News & Reviews News Wire Amtrak to add Texas Eagle stop in De Soto, Mo.

Amtrak to add Texas Eagle stop in De Soto, Mo.

By Trains Staff | August 23, 2023

| Last updated on February 3, 2024


Community south of St. Louis last had passenger service in 1971

Email Newsletter

Get the newest photos, videos, stories, and more from Trains.com brands. Sign-up for email today!

Amtrak passenger train with bilevel equipment
The Texas Eagle heads south through Gardner, Ill., in June 2020. The Eagle will add a stop in De Soto, Mo., city officials in De Soto have announced. Bob Johnston

DE SOTO, Mo. — Amtrak will add a Texas Eagle stop in De Soto, the De Soto city council announced at its meeting on Monday.

The Leader newspaper reports that the announcement comes after a five-year campaign to gain the station stop. Council members have previously agreed to provide the matching funds necessary for construction of a station platform across from the city’s library at 712 S. Main Street. That been previously estimated to cost $1.7 million, although City Manager Todd Melkus told the meeting a better estimate would be likely once the city knows the requirements of host railroad Union Pacific.

Melkus said the city will also work to secure funds from the state and from Jefferson County to help pay for construction of the platform.

The city of 6,449 (as of the 2020 census) last saw a passenger train on April 30, 1971, prior to the start of Amtrak; the town’s station was demolished in 1982.  It will be between existing Eagle stops in St. Louis, about 45 miles to the north, and Arcadia, Mo., about 50 miles south.

— Updated at 3:45 p.m. to correct date of last passenger service in De Soto.

15 thoughts on “Amtrak to add Texas Eagle stop in De Soto, Mo.

  1. DeSoto was a long-time Missouri Pacific shop town, maybe the shops are still extant under U.P., does anyone know? Worked mostly on freight cars, to the best of my knowledge.

    1. As you know, the local economy in De Soto – Missouri is fueled by Union Pacific Railroad which operates a car repair shop on the east side of Main Street.

      Dr. Güntürk Üstün

    1. I found the same article yesterday as well. Interesting thing is that his poetry reads much like his posts here (and that is NOT a compliment)

    1. I’m guessing that we are on the receiving end of an AI bot spewing out random unrelated thoughts.

    1. Dr. Ustun is a medical doctor and prolific rail fan and appears to post freely in several rail oriented websites globally. He also posts more content in Flickr in response to railroad photos. I would ask that you show some patience as he works his way around Trains and learns how best to respond to NewsWire articles.

    2. I would like to see him tell us that he is a real human being, and defend himself against all the negative posts directed at him. Until then, I’m not buying it.

    3. Based upon what John and Neil Lang have posted, I am assuming English is not his first language. That may account for many comments of his on the “obvious”, comments for the sake of comments and comments sharing “basic information”. Hopefully, he will climb his way up the steep learning curve soon!

You must login to submit a comment