METRO RESPONDS TO MY POST ABOUT BATHROOMS

All the improvement posts on this blog I send to Metro via their Customer Feedback Form.

They gotta a lot of pretty words.  I am reprinting them here, but they don't mean a thing, until they walk their talk.

Also, this email fails to mention that the restrooms at Riverview are maintained by the little privately owned store.

Further, the "public safety challenges" are no greater than a restroom at a park, and certainly less hazardous than having to pee behind a building or tree. 

Does these people not have bladders?  IT SHOULD BE A REQUIREMENT THAT THEY HAVE TO RIDE THE BUSES AS PART OF THEIR JOB.  Things would change real fast.

And "where they make sense from the perspective of volume".  That means Metrolink.  That is the only part of Metro that gets any play.

Ridiculous. 

The response to this post http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/04/metro-says-bathrooms-are-to-expensive.html 
and this one http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/03/metro-bus-and-train-stations-need-more.html

In response to customer requests, Metro has begun to integrate public restroom facilities in select MetroBus and MetroLink facilities. I believe I discussed this with you, but to reiterate we currently provide public restrooms at Riverview and Hall Transit Center; Clayton MetroLink Station; and Belleville MetroLink Station. In 2015 we anticipate opening one new transit center (North County Transit Center) and opening an expanded Civic Center Transit Center. Both of these new/expanded facilities will include public restrooms.

Metro is not in the business of providing public restrooms throughout the entire region, or even at all MetroLink stations and MetroBus Transit Centers. These facilities, even the pay facilities we have explored, are expensive to purchase and maintain and in some locations present public safety challenges. Resources devoted to constructing and maintaining public toilets reduce available resources for operating public transit. Metro’s policy moving forward is to integrate public restrooms at new or reconstructed facilities where they make sense from the perspective of customer volume and public safety, and where funding permits.

Thank You,

Jessica Mefford-Miller
Chief of Planning and System Development
Metro
707 North First Street
St. Louis, Missouri 63102-2595
Ph: 314.982.1479
jnmefford@metrostlouis.org