KANSAS CITY — With Amtrak’s future imperiled nationwide, a volunteer group is trying to win space on the November ballot for a fuel tax to fund passenger rail service in Missouri, the Kansas City Star reports.
The group, Missourians for Rail Passenger Service, is circulating petitions throughout the state calling for a motor vehicle fuel sales tax of one-tenth of 1 percent to pay for rail service.
The group, which claims more than 200 members, says the tax would generate as much as $4.9 million annually — enough to run two round trips between Kansas City and St. Louis four or five days a week.
By the group’s calculations, the tax would cost the average Missouri driver an extra dollar a year.
The state-funded “Missouri Mule” and “Ann Rutledge” trains make two round trips every day, with stops in Warrensburg, Sedalia, Jefferson City and five other cities along the way.
Facing a money crunch, Gov. Bob Holden left $4.8 million in state Amtrak funding out of his budget for the fiscal year beginning in July. He has proposed paying for the trains by digging into the state’s financial reserves, the so-called rainy day fund, which would require approval of two-thirds of the General Assembly.
Without the money, the state’s Amtrak service would end June 30.
“We’re in emergency mode right now,” said Michel Seignette de Kerobert of the volunteer group’s Kansas City office.
Several travelers at Kansas City’s Amtrak station Sunday said they would be disappointed to lose the train service — and they don’t like the alternatives.
Interstate 70, they said, is a mess, even dangerous. And air travel is pricier and much more complicated.
Grace Crispin of Overland Park had just returned Sunday afternoon from Webster Groves near St. Louis to visit her granddaughter and grandson-in-law and their baby. She has taken the train several times since the baby arrived seven months ago.
“I hope not,” said Crispin when told about the possible end to Amtrak service. “It’s a nice, relaxing ride.”
Without the train, Crispin said, she would travel by plane but wouldn’t go as often because of the trouble and expense. Her one-way ticket Sunday cost $30, she said.
Crispin’s daughter, Carol Hailey of Kansas City, said she doesn’t feel comfortable having her mother drive on I-70 with its heavy truck traffic and construction. The train is a great option, Hailey said.
“She traveled by train a great deal of her younger life,” Hailey said. “It’s a way we can send her off worry-free.”
A few of Sunday’s travelers were first-time riders on the St. Louis-Kansas City run, including Joni and David Dillon of Sedalia and their 15-year-old son.
They had come to Kansas City for a weekend of sightseeing and shopping and decided to try the train. The family is planning a train trip to south Texas this summer.
“I highly enjoyed it,” David Dillon said of the ride. “I certainly hope they keep the funding. There are a lot worse things we spend our money on.”
In a survey reported in its current newsletter, the Missouri-Kansas Rail Passenger Coalition said that without the train, 67 percent of Amtrak passengers would drive, increasing congestion on I-70 and Missouri 50.
Among the riders on the Kansas City-St. Louis trains, the survey said, 25 percent are professional or managerial, 19 percent are college students and 18 percent are retired people.
Missourians for Rail Passenger Service, the group proposing the motor vehicle fuel tax, began its petition drive one year ago. But Amtrak’s recent travails have added urgency to its efforts, de Kerobert said.
The nation’s only provider of inter-city passenger rail service is coming off its worst financial year, posting a $1.1 billion loss in 2001. Amtrak says it may close several money-losing, long-distance routes — including two that run through Missouri and Kansas — if it doesn’t get more than $600 million in additional federal funds.
But the Kansas City-St. Louis trains, which carried 208,000 passengers in 2001, could be saved with a dedicated source of funding, such as the one the volunteer group has proposed.
Jeff Briggs, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Transportation, applauded the volunteers’ commitment to rail service in the state.
“Our department is very supportive of passenger rail as well, and of any efforts to figure out how to get enough money to keep Amtrak going,” Briggs said.
The group has until May 1 to obtain 120,000 signatures on petitions. de Kerobert said the group does not have a current tally of how many signatures it has recorded.