NextStop Blog

Passengers like Noel depend on Metro transit to get to work, school and other important destinations. We hope you enjoy her story, and we’re interested in your transit story too. Email mrhibbard@bistatedev.org, and we may share your story in a future “Passenger Profile.”

Noel has quite the transit commute each day – between her home in Illinois to the campus of Washington University – but she doesn’t mind it one bit.

“It is long, but it’s better than driving,” she said.

Her no-car commute starts by catching the #1 Riverbend Madison County Transit bus to get to the Emerson Park MetroLink Station. From there, she boards a Blue Line train to Washington University. The Danforth Campus is served by two MetroLink Stations — the Forsyth MetroLink Station and the University City-Big Bend MetroLink Station.

Noel said she started riding MetroLink six years ago when she started working at Washington University. The university offers its students, staff and employees transit fare free of charge.

“I really despise traffic,” she said. “I live in Illinois and I’ve worked in St. Louis my entire career and the idea of not having to put wear and tear on my car, not having to pay for gas, not having to deal with the headache of traffic is awesome. I can sit there and read, I can watch videos. I love it. I think it’s a great benefit that Washington University offers.”

While her transit commute sometimes requires a little more time, Noel is happy to take advantage of all of the benefits of being off the road.

“The commute is a little bit longer, but the way I look at it is, it’s the same everyday, I don’t have to worry about traffic jams when I drive,” she said. “If there’s an accident on the highway, you could be in traffic for two hours and when it’s bad weather, yikes. I don’t have to worry about it.”

Her transit commute allows her to avoid the hassles of driving, and instead free up time to sit back and relax. It’s part of the day Noel looks forward to and enjoys.

“This is going to sound silly, but I really like crossing the river every day and looking at the Arch,” she said.