St. Louis (Amtrak station)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Station statistics
St. Louis
Address	551 South 16th Street St. Louis, MO 63103
Lines	Ann Rutledge, Kansas City/St. Louis Mules, Lincoln Service, Texas Eagle
Connections	Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach
Other information
Opened	2004
Code	STL
Owned by	City of St. Louis
Traffic

Passengers (2007)	219,593 ▲ 31.7%

St. Louis Station is an Amtrak train station serving the city of St. Louis, Missouri. The low aesthetic value of the building has rendered it the popular nickname of "Amshak" by many St. Louisans.^[1] The current temporary station opened in December 2004, as a precursor to a new multi-modal facility connected to MetroLink's Civic Center station, expected to be complete in May 2008.[1] At present, neither the Civic Center nor Union Station MetroLink stations are convenient to Amtrak riders, and the nearest bus stop is two blocks away.[2]

The new Lincoln Service was initiated in October 2006 and included 2 additional round trips between St. Louis and Chicago Illinois every day. The State House, a Chicago to St. Louis train that ran before the Lincoln Service was started now runs as a Lincoln Service train on the same schedule it ran on before its name change.

Nearby St. Louis Union Station no longer serves cross country passenger rail traffic. Only Metrolink light rail service is available at Union Station.

[edit] Current Service

Preceding station	Amtrak	Following station
Kirkwood toward Kansas City	Kansas City/St. Louis Mules	Terminus
Kirkwood toward Kansas City	Ann Rutledge	Alton toward Chicago
Terminus	Lincoln Service
Poplar Bluff toward San Antonio or Los Angeles	Texas Eagle

The net effect of this service is that there are currently five trains daily to and from Chicago, two trains daily to and from Kansas City, and one train daily to and from the south (ultimately, to San Antonio).

There is also daily connecting Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach service to Carbondale, Illinois to and from the City of New Orleans.