New Shrewsbury Metro Line is Officially Wonderful

I’ve been to almost every new Metrolink station now, and most of them are quite grand. Especially wonderful are the underground stops at Big Bend and at Skinker. Big Bend has a really cool installation art piece, and the Skinker stop feels like it’s in a real city (we do live in a real city, right?)--you come out of a subterranean metro onto a busy street near a university and a coffee shop. Fantastic! And I feel weird saying this, but the Clayton stop is at a good location. But the most surprising new station, in my opinion, is the Richmond Heights stop. It’s about two blocks from Brentwood, right across the street from the Galleria’s entrance (finally a reason for my Galleria-loving mom to get on the train!). What I really like is that fact that it’s close to University Club Tower, which houses doctors for more than one of us Subterranean folks. Easy street!

I’m hoping that running a line through one of the most densely populated areas of the region will bring in new riders and a new attitude--let’s run Metrolink everywhere…north, south, east, and west! One complaint, however. I’m disappointed with the Brentwood stop. The westbound ramp leads to a road (with no sidewalk!!!) BEHIND Dierberg’s. Pedestrian friendly how? The eastbound ramp leads to Best Buy and a parking garage, and again there is NO SIDEWALK. Considering we buy most our music at Vintage and Euclid, we don’t foresee many reasons to get off at Brentwood anyway, but the cheap and good food lover in us asks how the heck we are supposed to get to Trader Joe’s without being mashed by a crazy driver.