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Amtrak Illinois and Missouri Service Trip Report

We rode the Missouri River Runner and a Lincoln Service train on 25 June 2015. We arrived late the night before aboard the Southwest Chief and stayed at a hotel across the street from Union Station in Kansas City. After a short but restful night we awoke early the next morning and made our way back to the station to find a long line of people waiting to board. After about a 45-minute wait, we were happy to learn that most of those people were waiting for the eastbound Southwest Chief. There were only a few of us taking the Missouri River Runner so we had no problem finding seats when our train was called. This was our first time riding in a Horizon coach. I definitely prefer the restrooms in an Amfleet or Superliner. The train filled quickly during the ride to St. Louis so the train was very close to full by the end of our journey. Unfortunately we arrived quite late into St. Louis, so late that I was concerned about missing our connecting Lincoln Service train. Luckily they held the connecting train and we along with many other passengers dashed across the platform to the already crowded waiting train. We were still able to find seats together and in a few minutes were on our way. As we left the station I expected to cross the Mississippi River just south of the station using the bridge was had crossed two years earlier on the Texas Eagle. Instead we headed north through St. Louis and crossed a few miles upriver. I'm not sure if this was due to flooding or if the two trains always used different routings. The train remained crowded for most of the trip to Chicago, where we also arrived quite late.

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