Study: Amtrak service to St. Louis not practical

The nation’s taxpayer-supported passenger train system delved into the study last summer at the request of the Missouri Department of Transportation, which has long been interested in connecting Missouri’s largest and third-largest cities by rail.

There are, however, more than a few complicating factors, not the least of which is the six-hour travel time by train. That’s twice the driving time from Springfield to St. Louis on Interstate 44.

The study also calculated that ridership in the rail’s first year would amount to a paltry 29,000 people, generating only $700,000 in ticket revenue. With estimated operating costs of $4.1 million, the state initially would have to subsidize the service to the tune of $3.4 million annually, according to the report.

Economics aside, the 235-mile route – owned largely by Texas-based BNSF Railway – lacks the necessary infrastructure to support a swift-moving passenger train.

At least 25 railroad crossings along the route would need warning-system upgrades at a cost of about $6 million, and heavy freight traffic in downtown Springfield would make a center-city train station problematic.

Auto travel prevails

Obstacles highlighted in the Amtrak report are “pretty daunting,” said Jim Anderson, president of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission.

Anderson said the costly state subsidy and lengthy travel time dealt the biggest blows to the proposed rail service.

“You look at the amount of time it’s going to take – it further restricts the use for business travel,” he said. “I think that was disappointing to a lot of us.”

While employed at the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce, Anderson said he would often ride Amtrak to St. Louis – using time during transit to work.

Barbara Pierce had also imagined working on her laptop as the scenery scrolled by outside an Amtrak train. Pierce is president and founder of Millennium Communications Inc., a St. Louis-based public relations and marketing firm with an office in Springfield.

“I think having a link between St. Louis and Springfield would be fabulous, especially with the rising cost of gas,” Pierce said. “When you’re driving it’s basically nonproductive business time. I would be one of the first people on that train and would ride it frequently.”

Pierce said she travels from St. Louis to Springfield by company car about three times a month. Millennium account executives who make the trip are reimbursed the federal rate of 48.5 cents per mile, or $213 round-trip, Pierce said. Based on fares in Kansas City and St. Louis, a round-trip fare between Springfield and St. Louis would be about $40.

And don’t forget potential leisure travelers. An obvious connection between the two cities: the Cardinals fan base.

Matt Gifford, general manager of the Springfield Cardinals, said the team’s season-ticket holders were privy to St. Louis Cardinals tickets for designated home games before the tickets went on sale to public.

“If the train was efficient time-wise, it would be a great way to take families up to St. Louis to see a game,” Gifford said. “But sometimes, it’s just easier to get in the car and drive.”

Gifford’s remark is one Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari hears time and again.

“Our primary competition is the automobile,” he said. “That’s everyone’s primary competition.”

Complications plague route

Not surprisingly, a feasibility study that examined a Springfield-St. Louis rail connection 10 years ago had similar results.

But last summer – amid the seasonal surge in gas prices – MoDOT decided to revisit the idea and gauge public support for expanding Missouri’s Amtrak network.

Amtrak has shuttled passengers back and forth between Kansas City and St. Louis since 1971. Today, the state subsidizes the service to the tune of $7 million annually. Ridership on the route continues to steadily decline.

Amtrak service between Missouri’s two biggest cities has long suffered from poor on-time performance and delays caused by conflicts with coal trains that also utilize the Union Pacific corridor. Ongoing track maintenance has compounded the problem.

In some cases, delays were so long that Amtrak unloaded train passengers and ferried them to their destination in chartered buses, Amtrak’s Magliari said.

With 12 regularly scheduled freight trains, the BNSF route between Springfield and St. Louis also is susceptible to congestion. Much of the route, which curves through the hilly Ozarks terrain, has maximum authorized train speeds of 45 mph or less.

Train station infrastructure along the tracks also is inadequate, and before it reaches downtown Springfield, the railroad merges with BNSF’s Thayer Sub – a primary coal route to the southeast.

The route would include a stop at Kirkwood, which has a station in place. However, none of the other proposed stops along the route – Sullivan, Rolla and Lebanon – have existing train stations or platforms, according to the report.

Springfield has been without passenger rail service since 1967, when Frisco shut down the Meteor. The century-old Frisco depot on Main Avenue was demolished in the late 1970s.

Tabled, not abandoned

Officials didn’t release a cost estimate for upgrading the BNSF corridor between Springfield and St. Louis, but they agree that funding sources for the multimillion-dollar investment are scarce.

But tight purse strings at the state and federal levels aren’t reason enough to abandon the proposed Amtrak expansion, said MoDOT Multimodal Director Brian Weiler, who pointed to Amtrak’s expanding service in neighboring Illinois.

The Midwest Regional Rail Initiative – backed by a consortium of nine states including Missouri – envisions Chicago as the hub of a 3,000-mile rail network in the central United States, Weiler said. The initiative’s $7.7 billion price tag hasn’t deterred proponents, who Weiler said are pursuing a matching federal funding program similar to the one in place for airports.

“I’d like to see a major infusion of federal funds,” he added.

An Amtrak reauthorization bill being debated by Congress may also include a pot of funding for rail infrastructure improvements, Weiler said.

On the state level, lawmakers could earmark general revenue to subsidize passenger rail service between Springfield and St. Louis, Weiler said, adding that public transit isn’t known for its profitability.

“There’s a common feeling that it needs to pay for itself; that’s not realistic,” he said. “Like all public transit, this service will never pay for itself.”

Weiler doesn’t see the Amtrak study as a waste. In fact, he said, passenger trains may eventually emerge as a worthwhile expenditure amid government efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and wean the country off of foreign oil.

“I don’t regret taking a look at it,” Weiler said. “To say that will never work – I think – is short-sighted.”

The chamber’s Anderson agreed.

“As there’s more congestion and need, I think we’re going to have to look … at alternative modes of transportation – for both economic and environmental reasons,” he said.