1] The major city of St.Louis (pronounced ‘Saint Lewis’) in the US state of Missouri is separated by the mighty Mississippi river from the communities of East St.Louis (originally Illinois Town), Madison, Venice and Granite City, all in the state of Illinois. The area became an important Midwestern transcontinental rail node at a time when all traffic at that point had to be ferried across the Mississippi, below the confluence with the Missouri river. In time the train-ferries (‘car-ferries’) were replaced by rail bridges, all of them necessarily substantial feats of engineering. Excluding the Bellefontaine bridge over the Missouri and the closed Alton bridge over the Mississippi, both some 30km upstream, above the confluence, the bridges are four in number. From north to south, they are the Merchants Bridge, the McKinley Bridge, the Eads Bridge and the MacArthur Bridge. MetroLink light-rail cars rumble across the original Eads Bridge, but the Merchants and MacArthur Bridges offer the only options for other passenger and freight trains.

2] It is impossible to describe in simple text the connections to the St.Louis bridges. For the straightforward geographical layout, see SPV Railroad Atlas of North America, Great Lakes West, pp36-37, but for a clear representation of the routes taken by pre-Amtrak passenger trains, the map (with accompanying article) in Passenger Train Journal for June 1990 is invaluable. Also helpful (but dated) is John Szwajkart’s Train Watcher’s Guide to St.Louis.

3] The Eads Bridge, the first to break the ferry monopoly, has a roadway on the upper deck and a railway beneath. The date of 9 June 1874 is claimed to be that of the ‘first train’, possibly a trial train, while 4 July 1874 is that of the formal opening at least for road traffic, ‘amid much fanfare’ on US Independence Day. The Eads Bridge had however no regular trains until 1875 because none of the Illinois railroads was ‘chartered’ (= had the legal powers) to run in the state of Missouri. Trains between St.Louis Union Station and Relay station in East St.Louis were worked by the Union Railway & Transit Co, which (in effect) became the Terminal Railroad Association of St.Louis (TRRA) in 1889. With its western approach through the 2km Eads Tunnel including a fairly restrictive curve, the Eads Bridge route was difficult to work and was taken out of rail use in 1972. However, in 1990 the TRRA exchanged it for the MacArthur Bridge, and since July 1993 it has been used by MetroLink light-rail trains. Early history of Eads Bridge is at
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/RiverWeb/Projects/Ambot/TECH/TECH14.htm and
http://www.eslarp.uiuc.edu/ibex/archive/IDOT/idot16.htm

4] The Merchants Bridge was built by commercial interests to compete with the Eads bridge and opened 19 April 1890, but soon went bankrupt and was acquired by TRRA in 1893.

5] The McKinley Bridge opened 10 November 1910 for the electric interurban cars of Illinois Traction System (later Illinois Terminal), but also carried freight, including traffic for shippers wishing to avoid congestion on other St.Louis switching/interchange railroads such as the TRRA. The final Illinois Terminal passenger service over the bridge (a local service from Granite City, IL) ceased 22 June 1958 and on 21 November 1958 the structure was sold to the city of Venice, IL. However, IT retained a facility for freight use until at least 1978 (Norfolk & Western, as successors to IT, finally abandoned their rights to use the bridge in 1994). Thereafter, the bridge ceased to be used by rail traffic, its centre (rail) lanes were converted for highway traffic, and it remained in road use until October 2001.

6] The MacArthur (originally Municipal) Bridge was opened 20 June 1917 by the city of St.Louis to break the TRRA freight monopoly, after TRRA had obtained control of Eads and Merchants Bridges. Ironically, its use was slightly limited, as it was more expensive than the TRRA routes. It is a bi-level structure but the road level has been out of use for many years. In 1990 the city transferred the MacArthur Bridge to TRRA in exchange for the Eads Bridge. In 1995 TRRA gave it a partial overhaul. It was in regular use by passenger trains from 15 January 1940 until 30 September 1979, then from 29 April 1984 until 30 October 1993, then again from June 2000. For a 1917 newspaper item on the new bridge, see
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/RiverWeb/Projects/Ambot/Archives/fwp/The%20Municipal%20Bridge.html.

7] In 1889, the Terminal Railroad Association of St.Louis (TRRA) was formed as a terminal railroad to handle the interchange of traffic between the various owners and other lines entering the conurbation, taking over the 1870s Union Railway & Transit Co and its Eads Bridge. TRRA quickly became the largest freight and passenger terminal operation in the world, owning the Merchants and Eads Bridges and since 1990 the MacArthur Bridge. At one time St.Louis had 17 railroads approaching from the east and 10 from the west, but by 2002 mergers had reduced these to five major North American rail operators: Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Canadian National, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, who now jointly own TRRA.

8] The TRRA’s primary goal was to build St.Louis Union Station, at 1820 Market Street, between 18th and 20th Streets. Designed by St.Louis architect and former railroader Theodore C Link, the station opened its doors 1 September 1894, at a cost of USD6.5 million, with no fewer than 32 tracks under the overall trainshed roof. In 1929 a further 10 tracks were added outside the trainshed on the west side, of which five remain useable. In its heyday in the mid-1940s, over 100,000 passengers used the terminal. In 1976 the building was designated a National Historic Landmark. Amtrak’s last train there however was on 31 October 1978, after which the nationalised passenger rail operators moved to a humbler "Amshack" nearby at 550 South 16th Street; this "temporary" station served until a more permanent facility opened at 551 South 16th Street on 20 December 2004. Fortunately, the historic Union Station building was saved from demolition by Oppenheimer Properties and underwent a massive USD150 million restoration by the Rouse Company of Columbia, MA. Union Station ‘reopened’ 29 August 1985 as a retail complex that is one of the main attractions in St.Louis, with hotel, shops, restaurants and a lake (!) all under one roof, drawing in 2001 over 4 million visitors. As a station, it retains only the five main-line platform roads tucked away on the west side outside the trainshed, and these are used only by special trains, such as the RailCruise America dining trains which are based here, available for group charters only. Union Station is however a stop on the MetroLink light-rail route passing beneath, at right angles to the former tracks and platforms. Further details are at
http://www.slfp.com/UnionStation.html,
http://www.thehistorynet.com/historictraveler/articles/11962_text.htm; and
http://www.stlouisunionstation.com/directory/ (the 1985 development).

Route of Amtrak passenger trains from Chicago, IL into St.Louis, MO

9] Chicago, IL - Alton, IL: The original route from Chicago in 1854 was the Chicago & Mississippi Railroad as far as Alton, on the east bank of the Mississippi, using a river steamer for the last 30km or so south past the Missouri confluence to St.Louis. The Chicago & Mississippi line south of Joliet, IL later became the Chicago & Alton, Alton Railroad, Gulf Mobile & Ohio, Illinois Central Gulf, Chicago Missouri & Western, Southern Pacific and is in 2002 the Union Pacific. For many years passenger trains ran on the street through the centre of Alton, close to the river, and served the town’s Union station, but this was replaced in the 1920s by Alton’s present station in College Avenue, whose milepost mileage from Chicago Union Station via Amtrak’s route over the Union Pacific is 257.2mi (412km).

10] Alton, IL - Wann - Wood River - Lenox Tower - Granite City - WR Tower: Just south of Alton, the layout becomes complicated. Abandoned or partially abandoned lines formerly serving steel, oil and power plants are passed. Double track starts at Wann (milepost 262.1, 419km from Chicago). The Wann - WR Tower - Bridge Jn section is jointly owned by Union Pacific and Kansas City Southern. Kansas City Southern's line was formerly owned by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St.Louis (CCCSt.L or the ‘Big Four Route’, a New York Central subsidiary). Lines of the former Illinois Terminal Railroad, some still operating and now part of Norfolk Southern, some abandoned, come alongside near the former passenger station of Wood River (262.8mi). At Lenox Tower (269.7mi) UP’s line from Pana, IL trails in. Originally built as CCCSt.L’s ‘short line’ and used by UP predecessor Chicago & Eastern Illinois, it was not wanted by Penn Central, sold to Missouri Pacific in 1982, thus ending up with UP. Also at Lenox UP-owned Alton & Southern’s freight line diverges away east, across the ex-Wabash, now NS, line converging from Decatur, IL. The NS comes alongside (but without junction) to make four tracks onward to Granite City, which until the advent of Amtrak on 1 May 1971 had two adjacent passenger stations just before WR Tower (274.9mi, 440km from Chicago).

11] WR Tower - East Approach (East St.Louis, IL) - Merchants Bridge - Washington Avenue (low-level) - Gratiot Street Tower (St.Louis, MO): At WR Tower, initial contact is made with the double-tracked TRRA, which swings off due south. Up to a date between 1957 and 1965 some passenger trains were booked to take this route via Merchants Bridge, others the alternative route via East St.Louis Relay described next, but the Merchants Bridge route then became normal for pre-Amtrak and Amtrak trains until about June 2000. Just before TRRA’s Madison freight yard they turned due west at East Approach, also known as SH Interlocking, and crossed the Merchants Bridge, then from West Approach ran south parallel to the river past the former Washington Avenue passenger station to Gratiot Street Tower on the eastern approach to St.Louis Union Station. From WR Tower to Gratiot St is 7.7mi, 12km, but the TRRA does not have mileposts. Washington Avenue bi-level station, at the point where the Eads Bridge crosses above the Merchants line at right angles, was used instead of East St.Louis Relay by passenger trains using Merchants Bridge, as well as by trains crossing Eads Bridge. Amtrak trains still use the Merchants Bridge route occasionally, at the dispatcher’s discretion should congestion occur on the usual MacArthur Bridge route.

12] WR Tower - Venice - Bridge Jn (- Q Tower - MacArthur Bridge - St.Louis, MO): Amtrak trains now normally continue south-west from WR Tower on the continuation of the UP/KCS joint line. Since some date between 1957 and 1965, passenger trains had used the WR Tower - Q Tower section only as a diversionary route, so June 2000 marked its reopening for booked passenger services. To enable Amtrak rerouting, WR Tower - Bridge Jn was restored to double track by the state of Illinois, using 'Build Illinois' finance which has also been used to upgrade the Chicago - St.Louis route for higher speeds further north. The dotted line shown in the SPV atlases (including the Prairies East & Ozarks volume dated 2004) was, in effect, restored and has been used by Amtrak since June 2000. The doubled UP/KCS line runs parallel to the ex-Wabash, now NS, Brooklyn Main line to NS Brooklyn yard, giving the effect of triple track, passing beneath the Merchants Bridge, under the two elevated ramps formerly leading to the McKinley Bridge (the southern one broken by a great gap) and under the TRRA Wiggins East Side line. Before World War II Venice passenger station was passed at milepost 278.0, the site being followed by KCS Venice freight yard on the west side and NS Brooklyn yard on the east side.

13] Bridge Jn - Relay (Q Interlocking, East St.Louis, IL) (- MacArthur Bridge - St.Louis, MO): From Bridge Jn (280.0mi, 448km from Chicago) the route is on TRRA track, past a succession of smaller, closed yards and connections which at one time gave the various competing railroads access to the Mississippi riverfront and the wagon-carrying ferries. An extant TRRA connection from Madison yard trails in through the remains of their CD yard (not quite as shown in the SPV atlases) before a flat crossing by the Kansas City Southern (originally Chicago & Alton) line and trailing connections (extant and abandoned) from the east, formerly the Pennsylvania, Baltimore & Ohio and Louisville & Nashville main lines to St.Louis. Last passenger use was by Amtrak’s National Limited which used the ex-PRR route until 30 September 1979. In the vee thus formed, 0.8mi south of Bridge Jn, is the triangular site of East St.Louis Relay passenger station. From 1875 to 1904 all trains dropped their incoming motive-power here and Union/TRRA locomotives ‘relayed’ them forward to St.Louis Union Station, thus possibly accounting for the name ‘Relay’. By 1910 Relay itself was a union station used by virtually all the converging lines for trains crossing either the Eads Bridge or, when its north approach eventually opened in 1940, the Municipal (later MacArthur) Bridge. East St.Louis Relay seems to have closed with the advent of Amtrak on 1 May 1971. The junction area is Q Interlocking, formerly Q Tower, 1.0mi south of Bridge Jn.

14] Relay (Q Interlocking, East St.Louis, IL) - MacArthur Bridge (- St.Louis, MO): From Q, the TRRA access to the Eads Bridge diverged west but closed in the 1970s and was abandoned. The TRRA Eads Conlogue freight line continues southwest at ground level. Amtrak trains start their climb up TRRA’s MacArthur Bridge line. Opened in 1940 this north access to the bridge had no booked passenger service between 1 October 1979 and June 2000. The ‘Union Station’ shown on this line in the SPV atlas appears to be a confusion with nearby Relay, which in fact continued to be the union station for this area. Post-1940 Official Guides continue to refer explicitly to Relay as the East St.Louis calling-point. (However in the 1940s the Mobile & Ohio did have a passenger station hereabouts, on the adjacent ground-level line, and passengers were conveyed by bus between it and St.Louis Union.) On the climb, Amtrak trains pass above a new-build section of the light-rail line from Eads Bridge to 5th & Missouri MetroLink station. Several ground-level freight lines are crossed. The Illinois Central yard shown abandoned in the SPV atlas at Trendley Avenue appeared to be in use in 2001. At North Approach Jn. (2.2mi from Bridge Jn) a long elevated line climbs up from East Approach and trails in. This East Approach line, originally the only access from the Illinois shore to the MacArthur Bridge, had passenger service from 1940 until the late 1960s. It later saw brief Amtrak passenger use from 29 April 1984 until 30 October 1993.

15] MacArthur Bridge - Gratiot Street Tower (- St.Louis, MO): At the west end of the MacArthur Bridge an east-to-south curve, which never had passenger service, diverges at South Approach to drop down to the ground-level ex-Missouri Pacific, now Union Pacific, line which passes beneath and swings round towards Gratiot St. Comparing the view from an Amtrak train in 2001 with the SPV atlas, the connection from the UP line to the parallel north-south TRRA Wharf Street line abandoned in May 1982 was still extant, if not in use; the north-south TRRA link from UP to its Merchants line, opened May 1982, to enable abandonment of the Wharf St line, was not straight but has a decided kink to the east at its junction with UP; and the dead-end extremity of the Manufacturers’ Railway was out of use. The UP curve joins the two TRRA lines from the Merchants and the MacArthur Bridges at Gratiot Street Tower (3.2mi from Bridge Jn). The tower itself is in the fork between the west approach line and the UP line.

16] Gratiot Street Tower - St.Louis, MO: Westwards from Gratiot Street stretches the ex-MP, now UP, 23rd Street freight yard and around its north side runs the TRRA line used by Amtrak. Between Gratiot St and 14th St, the passenger route formerly crossed - by means of the long UD (Union Depot) Bridge and its west ramp - above the MP and Frisco freight yards and also (until 1972) the main-line access to the Eads Bridge. However, in the early 1990s the track was realigned at raised ground-level closer to the UP freight yard, to accommodate the MetroLink access to the Eads Bridge. (The SPV Atlas is in error in this area). The St.Louis ‘Amshack’ at 16th Street (3.9mi from Bridge Jn, 454km from Chicago), on part of the site of TRRA’s mail and express parcels yard under the shadow of the Interstate I-64 highway viaduct, is crude indeed for such a major city. Amtrak’s ‘temporary’ station (in use from 1 November 1978 to Spring 2005) offered a platform with poor surface and no canopies, and poor road access. High hopes in 1990 of a new intermodal terminal, to be built near Jefferson Avenue west of Union Station, came to nothing, so one can but hope to see implementation of the city’s current plans for a new ‘St.Louis Gateway Transportation Center’ more or less on the present Amtrak site. This would have six tracks to cope with increasing passenger traffic expected in the Chicago - St.Louis corridor, and with proposed commuter trains to the western and southern suburbs. It would also house a Greyhound long-distance bus terminal, and have a link with Kiel Center MetroLink station. The Amtrak station is one block west of the site of the city’s original (June 1875-August 1894) Union station which was at 12th (now Tucker Boulevard) and Poplar, and is just east of the former triangular junction giving access to the 1894 Union Station.

Routes of Amtrak passenger trains west of St.Louis, MO

17] St.Louis, MO - Grand Avenue - Iron Mountain Jn / Tower Grove, MO: Amtrak trains for Kansas City, MO and for San Antonio, TX take this continuation of TRRA track through Mill Creek Valley between the ex-MP, now UP freight yards and tracks (to the south) and the tracks of MetroLink (to the north). Beyond the present Amtrak station is the former triangular access to the 1894 Union Station, of which only the east-to-north curve, with the abandoned Tower #1, also known as Perry Tower, in the vee, remains; this gives access to the five little-used passenger platforms that remain on the west side of the former trainshed. At the far western edge of the Union Station site, Amtrak have a turning wye at 23rd Street Interlocking, formerly Tower #2. On the south side, the UP 23rd Street yard gives way to BNSF’s yard - the limit of predecessor St.Louis-San Francisco (Frisco) and the point at which their passenger trains left TRRA track. Grand Avenue (1.8mi from the Amtrak station and milepost 2.1 on UP and BNSF from Gratiot Street via the freight lines) marks the end of TRRA track and the point at which the lines of the former StL-SF, Wabash and MP (so arranged from north to south, through the Valley) crossed each other to become Wabash, MP and StL-SF westwards from here. The Wabash alignment is now given over to MetroLink. UP and BNSF run parallel, with the former carrying Amtrak’s Kansas City, MO trains and the latter the Texas Eagle for San Antonio, TX. Tower Grove (milepost 3.6) had passenger stations on both routes until at least the late 1950s, and just beyond is what UP called Iron Mountain Jn.

18] Tower Grove, MO - De Soto, AK: After the very brief ride over BNSF track from Grand Avenue, the Texas Eagle here regains UP’s Oak Hill line (now the De Soto Subdivision). This originally diverged from the UP main line at the point known by UP as Iron Mountain Jn, and immediately crossed the BNSF on the level, but from February 1987 the layout was altered so that the ‘branch’ now links solely with the BNSF. Trains head past the site of a suburban station at Broadway (milepost 6.4) - a vestigial commuter service survived until at least the late 1930s - and join the freight line from Gratiot Street (see paragraph 15 above) at Davis Jn (milepost 6.8), at the city’s southern boundary and close to the Mississippi shore.

19] Iron Mountain Jn - Jefferson City , MO: The old MP main line (now UP’s Sedalia Subdivision) follows a route broadly parallel with Frisco, through the former suburban stations at Maplewood (milepost 6.9) and Webster Groves (milepost 10.0) to the popular station of Kirkwood (milepost 13.4), still serving the more affluent western suburbs. The line which formerly linked Kirkwood and Broadway is now abandoned, apart from short stubs at each end. At Barretts (milepost 16.5) the National Museum of Transport (alas with no rail passenger service) lies adjacent to the line, on the north side. Beyond here, the line swings northwards on its way to the Missouri river shoreline. Commuter operation (a single round trip as far as Pacific - milepost 34.8) survived until the late 1950s. At West Labadie (milepost 43.7) the line crosses above the former CRI&P (Rock Island) St.Louis - Kansas City line, now operated by short-line Lackland Western as far west as Owensville, MO.

MetroLink: the Bi-State Development Agency’s light-rail system

20] Owners of the light-rail system are the Bi-State Development Agency, trading as MetroLink (plan of the light rail system). The system opened from North Hanley, MO to 5th & Missouri (East St.Louis, IL) 31 July 1993, with a westward extension to Lambert Airport Main station 26 June 1994. Intermediate stations were added at East Riverfront 14 May 1994 and at Lambert Airport East 30 November 1998, bringing the total to 19 (13 at ground-level, 3 below-ground, 3 on bridge-structures). The 5th & Missouri - College section opened 4 May 2001, adding 8 new stations on the Illinois side and bringing the total route length to 55km, with regular services extended by 5.7km to Shiloh-Scott from 23 June 2003. Of the initial 27km western section, principally on the Missouri side, some 22km were built on former railway right-of-way, and some 22km of the Illinois extension were formerly CSX railway right-of-way. Work started in 2002 on a south-west branch, from Forest Park to Shrewsbury. A further aspiration is to extend from Shiloh-Scott to MidAmerica Airport.

21] Lambert Airport Main - UM-St.Louis South: The existing route from the western terminus at Lambert-St.Louis International Airport, Missouri (airline code STL) is new-build, broadly following Interstate highway I-70 (but by no means as straight as implied in the SPV atlas) to UM-St.Louis South (although this stands for University of Missouri, the initials are used rather than the full name as shown in SPV atlas). The site of the abandoned TRRA Central Belt line is crossed on this section.

22] UM-St.Louis South - Wellston - Delmar: From UM-St.Louis South the former trackbed of the Wabash Railroad’s St.Louis - Kansas City, MO line is followed to cross under the TRRA’s West Belt line. In Wellston the site can be seen of a former south-to-east chord between Page Avenue (Wabash RR) and Easton Avenue (TRRA). Until closure in 1970, this enabled Wabash passenger trains from St.Louis to leave westwards from Union Station, call at their Delmar Boulevard station to serve the affluent western suburbs, and then head east to the Merchants Bridge and destinations such as Chicago and Detroit. On the site of the Wabash’s ground-level platforms at Delmar Boulevard, MetroLink have built light-rail platforms, now called Delmar station, the ‘Boulevard’ suffix having been dropped. On the bridge carrying Delmar Boulevard over the line the old Wabash station building remains, in good condition and in office use, but MetroLink appear not to own it for they have provided new passenger exit ramps.

23] Delmar - Forest Park - Central West End: Just beyond Delmar, the ex-Wabash line swings east at the site of Forsythe Jn, where Chicago Rock Island & Pacific’s long-abandoned chord diverged to their Kansas City line. From some date between 1922 and 1935, Rock Island trains left St.Louis Union Station eastwards and circled round by TRRA’s Merchants and West Belt lines to reach Rock Island tracks at Rock Island Jn, just before the crossing of TRRA’s now largely abandoned Central Belt line. Forest Park station is to be the junction for the planned MetroLink branch line heading south-west. Central West End appears to have been about the location of the Wabash’s former Vandeventer station.

24] Central West End - Grand - Union Station: On the north side approaching MetroLink’s Grand station (not ‘Grand Avenue’ as in the SPV atlas, though the adjacent main-line tower is indeed Grand Avenue) Bi-State own a short freight track accessed from the main line by a flat-crossing link over the light-rail tracks west of the station (not east as in the SPV atlas). The MetroLink depot or ‘car-barn’ has a large balloon-loop (rather than the dead-end layout shown for the ‘BST Shops’ in the SPV atlas). From about this point, MetroLink leaves former railway right-of-way to take a new-build route, mostly in cutting, swinging north then east to tunnel under Union Station and emerge in cutting at MetroLink’s own Union Station platforms.

25] Union Station - Kiel Center - Laclede’s Landing - Eads Bridge: Leaving Union Station MetroLink continues east (for perhaps 500m further than the SPV atlas suggests) before turning south. On that short north-south stretch is Kiel Center station. (Kiel Center is not shown in the SPV atlas, which shows a non-existent ‘Civic Center’ station on the subsequent west-east section.) The MetroLink line then regains former railroad right-of-way by joining the alignment of the ex-TRRA Eads Bridge line, largely in tunnel. Just after emerging from the c.2km tunnel is Laclede’s Landing MetroLink station, on the site of the TRRA’s former Washington Avenue (or Main Street) bi-level station, with TRRA’s Merchants line beneath on the west bank of the Mississippi.

26] Eads Bridge - East Riverfront - 5th & Missouri (East St.Louis, IL): At the east end of Eads Bridge, in the state of Illinois, the East Riverfront MetroLink station is above the TRRA Wiggins East Side line. At the foot of the bridge ramp, MetroLink swings away from the old TRRA alignment that once led to East St.Louis Relay station, takes a new-build alignment that crosses above the sites of former Louisville & Nashville and Cleveland Cincinnati Chicago & St.Louis freight yards, then beneath the TRRA Eads Conlogue and MacArthur Bridge lines, finally swinging north-east to reach 5th & Missouri station, MetroLink’s original eastern terminus, marked as 16.9mi (27km) from Lambert Airport Main. This is a light-rail/bus/park-and-ride interchange, set in an area from which the population seems largely to have departed.

27] 5th & Missouri (East St.Louis, IL) - Shiloh-Scott, IL: About 1km beyond 5th & Missouri, MetroLink joins the trackbed of the ex-Louisville & Nashville main line which once carried crack passenger trains to Nashville, TN, Atlanta, GA, New Orleans, LA and elsewhere in the South and Florida. The last main-line passenger train ran 30 April 1971, the day before Amtrak took over the rump of the nation’s inter-city rail services. Some time between 1983 and 1990 CSX abandoned 69km of the L&N line from East St.Louis to Addieville, IL. MetroLink uses this for some 21km, the route being Emerson Park (new station) - crossings of NS and TRRA lines - Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center (new station) - crossing of Alton & Southern line - Washington Park (new station) - Fairview Heights (new station) - French Village (former L&N station) - Birkners (former L&N station) - Metropolitan Hospital (new station) - Summit (former L&N station) - Swansea (new station) - Belleville (former L&N station and new station). Before Belleville, the site of a former L&N freight branch trails in from the north and the line crosses above the ex-Southern, now NS, East St.Louis - North Belleville - Centralia, IL line, which briefly saw Amtrak passenger trains serve a Belleville station from 29 April 1984 until 30 October 1993. Some 2km beyond this underbridge, a final new-build MetroLink section heads east then north to the eastern terminus at Shiloh-Scott.

28] East St.Louis - Belleville: The first railroad in the St.Louis area was the Illinois & St.Louis Coal Co, with a line from Illinois Town (East St.Louis) to Belleville opened in 1836. The two towns were also at one time linked by the East St.Louis & Suburban Railway, a roadside tramway along State Street, later the St.Louis & Belleville Electric Railway.