State Highway Commissioners have been told that because of a lack of state money, one of Missouri’s passenger rail lines will have to shut down by the end of this month. Brian Weiler, with State Transportation Department’s multi-modal division says there are two passenger rail lines operating in the central part of the state – the Missouri Mule between Kansas City and St. Louis and the Ann Rutledge, which is part of a longer line running to Chicago. Weiler says MoDOT is hoping lawmakers will approve a supplemental budget request for the money to keep the Missouri Mule line running. He adds they are looking at different ways to make the passenger rail lines more viable including turning over the operation to a private company or even making the flow of state money to the federal system tied to performance-based incentives.
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