Missouri Bicycle News

MoBikeFed has confirmed that the spur line, which once connected the Norfolk Southern line and the Katy line in St. Charles, has been sold to the city of St. Charles.

What that means is that the railroad connection between those two lines has been severed.

This is an important development for the future of the Katy Trail, and one that was feared by trail advocates.

For the reasons, read on:

The Katy Trail is "railbanked". That means that if the Katy rail line loses its railbanked status, the legal foundation of the Katy Trail will be dissolved.

Even worse, if the railbanked status appears uncertain, it opens the way for trail opponents to sue to have the railbanking overturned. The end result of any such action is, of course, uncertain.

Uncertainty about the future of the Katy Trail is not a good thing!

In order to remain railbanked, every section of a rail line like the Katy line must remain connected to the national rail network.

If

Katy RR Corridor connections to national rail network; click for details and analysis

the MKT bridge at Boonville is abandoned (as the Missouri Department of Natural Resources has given permission, and now Union Pacific has moved to do), that leaves the entire stretch of the Katy from Boonville to Machens--165 miles--with only two connections to the national rail network: at St. Charles and at Machens.

St. Charles: Now the connecting railroad spur at St. Charles has been removed--that section of line has been abandoned. Although the two railroad lines still cross, there is no way or corridor possible to make an actual rail connection between the two lines.

So that connection is now open to attack by trail opponents.

Machens: There are two sinkholes in the Katy line between St. Charles and Machens. More seriously, a long stretch of the railbanked corridor is now paved over as part of a four lane road. There is now no place to physically locate a rail corridor. So the Machens connection is open to attack, as well.

Again, removing the MKT Bridge at Boonville will not immediately dissolve the Katy Trail. But it does, unnecessarily, open the trail to legal attack--an attack that has some possibility of success.

The continued deterioration of the connections between the Katy line and the rest of the national railroad network only add to the legal uncertainty involved.

Article resources:

• Confirmation of the sale of the parcel to the city of St. Charles
  
• Original document: Notice of Consummation of Abandonment of the Boonville Lift Bridge by Union Pacific railroad, including copies of other relevant documents [1.5 meg PDF file]
  
• Original documents and commentary: Katy Trail Interim Trail Agreement and Agreement Revisions
  
• Map of rail connections to the Katy Trail shows threat to trail's legal status
  
• MoBikeFed's effort to protect the legal status of the Katy Trail

permanent link to article: "Development in St. Charles emphasizes threat to Katy Trail"
posted by Brent Hugh at 1/03/2006 06:15:00 AM |comment on this article