Consultant selected to study potential Amtrak extension to St. Joseph
By Chris Fortune
Efforts to study the possibility of an Amtrak line in St. Joseph are on track to begin this year.
The Missouri Department of Transportation selected Crawford, Murphy & Tilly to conduct a feasibility study to look at options for a proposed Amtrak line connecting St. Joseph to Kansas City, including a connection with the Missouri River Runner route to St. Louis.
“We anticipate their study will be completed sometime in spring 2025,” MoDOT spokesperson Jenna Keyes said in an email statement.
MoDOT was awarded two grants in December from the Federal Railroad Administration Corridor ID Program, which provided $500,000 each for the study.
Donald Briscoe remembers riding on a passenger train years ago and said he would like to have the option in St. Joseph because of its reliability.
“With the Amtrak service, it’s something consistent,” he said. “You can get your ticket, and you know your train’s going to be there. You just go and board it and don’t worry about all that, ‘Am I running late or how long is it going to be to get here?’”
For another St. Joseph resident, a train station in town would make it easier for her sister to visit because she has Amtrak service where she lives in Illinois.
“They just wish that they had it somewhere close up here because my sister lives in Quincy, Illinois, and then me, my mom and my baby sister live here,” April Kendle said. “She’s the only one in Quincy, Illinois, so she’s like, ‘I just wish I had transportation — almost like a time machine.’”
A passenger rail line connecting Kansas City to St. Joseph might make the commute easier for workers going between the cities. Data from the Kansas City Area Development Council shows that 2,048 people living in St. Joseph work in Kansas City, and 1,900 people who work in St. Joseph live in Kansas City.
Briscoe said he would take the train to Kansas City or St. Louis if an Amtrak line was available.
“I would like to see that happen in the near future,” he said. “And I think residents would agree to having a rail track.”
