By Adam Allington, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The St. Louis transit agency Metro announced a plan on Friday to restore about one third of the service cuts that were made at the end of March.
The cash strapped agency was left trying to balance a $50-million budget deficit for the next fiscal year, after the failure of Proposition M to win approval from County voters.
Metro Chief Operating Officer Ray Friem says a mixture of state and Federal funds can restore a portion of the service cuts.
"If we took a look at it in terms of dollars, the reduction was 36 million dollars, we're basically putting about 17 million dollars worth of service back on," said Friem.
Friem says while service restoration is good news, the overall operation is still lacking.
"A lot of people focus on the lines on the map, but there is another element to that and that is the number of buses that are operating on that line and some of these lines are coming back but the service won't be as robust as it was in the past."
The financial picture for Metro does not show signs of improving soon, as drops in tax revenue continue to erode funding.
The agency was also forced to refinance 225 million dollars in bonds issued to pay for the Shrewsbury Metrolink line.
See the Metro service restoration plan Adobe PDF document.