KCRag Forum

WoodDraw wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:08 pm Amtrak is just terrible, and I take it often. If you could blow it up and start over, you'd focus on highspeed corridors, and then branch out from there once they're successful.

There are a good four or five that would be really good in the US. Instead we just spread the money around aimlessly, spend far too much, and enjoy a very pathetic system.

langosta wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:22 pm Focus on city-city corridors would be a lot more exciting if we could rebuild tracks in interstate ROW.

smh wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:29 pm

langosta wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:22 pm Focus on city-city corridors would be a lot more exciting if we could rebuild tracks in interstate ROW.

I would like to see Jeff City (ha, I know) use some of the budget surplus along with the I-70 widening money to study a new passenger route connecting KC, Columbia, and St. Louis with a handful of other stops.

I read a past study (I think roughly 2007) of the existing River Runner route that Dave shared awhile back. It recommended a series of improvements to the River Runner trackage, all of which have been constructed in the intervening years yet the River Runner remains slow and unreliable due to freight interference. Need to start pushing for something different, a study of an I-70ish alignment would be a great first step.

langosta wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:22 pm

WoodDraw wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:08 pm Amtrak is just terrible, and I take it often. If you could blow it up and start over, you'd focus on highspeed corridors, and then branch out from there once they're successful.

There are a good four or five that would be really good in the US. Instead we just spread the money around aimlessly, spend far too much, and enjoy a very pathetic system.

Essential Air Service + Amtrak Long Distance should be combined. END EAS and use Rail/Bus to connect rural areas to cities.

Focus on city-city corridors would be a lot more exciting if we could rebuild tracks in interstate ROW.

...
The state would like to improve the existing Amtrak route from Kansas City to St. Louis by adding another daily round trip and new stops. The Missouri River Runner already has two daily round trips and eight stops.

MoDOT is also interested in creating new Amtrak routes from Kansas City to Springfield/Branson and from Kansas City to St. Joseph.

The agency said both these areas are not currently served by Amtrak. In southwest Missouri, which includes Missouri’s third largest city, MoDOT said the closest Amtrak station is more than 100 miles away.
...

Missouri also expressed interest in partnering with Minnesota and Iowa for a potential Minneapolis-Des Moines-Kansas City corridor.

Cratedigger wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 8:55 am

Missouri also expressed interest in partnering with Minnesota and Iowa for a potential Minneapolis-Des Moines-Kansas City corridor.

smh wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 9:22 am

Cratedigger wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 8:55 am

Missouri also expressed interest in partnering with Minnesota and Iowa for a potential Minneapolis-Des Moines-Kansas City corridor.

MN seems particularly serious about this corridor as a way to get to Texas (from what I can tell). Anyone have additional thoughts/know more?

dukuboy1 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 10:19 am Rail would be great alternative for travel, but we need high speed rail with direct routes, limited stops, etc.

I think passenger traffic runs on the same lines as freight and freight takes priority correct? This causes delays for travelers. Rail has so much potential but it is the same time travel as automobiles.

WoodDraw wrote: ↑Wed Dec 27, 2023 5:33 pm I tried to take the Amtrak home from stl yesterday. At the Sedalia stop they’re like it’s going to be at least a three hour delay because of a freight train on the track that couldn’t get to siding.

They openly said if you have anyway to not stay here, take it.

I was lucky to meet two other solo people able to afford a very expensive Uber ride to Union station we all split.

At 11:15 (I was already home) got a text saying the train wasn’t going to make it at all, and alternate transportation would be provided.


I don’t know what our train policy should be, but it’s not this.

smh wrote: ↑Thu Dec 28, 2023 9:45 am

WoodDraw wrote: ↑Wed Dec 27, 2023 5:33 pm I tried to take the Amtrak home from stl yesterday. At the Sedalia stop they’re like it’s going to be at least a three hour delay because of a freight train on the track that couldn’t get to siding.

They openly said if you have anyway to not stay here, take it.

I was lucky to meet two other solo people able to afford a very expensive Uber ride to Union station we all split.

At 11:15 (I was already home) got a text saying the train wasn’t going to make it at all, and alternate transportation would be provided.


I don’t know what our train policy should be, but it’s not this.

What's doubly frustrating about this situation is that a report in ~2007 made a series of recommendations to limit passenger delays due to freight movement along the River Runner corridor. It include things like building new sidings, adding a second bridge over the Gasconade River (I may have the wrong river name), etc. As far as I could tell from a cursory review of satellite imagery, all or most of these recommendations were implemented. In the meantime however, freight trains grew in length and from what I can tell rendered many of the improvements, particularly sidings, somewhat useless.