ST. LOUIS — Local officials on Wednesday signed a new MetroLink security and policing agreement crafted over the past two years, despite some plans yet to be implemented.

“People are seeing changes on Metro for the good and we look forward to even more good in the future,” St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern said at a ceremony Wednesday after a meeting of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments.

The changes are an outgrowth of studies by WSP USA, a New York-based engineering and consulting firm hired by East-West Gateway in 2018 to assess MetroLink security after a series of high-profile violent crimes on the light rail line in recent years. WSP later was picked to help implement changes.

Included are more barriers to limit entry to some high-use MetroLink stations, better coordination between Metro Transit and local police and a redeployment of Metro’s security officers and contracted security guards so they’re seen more often on trains and platforms.

“You will be seeing them more frequently than you are now,” Lurae Stuart, who heads the WSP team here, told the Gateway Council.