July 21, 2019 - myleaderpaper.com -

A proposed Amtrak stop could be the start of bigger things in De Soto.

That’s the message from a group called Fast Track De Soto, which envisions a new rail platform in De Soto to accommodate twice-daily stops for Amtrak, the national passenger train network.

Native De Sotoan and local entrepreneur Jim Thomas, president of the group, has steadily gathered support for the passenger platform from local business and governmental leaders as well as from Union Pacific, whose large train-car maintenance facility on the east side of downtown could provide the necessary rail lines for passenger-train service.

De Soto welcomed train travelers as recently as April 1971 (aboard Missouri Pacific trains) but the rail stop in the city disappeared in 1982 with the demolition of the city’s train station, erected in 1919.

Union Pacific has agreed to cooperate on the project and every area government official whose constituency includes De Soto has sent a letter of endorsement to Derrick James, Amtrak’s government affairs director in Chicago.

Read more: https://www.myleaderpaper.com/news/icymi-thomas-leads-the-charge-for-amtrak-stop-in-de/article_459989d2-a8d6-11e9-9879-7faea6f105ae.html