By AP/KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Amtrak would attract fewer riders than hoped for and run at speeds slower than the adjacent interstate highway if it started passenger service between Springfield and St. Louis, the Missouri Department of Transportation said Wednesday.
A study by Amtrak that MoDot requested said the proposed route had strategic merit, including serving Missouri's third largest city and connecting it to the national Amtrak network that runs through St. Louis.
Springfield hasn't had passenger train service since 1967, when the Frisco Meteor train ceased service.
But substantial investments would be required in the form of millions of dollars for new train stations along the proposed route and upgrades to the freight rail lines that Amtrak would run on, the study said.
MoDot, which has proposed the service, said the study reveals "formidable obstacles". Ridership numbers were lower than hoped for, MoDot said in a statement.
The report said the route would generate only 34,000 passengers annually, generating about $700,000 a year in ticket sales. The state would have to subsidize another $3.4 million annually to run the service.
The study said the ridership estimate was low mainly because it would take almost six hours to travel the 235 miles of track between Springfield and St.Louis. That is nearly double the time it takes to drive on Interstate 44, which parallels the rail route.
"The low speeds are mainly due to the BNSF track as it follows the undulating terrain in the scenic Ozark Foothills, with much of it as curvature," MoDot said.
The proposed route would have stops in Sullivan, Rolla and Lebanon. "While we were hoping for more positive news in Amtrak's analysis of this proposed passenger rail service expansion, MoDOT will continue to seek to increase transportation options for Missourians," Brian Weiler, MoDOT's multimodal director, said in a statement.