So the idea is you have to be able to connect a property to an active rail line to maintain the rights of a railbanked row. The Country Club ROW abuts the Union Pacific line that goes through Swope, they can connect to this route today and lay track into Westport on it.normalthings wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 12:17 pm
So that ugly parking lot could be a city development TOD RFP if they wanted?
If you cut it in half you lose half. There was a bridge in Booneville that if the railroad had removed it the entire Katy Trail south of Booneville could/would have lost this protection because it would have disconnected the corridor from the rest.
If the city has something built at Cleaver they could be legally required to give up the row to the north of Cleaver.
In my opinion it would be better to maintain the row and keep it around for some other use, like easy connectivity to Broadway. Give an engineer in 20, 30 or 40 years a second option that would take the train out of traffic for four blocks and speed up the line a little.
It could be useful if there needs to be a southern maintaince facility someday. Lay single track with ties and buy land from St. Lukes to create a combined maintaince building + parking. Maybe setup a spur route over to SW Tfwy kind of like the riverfront line.
I'm not saying any of this would happen, but having the row seems more important than getting rid of the parking lot. It enables opportunity.
Imagine St. Louis Metrolink without it's protected row. It would never have reached the airport.