Great Rivers, Metro explore St. Louis rails-with-trails option

Great Rivers Greenway is exploring the idea of creating a 3-mile trail on an unused stretch of rail corridor owned by the Metro.
According to a Post-Dispatch article:

Metro used the old line's section south of Clayton for its Shrewsbury extension and is holding the northern stretch for future use.

"I would hate for us here to bollix up an effort, five or 10 years from now, to expand light-rail by taking away a very popular greenway," said Metro chairman Hugh Scott.

David Fisher, Greenway District director, said his agency wouldn't want to build a trail only to lose it. Fisher said the idea was to let Metro and Greenway study whether the old rail line had room for both.

By the vote Friday, engineers will review whether it does. The old rail right of way is 100 feet wide in many places but narrower in others.

A similar "rails-with-trails" option is possible on a stretch of the former Rock Island Railroad line, which is part of the potential connection between the Katy Trail and the Kansas City area. That line could be re-activated as a commuter rail line and such a plan could include a trails in a rails-with-trails configuration.

Research shows the rails-with-trails installations are very safe--surprisingly, even safer that rail lines that do not include trails (because users walk along and cross the rail line regardless; a well designed trail offers users a safe place to do so and prevents unsafe crossing points).