METROLINK CHARMS ST. LOUIS (BUT STILL LOSES MONEY)

When light-rail service was proposed for St. Louis, it prompted considerable skepticism. Citizens of St. Louis were said to be enamored with their automobiles, and subways held more of a promise as a long sandwich than for a trip downtown. However, a year into MetroLink, the city and its mass transit agency believe they have a success on their hands. Ridership of the system has surpassed expectations, and excellent word-of-mouth is sure to prolong this upbeat trend. We embrace all positive surprises, yet are not willing to relieve MetroLink of its boondoggle label so soon. Further, we continue to blanch at the oft-stated notion that out-state Missouri is obligated to assume more of a burden for sustaining this system.

The early word on MetroLink is that it is clean, comfortable and gets you from certain spots in St. Louis to certain other spots with relative ease and efficiency. The light rail system got an extensive workout earlier this month during the city's Veiled Prophet Fair; lines were long and hundreds of thousands used the trains to get in and out of the downtown fairgrounds. This extraordinary usage aside, the projected first-year ridership was estimated at 17,000 a day, though the daily numbers have run about 24,000.

In most other endeavors, such numbers would count as runaway prosperity. In the case of MetroLink, the system loses money every day. And that comes after a $351 million expenditure by the federal government in constructing the system. A watchdog group called Citizens Against Government Waste labeled the St. Louis light rail project as one of the worst examples of pork-barrel spending in recent years.

Some in the Missouri General Assembly wanted to advance a measure in the last session that committed all state taxpayers, urban and rural, to a transportation plan that would help save MetroLink from its lofty operational expenses. The legislation failed, but a bill advanced putting a mass transit sales tax issue to St. Louis and St. Louis County voters on Aug. 2. It will be instructive to see the support of MetroLink once it is put in dollars-and-cents terms to those people most directly affected by it.