MoDOT says more money for Amtrak would boost ridership

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Illinois did it -- and reports the extra funding paid off in substantially increased ridership.

Other states tell similar stories of rail-passenger ridership increasing after the state spent more money.

Ridership is growing nationwide. But cross-state ridership is dropping in Missouri -- down nearly 30 percent since 2000 -- and Missouri Department of Transportation officials want lawmakers to add $10 million to the agency's capital improvements budget, for one of several projects aimed at raising passenger train ridership across the state.

"Last year, only 71 percent of our trains were within 30 minutes of their scheduled arrival- or departure-time, and many trains were two to three hours late," said Brian Weiler, MoDOT's Multimodal Operations director, during a presentation of Amtrak needs. "People have shown they will not ride a service that they cannot depend on."

Weiler warned the lawmakers, railroad officials and special guests at the St. Louis event that "if we don't change the path, this service will go away."

The event was held at still-under-construction, $27 million Gateway Transportation Center, near the Scottrade Center and Busch Stadium. It's designed as a multi-modal transit station for Amtrak, Greyhound intercity buses, the St. Louis area's municipal buses and the light-rail Metrolink.

Jennie Claflin of the Illinois Transportation Department said Monday her state spent $100 million on improving the Chicago-St. Louis line since 2000 and nearly doubled ridership to 409,000 passengers.

Missouri leaders want to attract more people like Necka Rashevsky.

Rashevsky, 17, a Wentworth Military Academy student, spent spring break in the St. Louis area after taking the train.

"It would have cost more money to go back down [to California], get my car, come back up and pay for gas," she said of her first train trip. "It's definitely more entertaining than taking a plane or driving. It was a good experience."

MoDOT also asked lawmakers for:

• $450,000 for "real-time" electronic passenger information displays at each unmanned train station, like Jefferson City, on Missouri's state-supported route, to show train arrival status, delay notifications and other pertinent public information. Union Pacific would contribute $50,000 as "seed money" for that system.
• Promotional funding to increase public awareness about passenger rail service as a viable transportation mode.

But none of that money was included in the budget that went to the House floor last week.

MoDOT wants an $8.4 million operating subsidy for both the "Kansas City Mule" and "Ann Rutledge" trains, but the House Budget Committee recommended only $4.5 million for one of the trains.

And state Senate Transportation Committee chairman Bill Stouffer, R-Napton, said: "It really makes no sense, in my mind, to continue doing what we're doing."

When only about 150,000 people ride the train and many more people use Older Adults Transportation Service and municipal bus systems around the state, Stouffer asked: "How do you justify $8 million for 150,000 people versus $8 million" for the other riders?

Missouri's two cross-state Amtrak trains run on Union Pacific Railroad tracks, and MoDOT wants to help the railroad extend two sidings along the track near California and in western Missouri to 8,500 feet. That would help Union Pacific move all trains.

Tom Mulligan, Union Pacific's passenger train operations director, said the company averages 55-60 trains a day on the line. Most of the recent growth is "heavy coal trains," averaging 135 cars headed for coal-fired power plants.

West of Jefferson City, westbound freights use the line through California, Sedalia and Warrensburg, while eastbound freight trains use Union Pacific's "River Route" through Lexington, Marshall and Boonville.

The lines split at Cole Junction, next to Missouri 179.

But Amtrak's trains use the Jefferson City-Warrensburg line in both directions, with westbound trains going against the traffic and complicating traffic flow.

Amtrak passenger trains have a priority on the line, but it doesn't always work out.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that, when you have a 6,000-foot freight train and you've got a 3,500-foot siding and you're on a single-track system, who is going to be put on the siding?" Weiler said.

Mulligan said Union Pacific already is making $85 million of improvements between through 2010. The biggest project is adding a second track across the Gasconade River.

The railroad has one other, mile-long section of single track at the Osage River that also slows traffic. The railroad wants to dismantle its old bridge at Boonville and use the steel for a second bridge at Osage City, allowing trains to travel in both directions.

Mulligan compared Union Pacific's traffic management problem to "trying to push 15 pounds of potatoes into a 10-pound sack."

Federal law requires states to provide subsidies for train routes like the St. Louis-Kansas City run.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said the federal government in 1979 decided the national network of Amtrak trains would be.

"Anything above that is, basically, in partnerships with the states," Magliari said.

Ray Lang, Amtrak's government affairs senior director said some states have done more than others.

"We have 14 states that have really stepped forward and decided, We want intercity passenger service on these corridors,"' Lang said.

Lang said nothing prevents the commercial railroad companies, like Union Pacific, from running their own passenger trains.

But, Union Pacific's Mulligan said no one is making money with passenger trains.

"They have some very, very nice systems in Europe, but they're heavily subsidized," Mulligan said. "One of the best-run commuter agencies in the United States today still only generates approximately 50 cents out of every dollar's worth of expenses and the rest comes from public funding."