Dollars, political support needed to restore passenger rail
By Jeremy Shapiro
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
The question of what will it take to bring passenger rail back to Emporia can be boiled down to community support and money.
Both elements were mentioned countless times during the passenger rail open forum at First Congregational Church in Emporia Tuesday evening.
While the 48 citizens that showed up at the forum were willing to supply time and energy to the cause, supporters realize much has to be accomplished before Amtrak will again make stops in Emporia.
Rev. Andrew McHenry said the meeting was productive because it galvanized public support, though none of the people that control public money -- Emporia city commissioners and state legislators -- attended.
“The biggest thing was the show of community support,” McHenry said afterwards. “This is something the public wants. In a democracy, when there’s a public interest, ultimately the political officials respond.”
There are two separate possibilities for restoring passenger rail, one at night and one in the day. The night one, though inconvenient, would be less complicated. That’s because the Southwest Chief already passes through Emporia in the middle of the night without stopping. Emporia residents currently have to drive to Newton or Topeka to get aboard.
The day route possibility is part of a much broader proposed new rail service from Fort Worth to Kansas City that will be expensive to set up.
One obvious, but significant, hurdle in either case is a the lack of a station. Emporia’s station burned down in 1999, two years after Amtrak stopped stopping in town.
Emporia City Manager Matt Zimmerman said the city engineering department took a look at what standards Amtrak requires for new train stations. The preliminary design costs would be somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million, he said.
“Because we lost our stop, anything new that we build, is going to have to meet all the new Amtrak standards including accessibility ones,” he said. “You no longer stand on the platform and step up into the train. You step into the train and then go up. In order to do that we would need an elevated platform and we will need a place that is protected from the elements. Those things are expensive.”
Zimmerman said in 2008 the city commission was not willing to spend money on a station that would only be used in the middle of the night. He said if the public wants the commission to reconsider it, they probably will.
“This is just the start of a process in which we are gauging the level of interest from the community and if there’s enough interest we can move ahead with detailing some costs and meeting with Amtrak on site,” he said.
Mark Corriston, secretary of the Northern Flyer Alliance, said it is possible to have the federal government through grants pay up to 80 percent of costs to construct a station.
Casey Woods, executive director of Emporia Main Street, has been researching funding opportunities. He said they need to think long term when planning for a station.
“We could build a new rail station from scratch and acquire the land,” he said. “This would probably be the most expensive option. It can be done. There are other development grant opportunities. There is some USDA funding and a variety of other funding types available depending on where placement is.”
Woods said if a preexisting structure is used, they may have access to a variety of other funding types, such as state and federal historic tax credits. Beyond grants, Woods said there could need to be tax money and private contributions.
“We all will have to make a commitment once we find out the price tag for initial development,” he said.
Ron Slaymaker’s building next to the tracks may be one possibility for a station.
“In terms of our building, my wife and I love history, the history of the building and the relationship with the railroads,” he said. “It potentially will be a a great location. We’ve talked about it and walked through it and it’s a little complicated in terms of our building as a potential use.”
As for the possible day route, the Kansas Department of Transportation hired a firm to write a service development plan that is supposed to be compete this fall.
The potential day service route from Kansas City to Fort Worth has an estimated start-up cost of $479 million, and it would take $14.1 million to maintain. From Emporia, it would take about 90 minutes to get to Wichita, five hours to Oklahoma City and 10 hours to Fort Worth. Kansas City to Emporia would take 3 hours.
According to KDOT’s timetable, after the development plan is finished, an environmental study will begin in November and money will be sought in 2012 from Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas state legislatures.
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
Agenda 21 alert.
http://www.infowars.com/agenda-21-ale...
September 28, 2011 at 4:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
Agenda 21 equals national suicide.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Barnewal...
September 28, 2011 at 4:56 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
WHY do progressives love trains?
http://www.lewrockwell.com/higgs/higg...
September 28, 2011 at 5:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
Ron Paul on rail transporation debate.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washi...
September 28, 2011 at 7:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jamesbordonaro (James Bordonaro) says...
K.B. I actually clicked on your first link and can't believe you believe that malarky! First, the article was about high speed trains which is not what is being proposed. Second, the article says that "collectivists" who support high speed rail also want to depopulate the earth by 85%!
To quote the song: "paranoia will destroy ya"...
September 28, 2011 at 8:17 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tourguide (anonymous) says...
Amtrak is so rundown why would you want to ride ti. I took the train from KC to Champlain,ILL. not much better than the Bus. Same class of people. Told my boss I will never do that again. I would rather drive..
September 28, 2011 at 8:35 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Pingeon (anonymous) says...
90 min to Wichita??? I can drive it faster than that. Wonder what the ticket cost would be.
September 28, 2011 at 9:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
there seems to be a disconnect between what is needed and what is wanted. We have a depot area that can be used for very little money. let's use it.
Sometimes you just have to say,"enough is enough", lets go with the cheap seats.
September 28, 2011 at 9:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
netloafer (anonymous) says...
I think the critical thing will be the funding. Casey said there are grants available and Matt Z said that tax money could be used.
I told them I supported the idea as long as we found a way to fund the original building and subsequent maintenance without using tax dollars. We'll see.
September 28, 2011 at 9:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
Obama wants high speed rail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAzW_5...
September 28, 2011 at 10:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
I talked to a leasing agent who is signing up more right a ways for the railroad in order that Warren Buffet can electrify the railroad which will make the railroad 60% more efficient and someday all trains will be run without crews.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/7078
September 28, 2011 at 10:38 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
James, I can understand how you feel but, there are people that I call the elite who are not very nice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J281E...
September 28, 2011 at 10:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
A most interesting article about where the elite wants America to go and most people have not the faintest idea.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index....
September 28, 2011 at 11:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
Electrification of the railroads--Boone Pickens.
http://www.energyboom.com/t-boone-pic...
September 28, 2011 at 11:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
Our Governor will not back this railroad plan in this economy.
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/20...
September 28, 2011 at 11:43 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
methusla (anonymous) says...
Amtrak = Govt. run, Govt. subsidized business + Govt. Broke = " No wonder it is failing " !
Just like in Emporia, Ks. RDA + CVB + other taxpayer subsidized enterprises such as Municipal Golf Course, Jones Aquatic Park + all other taxpayer funded needless money pits = City of Emporia & what taxpayers are left, either broke or already broke and going even deeper in debt and grasping at straws and no real plan or ideas to stop the slide toward complete and utter " Implosion " & the Death of a once vibrant community, except to throw " good money " after " the bad money they have already thrown away/wasted !
September 29, 2011 at 6:24 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bluebonnet (anonymous) says...
If we could get the day option with the Fort Worth to KC line, I would use it. Nearly all of my family lives within 150 miles of there.
September 29, 2011 at 10:26 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )