Sunday Night Contemplation: Springtime For Kansas City Transit & Trail Vaporware



One again we remind our readers about a painful local government legacy that still confronts elected officials and serves to offer an important life lesson.

First, a definition of terms:

Vaporware is a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled.

And now, a reminder that so many development schemes unrealized are never formally scrapped but simply discarded out of the public eye. Thankfully, our blog community sheds light on this long term FAIL to keep upbeat transit promises.

Journey Into Spring



As TKC Readers SPRING FORWARD into the work week . . .

"Here are a few photos of the Vale Tunnel thawing out. This is part of the hike/bike trail that former, now imprisoned, Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders advocated the Courthouse pay $52M to acquire the rights. The slipshod deal botched the legal process and the entire project is now threatened.

About these images . . .

The Vale Tunnel is a railway tunnel south of Raytown, near Kansas City, Missouri. It was built by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad in 1903-04, and was the final tunnel of four to be built on the entire Rock Island railroad, all of which were in Missouri. The tunnel is part of the Kansas City to St. Louis, Missouri line, and travels beneath Bannister Road. In 1980, the Rock Island was liquidated in court and the tunnel and line across Missouri was eventually sold to the St. Louis Southwestern Railway (AKA Cotton Belt).

The tunnel is 441 feet long.

There have been several owners of the line since 1980, after the Rock Island went bankrupt. Although there have been several court battles over the threat of the reopening of the line, it remains to be the property of the Union Pacific Railroad, and remains embargoed (unused) at this time. Most of the line remains intact as does the tunnel, except for a few places where it has been cut for road improvements.

As of 2016, the line was now owned by Jackson County. There are current plans to turn the old line into a rail trail, Missouri Rock Island Rail Trail, with work to begin in 2017, and open in 2018.
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And so, this creepy tunnel is just one of many transit schemes that has yet to come to a fruition despite the Spring warmup that's hopefully on the horizon.



Thanks for the great passage form a TKC Reader and thanks for checking in Sunday and hopefully we'll have more for the Monday morning update . . . STAY TUNED!!!

Comments

  1. Wow. I'm hikers and cyclists would love to enjoy that scenic route if they're into "assisted" suicide. Spooky.

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  2. Yeah change sucks and we should never spend any money on making the area a better place to live, it should always stay the same and suck.

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  3. Up kinda late tonight huh city hall minion, go suck sLIE off before he passes out from drinking too much scotch ok, you know he’ll be in a bad mood tomorrow if you don’t

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  4. Another unfulfilled dream just like the airport sLIE’s been working on for eight years now! Hahahahaha!

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  5. Off topic but can we get a mention somewhere on here about Jen Chen. She died and was an all right person some of us remember

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  6. Just another messed up project that was approved by Jay Nixon. The damage that guy did to Jefferson City will be measured in tonnage.

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  7. Sanders was actually one of the less corrupt people at Jackson County. If only half of you knew what's really going on.

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  8. Hope the trail doesn't go near Boliver. Barny Fifes will want to search for weed.

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  9. Word on the street is that tunnel has a rubber bottom.

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  10. This has you diaper dandies shitting yourselves?? You fools need to buy a life.

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  11. Looks like a great place for crack heads of Raytown to gather and plan there next crime.

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  12. ^^Speaking of crackheads, it's their not there. Fucking crackhead!

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