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MoDOT asks for input on state-wide rail service

Ingy The Wingy
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The Missouri Department of Transportation wants public input on a $1.3 billion plan for improving and expanding rail service across the state.The 20-year plan covers both passenger and freight service.  Recommendations include preserving and expanding freight rails, spurs and sidings – and for passenger service, more round trips between St. Louis and Kansas City and pursuing new passenger routes across Missouri.  MoDOT’s Kristi Jamison admits that finding the necessary funds won’t be easy.

“There’s a long ways to go, and a lot of this, just like on the highway side, it puts a plan out there and it allows us to go for something,” Jamison said.

Jamison says they expect most of the money to come from Washington, but that state and local matches and public-private partnerships could also be included. 

Missouri Public Radio State House Reporter Marshall Griffin is a proud alumnus of the University of Mississippi (a.k.a., Ole Miss), and has been in radio for over 20 years, starting out as a deejay. His big break in news came when the first President Bush ordered the invasion of Panama in 1989. Marshall was working the graveyard shift at a rock station, and began ripping news bulletins off the old AP teletype and reading updates between songs. From there on, his radio career turned toward news reporting and anchoring. In 1999, he became the capital bureau chief for Florida's Radio Networks, and in 2003 he became News Director at WFSU-FM/Florida Public Radio. During his time in Tallahassee he covered seven legislative sessions, Governor Jeb Bush's administration, four hurricanes, the Terri Schiavo saga, and the 2000 presidential recount. Before coming to Missouri, he enjoyed a brief stint in the Blue Ridge Mountains, reporting and anchoring for WWNC-AM in Asheville, North Carolina. Marshall lives in Jefferson City with his wife, Julie, their dogs, Max and Mason, and their cat, Honey.