News and Issues

Today, Metro’s Board of Commissioners announced the appointment of Robert Baer as Interim President and CEO of the Bi-State Development Agency, (d.b.a. Metro). Baer previously served as the Bi-State Development Agency’s Executive Director from 1974 to 1977. He left the public transportation agency to head United Van Lines, and later became President and CEO of UniGroup, Inc, the holding company of United Van Lines and Mayflower Transit, and is UniGroup’s President Emeritus.

Mr. Baer is one of the St. Louis area’s top business and civic leaders. He has served the region as Chairman of the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District, the St. Louis Police Board and the St. Louis Regional Complex Sports Authority. He replaces Larry Salci who came to Metro as President and CEO in 2002. During Salci’s tenure, Metro embarked on a strategic plan to aggressively reduce costs and improve service. The Agency added more bus service and greatly improved both bus reliability and on-time performance. Metro also opened an eight-mile light rail extension, developed a sophisticated plan of finance to reduce borrowing costs and bond debt service, reduced costs related to employee absenteeism, reduced taxpayer subsidy per passenger boarding, and brought customer fares in line with industry standards. As a result, Metro ridership has grown to exceed more than 54 million boardings per year.

In accepting the position as Metro’s interim leader, Baer said, “Metro is a very different organization than the one I led thirty years ago. I am looking forward to the challenge of working with the men and women of Metro to prepare the Agency for its next phase of successfully serving the people in the St. Louis region.”

“We will work to restore public confidence in what is an excellent public transit system,” Baer added. “I am confident that by keeping lines of communication open with all our stakeholders, we will be able to assure our community that Metro is a regional asset well worth the investment.”

View latest News & Issues | View all News stories | View all issues