Springfield leaders are dusting off an old playbook and beginning what could turn out to be a very, very long game. The prize: a passenger rail system that would connect Springfield to Kansas City, St. Louis and Tulsa.
In the wake of an announcement that the state of Missouri will receive $31 million in federal stimulus money to improve passenger rail service between St. Louis and Kansas City, city leaders have met with Missouri Department of Transportation to find out how to put a southwest Missouri corridor on the government’s radar.
“Right now, (stimulus money) is headed to Missouri, primarily to the connection between Kansas City and St. Louis. We know at some point, there’s going to be a connection to the south,” said City Councilman Dan Chiles, who is championing the push for a passenger corridor through Springfield. “We want to make sure Springfield can make an argument when that happens.”
Down the line Chiles has the ears of Springfield Mayor Jim O’Neal and City Manager Greg Burris, but each recognizes they’re entering a long-range discussion.
“We’re at the top of the first inning of a very long game,” Burris said.
MoDOT Multimodal Director Brian Weiler said such passenger rail discussions already have gone on for decades.
“There have been multiple studies and multiple efforts,” Weiler said.
Since 1996, the nine-state Midwest Regional Rail Initiative has been planning a 3,000-mile passenger rail system using Chicago as a hub, Weiler said. And Missouri nabbed its $31 million slice of an $8 billion pie – money the U.S. government earmarked for its High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail program – by submitting applications that stemmed from three years of planning, Weiler said.
Even though the grant money comes from the high-speed rail fund, it won’t actually go to install a high-speed rail system, according to MoDOT. It will lay the groundwork for high-speed services by helping with improvements Missouri already was making to the passenger line between Kansas City and St. Louis.
“When the administration announced there was money for the high-speed rail program, that work became the basis for our application,” Weiler said.
Chiles said a passenger transit system that would share existing freight lines in Missouri – owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway – would need to be established before high-speed rail travel through southwest Missouri is considered.
For its part, BNSF would not propose or pursue an arrangement with a passenger rail service, said BNSF General Director of External Relations Steve Forsberg. Shared freight and passenger lines are not uncommon, however.
“Commuter trains have been operating on freight rights of way since the 1860s,” Forsberg said, pointing out that BNSF is willing to share rights of way if passenger services are willing to pay their share of capital expenses. “That’s critical, the cost of capital. Even the most successful commuter rails in Europe and Japan, the ones that are turning a profit, haven’t earned enough to cover the cost of building their infrastructures.”
Roll it out A first step for Springfield would be to study ways to fund a passenger rail connecting Springfield to existing services in St. Louis, Kansas City and Tulsa, Chiles said.
A 2007 study determined that Amtrak passenger service between Springfield and St. Louis wasn’t economically feasible. Chiles contends those results are outdated.
“That study assumed we had an unlimited amount of money to spend, certain congestion patterns, a certain economy in place, certain fuel prices. That’s all changed,” he said.
City manager Burris is less optimistic about the changes since 2007, pointing out that the Amtrak study found making use of existing rail lines would cause a six-hour ride to St. Louis. Chiles disagrees, saying investment could speed travel time.
New data could resolve that difference of opinion. Chiles is proposing a second study, in the event a passenger service through Springfield moves forward, that would examine a link between that service and high-speed rail hubs in Chicago and Dallas.
However, study funding is unknown at this time, and Burris said the city hasn’t discussed helping to cover the cost of a study.
“There are a lot of unknowns,” said Tim Conklin, director of the Ozarks Transportation Organization, whose board of directors is anxiously watching how the Kansas City-St. Louis passenger rail project progresses. OTO hasn’t committed to any research work.
“A lot of additional work can be done in that area, through a joint effort between the state and local parties, looking at what needs to be developed and how to pay for it,” Conklin added.
For that matter, the city of Springfield hasn’t officially made a commitment to further pursue passenger rail service, either.
Chiles has placed the issue among the city’s 2010 legislative priorities, which are up for a vote at the Feb. 8 council meeting. Once he gets council’s endorsement, Chiles said the next step would be to put together an informal group to research the idea.[[In-content Ad]]
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