Gleaned this bit of info from the KCS Yahoo group, and thought it might make for an interesting debate. Article is as follows: Passenger Trains Returning to Ozarks? Amtrak and the Missouri Department of Transportation are looking at a partnership to bring passenger rail service back to the Ozarks. Currently, the only travel options are automobile, airplane or bus. Thursday, MoDOT announced that Amtrak rail service in the Ozarks could start up as early as a year from now. The state has been working with the railroad for the past several weeks looking for ways to make the return of passengers trains a reality. Likely plans would call for Amtrak trains to run daily service betweenSpringfield and St. Louis, sharing the line with BSNF freight traffic. Amtrak says traffic between St. Louis and Kansas City is up over the past year. Rail officials say with more congestion on I-44 and higher gas prices, the time to act is now. "Higher fuel prices appear to have people more willing to look at other transportation modes, says MoDOT's Brian Weiler, "and other states are adding passenger rail service, and we want to be involved in that as well." There hasn't been passenger service in Springfield since 1967. Amtrak and MoDOT caution that efforts are only in the planning stages. A lot of work remains to be done. Nevertheless, Amtrak says other stops along the way might include Lebanon and Rolla. My two cents' worth on this article: FTR, the trakc involved is ex-Frisco, and of course Springfield is an ex-Frisco town. The line parallels I-44 from St. Louis to Springfield. Given the present "leadership" structure of Amtrak since the unwarranted sacking of David Gunn and the misplaced policy from the White House (read: Norman Mineta), I wonder if this will become reality Amtrak already has the St. Louis and Kansas City Mules, plus the Ann rutledge, running between these two large communities, and I'm sure that the state of Missouri is kicking in revenue to keep the trains going. I wonder if they would be willing to kick in for what would be a stub train, a shadow of the Meteor or Frisco days. If such a train were to come to reality, it would seem logical to convince the Oklahoma DOT to put in some coin to extend the train from Springfiend to Tuls and thence on to Oklahoma City, where it could tie in with the Heartland Flyer to Ft. Worth (connections with the Texas Eagle). However, there is a powerfull Congressman by the name of Ernest Istook who is so pro-highway and anti-Amtrak that it's a struggle to keep the Flyer going, much less a reincarnated Meteor (or Will Rogers, another Frisco train). Plus, the track between Tulsa and OKC is in rough shape, and would need funding to get it bacp up to decent speeds, as Stillwater Central now runs on this line on an as-needed basis (it's also used as a BNSF detour). I wouldn't place too much on the Okie Legislature making any of that happen, unless folks in the Sooner State get tired enough of high gas prices to make their voices heard either while the Lege is in session or via the ballot box. If the above commentary sounds political, well, it was meant to be. But since Amtrak's startup, any debate in keeping it going, in any form, has been tinged with political doings. And again, I'm not sure where the "leadership" of Amtrak is headed, but with enough friends in Congress, perhaps (PERHAPS) we may see trains running on the ex-Frisco into Springfield again. And in any ensuing debate, it helps to leave the name-calling and personal insults out of the comments, otherwise this thread may get shut down toot-sweet. Which is to say, I don't give a rat's fuzzy what your personal impression of our current sitting President is, it helps this topic not a whit.
