Time to get trains chugging, lawmakers told
"If you run 'em, we'll ride 'em," a railroad advocacy group proclaimed in a rally Thursday at the Capitol, calling upon state lawmakers to restore daily cross-state passenger service to its pre-COVID-19 levels.
The comment was made by Richard Eichhorst, president of the American Association of Railroaders, based in St. Louis. The association seeks to have Amtrak's Missouri River Runner service to once again have two cross-state trains running east from Kansas City to St. Louis and two trains going west from St. Louis to Kansas City.
Not long after the pandemic began in March 2020, the River Runner service went down to one train a day in each direction due to declining ridership.
Currently, the eastbound morning train out of Kansas City gets to St. Louis at 1:45 p.m. The westbound St. Louis train leaves at 4 p.m. and gets to Kansas City just before 10 p.m.
Read more: https://www.newstribune.com/news/local/story/2021/apr/02/time-to-get-trains-chugging-lawmakers-told/865787/
(Jefferson City News Tribune)
= new reply since forum marked as read
That's about 6 hours.
Driving is about 3.5 hours.
Greyhound is about 4.5 hours.
Why would anyone take the train? 
Just for comparison. The Shinkansen 'Nozomi' service from Tokyo Station to Kyoto (about 65 miles farther), is about 2 hours 20 minutes. And you end up right in 'downtown' Kyoto in an absolutely spectacular train station with a million quality restaurants and just about any service you could desire...
(Sorry, I just love Japan and especially Kyoto.....)
