Missouri Amtrak Service

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dangerboy
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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DaveKCMO wrote: sedalia received a community block grant and is renovating their station right now.
It will be nice when they have that station finished. Right now they just have a bus shelter in a parking lot, and people board from a gravel pit next to the track.
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

Post by DaveKCMO »

Amtrak supporters cheer commuter Biden's VP bid
For example, ridership between Kansas City and St. Louis increased 57 percent last month compared with July 2007.
another month where this thread title is accurate!
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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^ To be fair, that increase from last summer when track work caused a big decline in riders.  But, it is still impressive to see the increase despite the continually unreliable service.
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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very true, but it never dropped 57% in one month from the year prior! last month's jump was even higher.
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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dangerboy wrote: ^ To be fair, that increase from last summer when track work caused a big decline in riders.  But, it is still impressive to see the increase despite the continually unreliable service.
here are modot's july intra-state passenger counts for trains 311, 313, 314, 316 for the last six years:
july 2003 - 13,398
july 2004 - 13,094
july 2005 - 13,844
july 2006 - 9,347
july 2007 - 11,878
july 2008 - 18,615

pretty impressive.  and, as db points out, in spite of the fact that on-time performance hasn't improved all that much.
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking ... 20448.html

The U.S. Department of Transportation today announced a $3.3 million grant that will go toward improving passenger rail service between Kansas City and St. Louis.

Better but not great. I would be happy if they invested 1/700th of what they are going to spend on Wall Street.
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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here's the news release from modot:
http://www.modot.org/newsandinfo/Distri ... wsId=22450

this $3.3 million federal grant, added to the $5 million appropriated by the missouri general assembly earlier this year, will enable the union pacific to construct a new 9,000 foot siding west of california -- it'll be the longest siding on the sedalia sub between kansas city and jeff city -- and also do the engineering to lengthen an existing siding at knob noster.

this new siding won't result in dramatic improvement of amtrak's on-time performance, but it's highly signifcant that modot has worked with the up on this project and obtained state and federal money as a first step toward increasing rail capacity across the state.
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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At least it gets the ball rolling.  Hopefully they will ask again in 2009 for more money to continue the incremental upgrades.
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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dangerboy wrote: At least it gets the ball rolling.  Hopefully they will ask again in 2009 for more money to continue the incremental upgrades.
...and hopefully 2009 will bring the 80/20 match (this year was only 50/50).
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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enough wrote: here's the news release from modot:
http://www.modot.org/newsandinfo/Distri ... wsId=22450

this $3.3 million federal grant, added to the $5 million appropriated by the missouri general assembly earlier this year, will enable the union pacific to construct a new 9,000 foot siding west of california -- it'll be the longest siding on the sedalia sub between kansas city and jeff city -- and also do the engineering to lengthen an existing siding at knob noster.

this new siding won't result in dramatic improvement of amtrak's on-time performance, but it's highly signifcant that modot has worked with the up on this project and obtained state and federal money as a first step toward increasing rail capacity across the state.
What impresses me the most about this development is that Missouri managed to secure $3.3 million out of the $30 million available (over 10%).  Missouri competed with a bunch of other states and projects.

The average wait on a siding for freight traffic to clear is 10 minutes.  If the Mules gain an extra 20-40 minutes across Missouri, it will help the on-time performance, because odds of a long and/or numerous delays go down with every improvement made. Also at play is the soon to be completed work on the Gasconade River bridge which is another bottleneck point that when corrected will also shave delay time off of the schedule.

As Dave KCMO there may soon be an even bigger pot of money available (80-20 matching funds). The Amtrak Reauthorization is expected to be signed today by President Bush. It passed 74-24 in the Senate two nights ago.  This is $14 billion over 5 years which translates into a 42% increase in Amtrak authorization. It is unprecedented, and if our elected officials and budget office don't screw around with Amtrak, passenger rail service in this country has a real opportunity to improve and expand across the board.
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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Advocrat, how much of the bigger Amtrak budget would to into local capital projects like Missouri's route vs. national projects like rolling stock, the NE Corridor, HSR, etc. ?
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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dangerboy wrote: Advocrat, how much of the bigger Amtrak budget would to into local capital projects like Missouri's route vs. national projects like rolling stock, the NE Corridor, HSR, etc. ?
we'd likely see renovated coaches, but that's about it. the 80/20 match is where we'll see a benefit, which will require modot to pony up. i'd like to see amtrak add a KC-only chicago train to compliment the chief, but i don't think it's a priority for them.
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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DaveKCMO wrote: we'd likely see renovated coaches, but that's about it. the 80/20 match is where we'll see a benefit, which will require modot to pony up. i'd like to see amtrak add a KC-only chicago train to compliment the chief, but i don't think it's a priority for them.
It will have to be the General Assembly that ponies up, not MoDOT.  Recently MoDOT has stated they would be willing to support expanded passenger rail, if the General Assembly funds it. 

So write your state reps!  Especially if you want new service like a Chicago train :)
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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dangerboy wrote: It will have to be the General Assembly that ponies up, not MoDOT.  Recently MoDOT has stated they would be willing to support expanded passenger rail, if the General Assembly funds it. 

So write your state reps!  Especially if you want new service like a Chicago train :)
sorry, you are correct. modot just administers funds.
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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To Dangerboy and DaveKCMO:

There is a chicken and egg element involved in this question (Dangerboy's).  The money is likely to be there, but someone needs to get the process moving.  It is a certainty that neither Amtrak nor USDOT will mandate money and development for the Missouri route.  However, "Missouri" may certainly be encourged to propose new development. Whether the legislature, or the Governor, or MoDOT takes the lead in this is the fundmental question.

I would hope that the public, and Amtrak supporter would begin to make their interest known to state officials, organize a grass-routes initiative, work community leaderws to support expansion, and go very public with the opportunity that may be there for the asking.

Missouri MoDOT has already shown a lot of initiative by submitting a request for funding and developing a qualified passenger rail plan that has garnered $3.3 million.

The new funding measure has a specific development component for "intercity passenger rail" new starts and improvement.  Missouri is already out of the gate on this.

There is a newly formed organization in St. Joseph that is agitating for a KC-OMAh connection.

The new funding opportunity could surely help this come to pass.
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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Massive Amtrak authorization signed by President Bush.  It's a lot of money for Amtrak, but not a lot of money by national budget standards, but it is enough to make a HUGE difference in Amtrak service as it currently exists.

Bush OKs $13B for Amtrak upgrades Friday, October 17, 2008

President Bush reversed his seven-year opposition to a nationally subsidized railroad Thursday and signed a bill authorizing more than $2.6 billion a year over five years to upgrade and expand Amtrak.The law requires that Amtrak upgrade the Washington-to-Boston Northeast Corridor, which crosses New Jersey from Trenton to North Bergen, to a "state of good repair." That means replacing or upgrading aging tracks, switches, signals and even bridges that frequently cause delays on the corridor, which NJ Transit uses to carry roughly 100,000 commuters daily.....

From the United Transportation Union...

http://www.utu.org/worksite/detail_news ... leID=44246

President Bush reversed his seven-year opposition to a nationally subsidized railroad Thursday and signed a bill authorizing more than $2.6 billion a year over five years to upgrade and expand Amtrak.The law requires that Amtrak upgrade the Washington-to-Boston Northeast Corridor, which crosses New Jersey from Trenton to North Bergen, to a "state of good repair." That means replacing or upgrading aging tracks, switches, signals and even bridges that frequently cause delays on the corridor, which NJ Transit uses to carry roughly 100,000 commuters daily.Without comment, Bush bowed to broad bipartisan support for a bill sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg20that combined Amtrak funding with new railroad safety standards.....

From the United Transportation Union...

http://www.utu.org/worksite/detail_news ... leID=44246

Rail safety bill signed into law WASHINGTON --  President Bush on Oct. 16 signed into law the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008. This is the most comprehensive rail safety bill in more than 30 years. In the Senate, which passed the bill Oct. 1 by a 74-24 vote, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) voted "yes," and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) voted "no."

The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 provides for certification of conductors, along with a minimum training requirement. Additionally, it prohibits carriers from interfering with medical treatment of injured employees, mandates installation of positive train control, and offers railroads incentives to install electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes and switch position indicators.Significantly, the safety bill caps limbo time and requires at least two days off following each six-day work week. But a provision permits general chairpersons to negotiate with carriers a better balance between time off and earnings, while preserving guaranteed time off.Also of significance, the legislative history of the bill supports two sets of eyes and ears in the locomotive cab, notwithstanding the installation of PTC.....

Edit: Great stuff, but we can't have full copyrighted articles on this site.
Last edited by KCMax on Fri Oct 17, 2008 11:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

Post by DaveKCMO »

thank gawd he finally did something to enable transit choice and level the playing field. the 80/20 fed/state matching program will go along way in expanding the system while making the budget hawks feel better. missouri should be first in line to pony up more funds to relieve congestion on the KCY-STL route next year. maybe even a third round-trip (or just more coaches) on high-volume travel times (oktoberfest, summer, christmas/thanksgiving)?

also, missouri should eventually see some money to improve the switching & safety operations along the route since that was how this bill got through so quickly (positive train control would have prevented the deadly metrolink crash).
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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Looks like new federal legislation will aid regulators in tackling switching priority for passenger traffic problems with some of the railroads.

http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/915936.html
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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Gretz wrote: Looks like new federal legislation will aid regulators in tackling switching priority for passenger traffic problems with some of the railroads.

http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/915936.html
interesting that modot says they lobbied to get the prioritization issue included in this bill. UP is notorious throughout amtrak's system as one of the worst host railroads. the missouri delays are especially embarrassing considering it's only 293 rail miles. positive train control should allow trains to operate faster and closer together since there would be a systematic override of any engineer's misstep.
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Re: Missouri Amtrak Service

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Isn't most of the delay due to the short sidings?  Seems like this law won't do much if the freight trains are too long for the sidings, meaning they can't pull over to let Amtrak trains pass.
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