urbanSTL

PD wrote:new rail track between Alton and the Mississippi River

Yes!

While crossing the MacArthur bridge is as slow as molasses, you get to take in the view of DT and the bridge itself is worth a close look.

Sweet, I'm riding the Eagle to CHI in April, and it looks like we'll be taking the detour so I'll get to see some new scenery.

I assume it'll be the same detour they did last fall. Goes on a UP line northeast toward Tuscola then north to Chicago. Only the Texas Eagle does this. The others bus from STL-BNL then train to CHI.

http://www.dot.state.il.us/officialrailmap.pdf

And this non-stop detour is scheduled to take only 6h 52m!

Indeed, I am looking forward to this rare opportunity to ride this route. Just not the part where I have to catch it at 7am in STL!

^sounds good to me.

Now I'm dreaming here, but what about a commuter line with 2-3 stops in St Charles Co and stops at Boeing and DT via the NS line?

If STL-CHI via Hannibal ever happened they could share a station near St Charles City (with a few miles of new ROW to connect the NS line to the BNSF line).

Now I'm dreaming here, but what about a commuter line with 2-3 stops in St Charles Co and stops at Boeing and DT via the NS line?

On the comments section for the modot rail plan initiative, I suggested a KC-Hannibal line, connecting with a STL-Moberly line in Moberly. That assumes that there's no impetus for a ROW from NS to BNSF in St. Charles county. The Stl-Moberly could continue on to Des Moines.

Dreams, man. I mean, come on.

Watching Charles Jaco's coverage on FOX 2 yesterday on the new work in Illinois he inferred that Gov Nixon will be submitting an application for high speed dollars for the Saint Louis - Kansas City route.

^That'd be a shame if it was possible.

Basically from what I can infer, the only "high" speed rail line actually being implemented right now is the Chicago-St. Louis line. Making the second be from KC to STL would effectively make St. Louis the first high speed "hub" in the country. That'd be a huge economical advantage, imo.

Granted, Cali is looking like a lock for a lot of high speed rail construction, but it would certainly be nice to have StL cemented as a central hub.

^Memphis to New Orleans.

I would kill to be able to take a 4 hour train to New Orleans. Leave at 5 on a Friday. Into New Orleans at 10-ish. Sleep on the train the whole way back Sunday. Talk about a phenomenal weekend trip.

Leave Bourbon street to come home to soulard. What's not to love?

Roger Wyoming wrote:Watching Charles Jaco's coverage on FOX 2 yesterday on the new work in Illinois he inferred that Gov Nixon will be submitting an application for high speed dollars for the Saint Louis - Kansas City route.

I believe any request out of MO will be the same as their FY10 request of $36 million or do dollar for various incremental improvements that had 20% matching funds line up, mostly from UP RR. Missouri latter got about $4 million out of the $36 million to extend the lead track out of downttown by 10,000 feet - thus eliminating the need for Amtrak trains to go through the dowtown rail yard and associated restrictions. Another option might include a $50 million requst for new rolling stock/passenger cars also desired by MoDOT. Link to info below

http://www.modot.org/othertransportatio ... tyInfo.htm

Politically, I think it is a safe bet even though their will be a lot fuss out of Kinder/GOP since the items have support and matching funds by UP as well as most of the items can be done in a relatively quick fashion, during Nixon's watch. One of the items is actually a third track extension through Jeff City with the same goal as the St. Louis grant, get passenger trains out of Union Pacific selected railyards.

As for HSR, focus on CHI-STL and get good reliable frequent competitive with auto service between STL-KC. Spreading more money on more corridors will result in nothing but transportation muck.

Nixon: Missouri to apply for high-speed rail funds

Nixon's office says the application will include a proposal for immediate upgrades to improve speeds on existing lines between St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo. Meanwhile, a longer-term proposal will call for planning and engineering to prepare for construction of a separate rail line dedicated to high-speed passenger service.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt ... 2bc8b.html

Hopefully they can get funding. It would be great to have high-speed rail between here and KC, but aren't they a little late in the game to be applying for federal funding?

And, why would the federal government want to give funding to a state that has shown no financial support for rail transit for itself or any of its counties?

Daron,
Nixon has a very high approval rating so anyone who says Kinder is a lock is either a partisan or not following things.

Pat,
yeah I assume Missouri would have to come up with some matching money for any big high-speed application from feds. One thing that is interesting with the upcoming (probably 2012) state ballot on transportation funding is that it may contain more funding for transit and rail through a sales tax... as it stands, our constitution makes it hard to use gas tax, etc. for these things.

MO doesn't give much, but they do give a subsidy to Amtrak for one of the daily trips KCY-STL and they paid to build a siding near California MO that has helped on-time performance considerably.

This is application for money given back by Florida. Some of which is from the stimulus bill which required no match.