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Metro funding swap shot down

By Maria Altman

St. Louis, MO – A strategy to fill part of Metro's funding shortfall has failed.

The transit agency had sought the federal government's approval to swap some capital funding to shore up operations in the short-term.

Metro plans to cut bus service west of I-270 the end of the month.

Metro COO Ray Friehm said the Federal Transit Agency had allowed funding flexibility in the past.

He says the agency is looking for another option, but there's no quick fix on the horizon.

"I don't think there's any single solution that's going to bring all of it back, short of a local referendum," Friehm said.

St. Louis County voters rejected Metro's bid for a half cent sales tax increase last November.

That referendum could be back on the ballot next year.

Les Sterman is executive director of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments and had supported the funding swap idea.

He calls cutting service in the current economic climate "shameful."

"I think it's going to be awful for a lot of people who need transportation to work and either have got to find another way to get to work or find another job," Sterman said. "You know, great cities need transportation systems."

Sterman says with transit agencies in several cities struggling, he thinks the federal government was concerned about setting a precedent.

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