SPECIAL REDBIRD EXPRESS SERVICE CANCELLED FOR TONIGHT’S GAME, AUGUST 19TH, 2019

The St. Clair County Transit District received the following important message from Bi-State Development Agency’s Executive Director regarding tonight’s game, August 19th, 2019. We encourage Redbird passengers to drive to the stadium or to use MetroLink.

From Bi-State……

I want to inform you that we are experiencing a significant number of MetroBus and MetroLink operators calling off work today. As of 6:00am, we are missing 41% of Illinois MetroBus trips, and comparable amounts at Brentwood and DeBalviere. During rush hour we will continue to operate 20-minute service on the MetroLink Blue Line, rather than 12-minute rush hour service. I anticipate we will operate the Blue Line as a shuttle between Shrewsbury I-44 and Forest Park DeBaliviere MetroLink stations during mid-day. Call offs will impact afternoon and evening service. I do not anticipate sufficient manpower to operate scheduled fixed route service this evening, even with TSMs and mechanics driving. As a result, we must cancel Redbirds operations for tonight’s 6:45pm game.

We are working to inform our customers of delays through our Customer Service team, which is operating extended hours from 6am – 7pm, onboard announcements, our website, social media channels, and the news media.

I regret that these actions are a burden to our customers and a blow to the credibility of Metro Transit and the important service we all work hard to deliver. Furthermore, these actions do not move us closer to ratifying new labor contracts. We continue to negotiate in good faith with the ATU and together we’ve made significant progress. While we still have some important issues to resolve, we are nearing the end of this process. Since June 2018 we have met with the ATU on 18 different occasions, most recently on August 12. We will share a revised proposal with ATU early this week, and we will meet again at the bargaining table on August 23. We remain committed to negotiating contracts that provide our employees represented by the ATU and IBEW a meaningful wage and benefit package that provides fair compensation for the hard work they do each day, and can be supported by our available funding resources.

Thank you,

Jessica Mefford-Miller
Bi-State Development Agency Executive Director