When the Cross-County Extension was built, the Forest Park-DeBaliviere MetroLink station was converted from a side platform to a center platform format to better facilitate transfers between the two MetroLink lines. For example, riders headed from Clayton to the airport can hop off the Blue Line at Forest Park and, ideally, find a Red Line train waiting to whisk them away on the other side of the platform, easy as pie. At worst, riders shouldn’t have to wait anymore than a few minutes to connect between the Blue and Red lines.
| Eastbound | Westbound |
|---|---|
| 7:57pm | 7:56pm |
| 8:07pm | 8:06pm |
| 8:17pm | 8:16pm |
| 8:27pm | 8:26pm |
| 8:37pm | 8:36pm |
| 8:47pm | 8:46pm |
| 8:57pm | 8:56pm |
| 9:07pm | 9:06pm |
The current MetroLink schedule after 7pm, however, is an exercise in frustration and futility for riders hoping for an easy transfer. All eastbound Red and Blue Line trains arrive at the Forest Park-DeBaliviere station 1 minute after westbound trains have departed the station. This forces all connecting passengers to wait 19 minutes for the next train, an intolerable wait for a connection that should take 3 minutes max.
If possible, Metro should delay all westbound trains by 1 or 2 minutes to reenable the quick transfer at Forest Park-DeBaliviere station.
