staubio wrote:
An affordable train trip direct to Omaha would be beyond awesome, and even better for us bringing in weekend Nebraska tourists.
it would be a godsend to both regions. the transit options between omaha and kansas city are completely pitiful. our regions are too connected to be so isolated from each other.
as far as connecting trains in omaha-- they have horrible arrival/departure times. southwest chief going to LA is bad out of kcy, but otherwise we're spoiled.
Transit service is good enough in the Downtown/Midtown corridor for tourists to go car-free. I don't think the same is true in Omaha. You either need to rent a car or be visiting family/friends with transportation. The train could be useful for business travelers, if you have business with a company in downtown Omaha or Downtown/Midtown KC.
I just finished My Antonia by Willa Cather and she talks about the express train that used to run from Omaha to Kansas City. It apparently ran several times a day in addition to a regular whistle stop route. What an awesome and romantic time to live.
dangerboy wrote:
Transit service is good enough in the Downtown/Midtown corridor for tourists to go car-free. I don't think the same is true in Omaha. You either need to rent a car or be visiting family/friends with transportation. The train could be useful for business travelers, if you have business with a company in downtown Omaha or Downtown/Midtown KC.
most business travelers rent cars in both cities, correct?
shinatoo wrote:
I just finished My Antonia by Willa Cather and she talks about the express train that used to run from Omaha to Kansas City. It apparently ran several times a day in addition to a regular whistle stop route. What an awesome and romantic time to live.
I rode those Kansas City to Omaha trains a hundred times when I was a kid. It was great.
trailerkid wrote:
most business travelers rent cars in both cities, correct?
The River Runner has a decent amount of business travelers today. In St. Louis it's easy for them take MetroLink to the CBD or Clayton business districts. In KC I would assume most are either destined for Crown Center, or take taxis to the CBD or Plaza business district. I doubt any business traveler destined for College Boulevard would take a train to KC.
A lot of us who ride to St. Louis rent cars. I'm sure it's true the other way. Most of the time on buisness (sales in my case) you have to get all over the city and transit doesn't cut it.
shinatoo wrote:
A lot of us who ride to St. Louis rent cars. I'm sure it's true the other way. Most of the time on buisness (sales in my case) you have to get all over the city and transit doesn't cut it.
that's why zipcar would make great sense here. enterprise has their version of it in downtown STL, but i'm not sure how far it is from the amtrak station.
DaveKCMO wrote:
that's why zipcar would make great sense here. enterprise has their version of it in downtown STL, but i'm not sure how far it is from the amtrak station.
We stayed in San Francisco a couple of years ago and there were Zipcars for rent in the hotel parking lot. It would have been very convenient, but we had vouchers for a rental.
Travellers would have to know that the cars were available before they made their plans. Kansas City isn't yet the type of city where one just expects these things to be there.
Amtrak is launching a $1 billion construction program to fund capital projects designed to rebuild, upgrade and modernize its tracks, bridges, stations and other infrastructure along the Northeast Corridor and across the country.
Amtrak plans to spend $420 million from its fiscal-year 2010 capital program and $590 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund the infrastructure projects, which are slated to begin this year.
many have asked about the potential for amtrak service north from kansas city to omaha and minneapolis. here is the response from the director of minnesota's passenger rail office:
The Minnesota State Rail plan calls for the development of a core intrastate and interstate passenger rail network to be completed by 2030. Post 2030 the plan calls for extension of those lines into Iowa and connection Des Moines, Kansas City; west connecting Sioux Falls to Omaha; north to connect Fargo and Winnipeg. This is a long range plan and a lot of things need to occur before service would commence. Our rail plan can be found: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/planning/rai ... urces.html
as mentioned elsewhere, a recent modot survey asked participants to rank the priority of a similar corridor. there's a line on this map that shows KC-omaha, but nothing north from there.
DaveKCMO wrote:
many have asked about the potential for amtrak service north from kansas city to omaha and minneapolis. here is the response from the director of minnesota's passenger rail office:
as mentioned elsewhere, a recent modot survey asked participants to rank the priority of a similar corridor. there's a line on this map that shows KC-omaha, but nothing north from there.
That is a interesting "three hour" circle as none of those plans put Omaha or KC within three hours of Chicago. If STL is 2 hours from Chicago on a Bullet Train, how is KC only another hour away?
So even if we eventually end up with true HSR in MO some years down the line, it sounds like it's still going to track the same meandering route as current Amtrak service and, presumably, stop in all the same little backwater towns, right? Doesn't it seem like it would make more sense to run a more direct route along I-70 (cutting out like 40 or 50 miles in the process) and hit Columbia instead? Are Hermann and Sedalia really funneling tons of passengers onto the River Runner?
