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Yesterday, Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), Union Pacific Railroad and Amtrak officials marked the opening of an $8.1 million, 9,000-foot siding on a UP line used by Amtrak Missouri River Runner trains between Kansas City and St. Louis.

Located near California, Mo., the siding will eliminate a bottleneck between UP coal trains and Amtrak passenger trains on a 25-mile stretch of single track. The state of Missouri provided $4.8 million and the Federal Railroad Administration, $3.3 million for the project.

The siding also will help reduce Amtrak train delays, perhaps by about 17 percent annually, according to the national intercity passenger railroad. A MoDOT-commissioned study conducted by the University of Missouri had determined that building a siding in the single-track area would reduce passenger train delays. MoDOT, Amtrak and UP plan to make similar infrastructure improvements in the Knob Noster and Strasburg areas.

During fiscal-year 2009, which ended Sept. 30, Amtrak registered 150,870 passengers on Missouri River Runner trains, about even with FY2008’s total and about 30 percent higher than FY2007’s count.