enough to yet, so I guess I can wait…between now and when they let me get my own email address, I guess it would be a good time to improve my photography/video skill. I can’t wait until they let me.
Ya, sometimes you just have to wait until it’s the right time.
In the meantime, you might look at wordpress.org (open source content management and blogging system) and also google for “html tutorial” if you want to learn more about also building web pages. If you’re on a PC, also google “WAMP”, which is what you would need to get WordPress up and running on your local system.
Keep up the good work. 🙂
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Gabriel
Thanks for the help!
=D
I saw Wall-e today. It’s very original. I thought it was a very good movie, and another job well done for Disney.
I found online that Madison County has been having studies on extending MetroLink to Madison County, and deciding where the best locations would be in Madison County, but we have a long time to wait before it will happen. We’ve been studying this MetroLink possibility since 2001! I am positive that it will happen someday, but probably not for a long time, maybe as long as 50 years (if not a bit longer). Look at the bright side, though. By the time it does extend to Madison County, I’ll probably be old enough to use their senior citizens discount ha-ha! =D
I am 13 years old, but I have very little patience. I say, EXTEND METROLINK TO MADISON COUNTY NOW!!! I’m very happy with the cool temperatures we had today! Tomorrow, July 25th, my school has its summer break trip to Six Flags, so I can’t wait!
Also, my dad is considering letting me create an account on YouTube, and if I do, my name will be jimbo1 (or, if somebody else is already named jimbo1, I will tell you my “alternative” name).
I also got a new digital camera recently. Here’s the URL for it:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5623013
It costed a bunch of my allowance money, but I am making the money back quickly. Keep up the awesome photos!
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Jim=)
Jim,
That is a really good camera. I have a Canon PowerShot SD800 IS myself (same manufacturer and family of camera) and I love it. It was really nice weather today, huh. It reminded me of summers growing up in the Bay Area in California.
Have fun at Six Flags.
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Gabriel
Yes, it really was. It reminded me of California, too, from when we took our trip to California in 2007. (see comment #19 for more about that) My favorite part was that it wasn’t HUMID! I love the weather out in California. I didn’t mention this on comment #19, but we went to the Getty Museum when we went to California. The day we went to the Getty Museum was July 8th, the day we spent touring Los Angeles. The reason I mention this is because I saw your recent photos of the Getty Museum. They were some nice photos. I really thought it was a neat museum. I loved how it was on a mountain, so you could see all over L.A., and you could see the ocean in the other direction! I also liked the central garden, because it had a really neat fountain that ended in a big hedge maze sort of thing at the bottom in a pond.
I also had a good time at Six-Flags. I rode every single roller coaster there with my friends. I rode Mr. Freeze six times, and I rode Batman six times! Do you like roller coasters? As you can tell, I loved the roller coasters. If you like roller coasters a lot and have never rode Batman or Mr. Freeze, you should try out those two. I will check out your camera at Wal-Mart.com. It sounds like a nice one.
Can’t wait to see more of your photos! =D
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Jim
Jim,
Tomorrow (Monday, July 28, 2008) at 11:00 am and repeated at 10:00 pm on KWMU is going to be a program on Metrolink (on St. Louis on the Air). Here’s the link for more info:
http://www.kwmu.org/programs/slota/archivedetail.php?showid=3231
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Gabriel
Cool. I will have to listen to the 10:00pm program tonight because it’s 3:06pm right now and the first time I’ve come to your website yet today.
Whenever I become a member of Flickr and YouTube (my dad is considering it), I will put pictures from my trip to the Getty Museum so you can see them. I thought that it was a really cool museum. My favorite part of the Getty Museum was how you could see all over Los Angeles and you could see the beach because the museum was on top of a mountain. It was a very nice view up there.
I will also have a picture of myself on Flickr once I start an account. I also check out your YouTube videos sometimes. For my YouTube account, once I get it started, I will probably put airplane videos and train videos on my YouTube Channel. Do you use your Canon PowerShot SD800 IS camera to make your YouTube videos or do you have a separate camera for making videos?
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Jim
I listened to the program on the radio it was pretty interesting. Too bad voters in Madison County turned down MetroLink in 1997 (this was when we were still living in Chesterfield, my parents would’ve voted “yes” to prop M.
P.S. I created this Wikipedia page! =)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_County_Transit
I can’t wait for Six-Flags over Texas! it’s tomorrow! They have a bunch of cool roller coasters there, such as the Titan, which is 255 foot drop and 90 miles per hour, and the Texas Giant, which is also huge. My younger brother is excited, too. He’s 7, and he’s tall enough for every roller coaster there except for Batman and Mr. Freeze, and that doesn’t matter, because he can ride those rides here in St. Louis next year. to learn more about Six-Flags over Texas, just Search “Six Flags Over Texas” online and it will take you directly to the website.
We went to Six Flags Over Texas Recently, and from there to a cruise. It was a lot of fun, and I will probably start a Flickr account and post the trip pictures by the end of September. School Starts tomorrow. 8th grade. Ugh =(
I don’t like school!
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Jim
Jim,
Think of school as the place where you learn to learn. Someone who does that after school is over is called an autodidact. I bet your 8th grade year will be better than your 7th grade year. I know mine was.
You should just decide that you love school instead of disliking it. Then everyday you can have fun going instead of dreading it. I bet you’ll learn some cool stuff this year.
Let me know when you get your Flickr account set up.
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Gabriel
I have set up my Flcikr account, but now I just need to download pictures. I’m kinda lazy when it comes to doing tasks with electronics, so it might take me a while to download pictures. I will be sure to download pictures soon, though. My account name on Flickr is Jimbo#1. I would be able to download pictures already, but my new camera is harder to download pictures onto the computer than my old camera was. My old camera was a Polaroid a520 Digital Camera, and it kind of stunk. It wasn’t THAT bad, it was just OK. I have pictures from my vacation that I will be sure to add onto Flickr.
I’ll try to enjoy my schoolyear, though=)
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Jim
I just got to ride through this station on December 7. =)
I also saw the new Amtrak Station, and went to the St. Louis Railroad Museum (Museum of Transportation). There were tons of old steam trains. There were old streetcars that St. Louis used to use, there were steam trains from the Nickel Plate RR, and there were also many passenger cars, a Union Pacific Snowplow, and so much more! The museum actually used to be a railroad station, called Barretts Station. Here’s the map of where it’s at if you’re interested.
http://maps.google.com/maps?near=Saint+Louis,+MO&geocode=&q=Museum+of+Transportation&f=l&sll=38.684438,-90.197754&sspn=0.48454,0.884399&ie=UTF8&ll=38.575716,-90.463314&spn=0.015165,0.027637&z=15&iwloc=A
Here’s the map
If I made a list of all the amazing things that were there, it would probably double the size of this web page! LOL
Are you a railfan?
I’ll upload the pictures onto my photostream sometime not long after Christmas. Hopefully they will all be up by New Years’
Have a Merry Christmas!