Missouri River Runner - shall we or shant we?

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user 6862

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Starting to plan another Amtrak journey and have a choice, should we ride the Missouri River Runner or not bother?

We'd be coming up from Jacksonville, Florida by Greyhound and can easily route either to Kansas City or straight to St Louis.

The advantage of visiting KCY is we like the city and have unfinished business there, plus we get to ride the River Runner for the first time. The disadvantage is it will add an extra night's hotel cost to our journey (we are on a budget).

The advantage of bussing directly to St Louis is we save the cost of a hotel and the train fare for two. The disadvantage is we miss out on KCY and don't get to ride the MRR.

So for us it's come down to this, is the River Runner a good or interesting train ride if you have never done it, is it worth going out of our way for?
 
If you are on a very tight budget, then going to STL is the answer. Time is another consideration, do you have the extra day or so required to do KCY. Maybe save this money for a longer train trip at a later date.
 
We completed a trip to KCY and STL this past summer. (see trip report) and found many interesting things to see and do in KCY. We also rode the River Runner for a second time and like the trip through several small towns along the route, the stretch along the Missouri River, and the pleasant staff on the train. Just some additional information to consider.
 
I've always thought that the Missouri River Runner route, particularly the portion east of Jefferson City that follows alongside the Missouri River for a fairly long stretch, is a rather scenic route by Midwest standards. It's not the mountains or the coastline, but it is a nice bit of running along a major river. Combine that with visiting Kansas City and I'd be inclined to suggest doing it.
 
You mentioned going from Jacksonville to Kansas City, and you mentioned the River Runner to St Louis. I'm confused, as St Louis is between Jacksonville & KC!

Why not take Greyhound from Jacksonville to St Louis (where they're both in the same station), then take the MORR to KC? :huh: Unless you are flying back from St Louis or going somewhere from there. (You can also get to LA or Chicago from KC on 1 train.)

I found the MORR to be nice and is scenic as mentioned above.
 
After riding Greyhound from Jacksonville to Missouri, I'd probably need to spend a few days at a nursing home, taking physical therapy and rest. Srsly.

Maybe break that long ride with a stopover at Nashville or Memphis, or historic Vicksburg or Natchez (if Greyhound goes that way) instead of going out to Kansas City.
 
Great input thank you all, this is s terrific forum.

First it's the start of the planning stage but must admit I've positioned places only in my mind from memory traveller but you make a good point about where first. That said didn't want to write too much about non Amtrak stuff here but to answer the point we also want to travel through the deep south if that's the right phrase and hopefully visit Memphis too. So a diagonal to KC felt like a good idea, but not why not Memphis to St Louis as that looks good too.

That begs the question is one direction for the MRR better than another? We are using rail over a large part of this visit and are deliberately (and unusually for us) intending to use two LD trains we've ridden before, but we are looking to ride one or two new to us journeys. The MRR was obvious as we really enjoyed KC 2 years ago, and we have never been to St Louis. We also love rivers and in particular large ones, the Mississippi is a big favourite of ours so riding alongside the Missouri on a new train has lots of appeal.

Is St Louis a place to visit for a few hours or for longer? obviously quite a few from this forum have visited.

At the back of all this is to try to work within a tight-ish budget, so if the universal opinion was the MRR wasn't worth it it helps the budget, but budget doesn't rule the journey, just nice to try to stay within budget and go the places we want to.

Lonestar648, extra days are not so critical, and it will be a long journey anyway, Railroad Bill have now read your trip report, and your opinion Eric S and the traveller too so the Missouri River Runner is firmly on the agenda. But most of all how can we go against your advice Bob...

WoodyinNYC, we're gluttons for punishment so love Greyhound almost as much as Amtrak. It's a bit like can we still survive a 24 hours+ on a bus or are we past it. One of our favourite Greyhound rides was 'leaving Las Vegas'. There was a man on the bus who really had lost it all in the casinos but was so upbeat as he knew exactly how he could earn all his money back by going back to a dangerous and exhausting job he had done previously. There was a cast of characters on that bus you couldn't invent.
 
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If you want to make sure to see the Missouri River, you'll want to make sure you're traveling between St. Louis and Jefferson City during daylight hours. That might rule out traveling on the eastbound afternoon/evening train (Train 316) except during the longest days of the year. The westbound afternoon/evening train (Train 313) should work except during the shortest days of the year.

So it's not so much that one direction is better than another, but rather that the later train might best be avoided during certain times of the year if you're particularly interested in seeing the river.

As for St. Louis, yes, you could definitely find things to visit - whether for a few hours during a layover between buses/trains, or for a longer visit. Gateway Station in St. Louis (the Amtrak and Greyhound station) is served by MetroLink (the regional light rail system) which can take you to a number of popular sights, both nearby in downtown St. Louis (the Arch, for instance) and farther out (Forest Park, for instance).
 
While in Kansas City check out their art museum, second to none. Also, the only WW1 memorial that I know of is there and also a must see. The old KC train station is pretty cool too.
 
v v said:
Great input thank you all, this is s terrific forum.

First it's the start of the planning stage but must admit I've positioned places only in my mind from memory traveller but you make a good point about where first. That said didn't want to write too much about non Amtrak stuff here but to answer the point we also want to travel through the deep south if that's the right phrase and hopefully visit Memphis too. So a diagonal to KC felt like a good idea, but not why not Memphis to St Louis as that looks good too.

That begs the question is one direction for the MRR better than another? We are using rail over a large part of this visit and are deliberately (and unusually for us) intending to use two LD trains we've ridden before, but we are looking to ride one or two new to us journeys. The MRR was obvious as we really enjoyed KC 2 years ago, and we have never been to St Louis. We also love rivers and in particular large ones, the Mississippi is a big favourite of ours so riding alongside the Missouri on a new train has lots of appeal.

Is St Louis a place to visit for a few hours or for longer? obviously quite a few from this forum have visited.

At the back of all this is to try to work within a tight-ish budget, so if the universal opinion was the MRR wasn't worth it it helps the budget, but budget doesn't rule the journey, just nice to try to stay within budget and go the places we want to.

Lonestar648, extra days are not so critical, and it will be a long journey anyway, Railroad Bill have now read your trip report, and your opinion Eric S and the traveller too so the Missouri River Runner is firmly on the agenda. But most of all how can we go against your advice Bob...

WoodyinNYC, we're gluttons for punishment so love Greyhound almost as much as Amtrak. It's a bit like can we still survive a 24 hours+ on a bus or are we past it. One of our favourite Greyhound rides was 'leaving Las Vegas'. There was a man on the bus who really had lost it all in the casinos but was so upbeat as he knew exactly how he could earn all his money back by going back to a dangerous and exhausting job he had done previously. There was a cast of characters on that bus you couldn't invent.
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I was going to ask, but your above comment already answered....isn't it unusual for someone on this forum to ride such a long bus trip for a relatively short rail trip? :)
 
Eric S said:
As for St. Louis, yes, you could definitely find things to visit - whether for a few hours during a layover between buses/trains, or for a longer visit. Gateway Station in St. Louis (the Amtrak and Greyhound station) is served by MetroLink (the regional light rail system) which can take you to a number of popular sights, both nearby in downtown St. Louis (the Arch, for instance) and farther out (Forest Park, for instance).
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When I visited in May there was a lot of construction going on around the Arch. The elevators to the top were still open, but buy tickets in advance if at all possible...they sell out quick!
 
Have taken a look at the schedule Eric, it's the first train out in both directions isn't it. The probability is we'd stay longer in Kansas City than St Louis but maybe only because we don't know enough about STL.

John, we had read that the art museum was good before we visited last time but didn't find the time to visit, our main thing to see was the pioneer museum in nearby Independence plus spending time in the magnificent station. We also took a tour by trolley but found that disappointing as about half the information talk was about local eateries, we thought we were on a foodie tour.

We were there on a Friday or Saturday evening too and the place was very busy with a good atmosphere, good mix of people too not just kids. We'd like to visit the Riverboat museum/display and this time the art museum, we have other stuff to do there too so probably we'll be there for a couple of days.

It will be quite a long journey anyway so 24 hours on a Greyhound is only part of that railiner, we'll have ridden about 6 LD trains (not all end to end) before arriving in the mid-west and Amtrak doesn't always go where we want to.

Thanks for the tip on tickets for the Arch Mr Bowen, we got caught out on Alcatraz a couple of years ago by not pre-purchasing. The journey is probably going to happen next March-April so have Easter in the middle which isn't good. But that's our only opportunity and we want to cross the Rockies and Sierras in the snow again. Is the construction a major undertaking that will take years or... ?

Thanks
 
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If you took a bus from Jacksonville to New Orleans, you of course could take a bus to Saint Louis from Carbondale. Just be warned the bus leaves Carbondale in the middle of the night(4am), and you'd have to wait a little bit after the CONO leaves going north after it's 3:11am-3:16am stop. And that you also could do the same going back, from STL. And then of course after boarding the bus at Saint Louis at 11pm and arriving at Carbondale at 1am, go to sleep after you board the train in Carbondale going south to New Orleans. It's up to you what you want to do.

Might just be easier to do the bus connection from STL to the CONO train, going east and south towards New Orleans vs. the other way. Which'd allow very little time to sleep, and would annoy me if I had to do that. Never ridden the MORR, but it looks like an Amtrak corridor train route I'd love to try riding one of these days.
 
Thanks Dogbert but it doesn't work that way around, but appreciate you putting some thought into a route. This is the possible itinerary but at the moment is dependant on a lot of outside factors -

London - Chicago - Zephyr - San Francisco - Monterey - Salinas - Surfliner - Los Angeles - Surfliner - San Diego - Greyhound - Tucson - TE - Austin - TE/Sunset Limited - Lafayette - Greyhound - Jacksonville - Greyhound - Memphis - Greyhound - Kansas City - MRR - St Louis - TE - CHI - LSL - Syracuse, NY - LSL - New York - London

Of course it may not work out exactly like that but that's the framework I'm working within.
 
I may consider Memphis to St Louis by Greyhound, St Louis to KC by the MORR, then KC to Chicago by the Southwest Chief. This way, you go along the Missouri River in daylight, the other direction may be in darkness.
 
I'll look into that option this evening traveller, last night was SFC to Salinas and Monterey which also has many options. thank you
 
v v said:
Thanks for the tip on tickets for the Arch Mr Bowen, we got caught out on Alcatraz a couple of years ago by not pre-purchasing. The journey is probably going to happen next March-April so have Easter in the middle which isn't good. But that's our only opportunity and we want to cross the Rockies and Sierras in the snow again. Is the construction a major undertaking that will take years or... ?
Click to expand...
It's a lot of construction and it looks as if it's only about half done. I haven't seen a timeline on it, though. However, when I rode, they were still telling you to use the 8th & Pine station to visit the Arch. When walking back south, I found that the walkway to/from the Laclede's Landing station at the Eads Bridge had just recently been reopened; it may (should) be more convenient.
 
Thanks.

Just run out of time to continue researching, have to be somewhere else for 8 days but can't wait to get back to this again.
 
Couldn't leave it alone and taking a break before the off tomorrow here's a traveller and dogbert inspired section of the route.

Jacksonville, FL - Memphis (Greyhound) ~ Memphis - Carbondale (City of New Orleans) ~ Carbondale - St Louis (Amtrak Thruway Bus which arrives at 6am a good time to pause for breakfast!) ~ St Louis - Kansas City (same day as arriving, leaving on the 9:15am No.311 MRR) .

Apart from not having too much meaningful time in St Louis it looks like a pretty good schedule. The added big bonus is the about 6 hours layover in Chicago between the SWC arriving and the LSL leaving to Syracuse, another night's accommodation saved.

Thanks

ps: know I'm pushing my luck but anyone have a budget option for accommodation in Kansas City
 
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