It will start with a $2 million conceptual design study that Slay hopes will be funded from the city’s parking division. He has had talks with Treasurer Tishaura Jones about using the money to help move the north-south line forward. Next would be a $40 million detailed design and land-use study, getting very specific about where each of the stops would go. Finally, there’s the matter of finding the more than $1 billion it would take to build such a system. City leaders have been meeting with county leaders and consulting with the federal Department of Transportation. In an ideal world, the city and county would go in this together, and build out the full north-south line, through the city and the county. But the challenge starts with getting beyond the thought that expanding MetroLink is so expensive, and would take so long, that it’s simply too “overwhelming” for St. Louis to handle.