Katy Trail Connection to Kansas City FAQ

With the discussion about connecting the Katy Trail to the Kansas City area, several questions have been asked by many people:

1. Where will the connection be?
The most logical connection is from Windsor to Pleasant Hill through Lee's Summit, Raytown, and the KC Sports Complex via the Rock Island Railroad corridor. See map here (PDF).

2. Who currently owns that corridor?
Ameren UE owns the portion of the corridor from Windsor to Pleasant Hill.

Union Pacific owns the portion from Pleasant Hill to the Sports Complex.

3. Suppose Ameren allows the use of their portion of the corridor but Union Pacific does not. Will the project still be able to go forward?
There are already plans made and some trails partially built, to create a trail connection from Kansas City's MetroGreen trails system to Pleasant Hill using routes other than the Union Pacific-owned rail corridor.

So inclusion of the Union Pacific section would be a great benefit to the project but it is not absolutely essential.

4. How much will it cost to turn the rail bed into a trail?

The part of the Katy already in service is paved with limestone screenings. This is a very inexpensive material and the main cost involved is the fuel to transport and work it into a trail surface.

So if the trail can be built this way, it is quite inexpensive to do so.

If the trail must be built beside the existing railbed the cost will be higher.

Assuming the trail can be built on the existing roadbed using limestone screenings, here is a reasonable estimate: "The State of Missouri, for example, spent $6 million to create the 200-mile KATY Trail, which, in its first full year of operation, generated travel and tourism expenditures of more than $6 million." (Source) This gives a ballpark cost of $30,000 per mile.

The existing 225 miles of the Katy was created using federal enhancement dollars. This requires a 20% local match and this match was provided by a donation from Ted and Pat Jones (Edward Jones Investment). Ted and Pat Jones also at that time donated a sum of money that was intended to cover the cost of extending the Katy Trail to Kansas City. The DNR still has that money.

5. What if Ameren re-activates the rail line. Is it safe to have a trail adjacent to a railroad, sharing the same corridor?

It turns out that some years of statistics have shown quite conclusively that rails with trails projects are actually safer than just rails. The reason is that people trespass on rail corridors and walk alongside them--trail or no--and providing a trail provides a safe place for people to walk in this area. Also people trespass and cross railroad tracks, but building the trail provides a means to control access across the tracks as needed--with fences and the like. More details.