News and Issues

Thomas R. Shrout, Jr., long-time executive director of Citizens for Modern Transit, announced his resignation today to pursue other opportunities.

"Tom has been a strong leader of CMT and advocate for public transit not only in the St. Louis region, but also across the country," said Grace Corbin, chair of the CMT Board. "Tom led CMT in its crucial role in successfully educating the public about the benefits of transit which contributed to Proposition A being passed April 6," she added. "Although Tom will not be leading CMT on a daily basis, we will continue to work with him as an advocate for transit in the St. Louis region."

Shrout will continue his association with CMT as a senior policy advisor to the Board of Directors and to a new executive director. Shrout, 62, joined CMT in 1988. During his tenure CMT played an important role in providing grassroots support for the establishment of MetroLink and two major expansions of the system.

One of the expansions, the Cross County, was possible in part because CMT preserved the right-of-way which was about to be sold to private interests before CMT got involved. The right of way is now used for the Cross County line and portions of it will be available for a future line to West Port. With the passage of Prop A, at least one more major MetroLink expansion is likely to be built within the next decade. It is also enabling the restoration of Metro's bus, light rail and Call-A-Ride services that slashed in March of 2009.

Shrout led CMT as the prime advocate for the new St. Louis multi-modal station that replaced the 30 year old "Amshack" trailers and a former bank that served as Greyhound's terminal. He also has supported Joe Edwards' efforts to build a trolley line that would serve the Loop. Shrout brought together divergent interests, including not-for-profits, developers, universities, major employers with Enterprise Rent-A-Car that started the WeCAR car sharing program in St. Louis in 2008. Since then Enterprise has spread the program to locations across the United States.

"The CMT Board has been great to work for throughout my tenure. They are dedicated volunteers who have changed the face of transit in our community with the support of CMT's members. Cities and transit agencies across the United States point to CMT as an excellent example of how to build public support for transit," Shrout said. "I regularly get calls from people in other cities wanting to know how we did it. Now, in the next phase of my life, I hope to help some of them out," Shrout concluded.

Shrout's resignation is effective Aug. 31.