Finalist Selected for Missouri "Name the Train Contest"

You may recall the contest to name Missouri's St. Louis - Kansas City service. MoDOT's website announced the five finalist:

Missouri Rail Blazer

Missouri River Runner

River Cities Corridor

ShowMeMO

Truman Service

And, you can vote for your choice.

http://www.modot.mo.gov/newsandinfo/Distri...mp;newsId=24791

The news release for this says that there were 8300 submissions.

 

Geez, they're all horrible.

I'd go with River Cities (wasn't there a train called the River Cities some time ago...maybe early 80s or so?).

 

I agree, they're all awful.

I like Truman Service the best.

Also, you may be thinking of the Three Rivers? (NYP-PHL-PIT-CHI, canceled 2005)

 

I agree that they don't have a ring to them, but Truman Service is ok as is River Cities Corridor.

 

Truman Service is the best of the worst..

"Shoe MeMo" ?

Were these the finalists? I hate to see the ones that were rejected.

 

I was right that "River Cities" was an old train name. In fact, it ran Kansas City-St. Louis, then traveled southeast to link with the City of New Orleans in Carbondale:

http://www.trainweb.com/routes/route_58/neworleans.html

It was discontinued in 1993.

 

I don't want anymore trains named after people. The River Cities service should be the one! And yea these names are kinda lame.

cpamtfan-Peter

 

I voted for River Cities Corridor. Truman Service would be alright, too. Whoever selected these finalists needs to be fired.

 

I voted for Truman.

If anybody votes ShowMeMo I'll sic Amtrak Special Agent Pat on them.

 

Yeah we should call it the Pat Service! Serving Mizzou! LOL!

 

I like ShowMeMO

 

I detest the first two.

I like the third; IMHO it's the best of the five official choices. Not surprisingly, it's an old train name.

The fourth sucks! It's clearly an attempt at being clever -- Missouri with the postal abbreviation MO and the "Show Me State" nickname -- but it sounds like a cheezy "E-Z-Lite" type marketing name.

I definitely see what they were going for with Truman Service: Truman was as closely tied to Missouri as Lincoln was to Illinois, which has the Lincoln Service. But IMHO Truman was too mediocre a President to get a train before George Washington (another old train name!) or either of the Roosevelts. If you want a more prestigious President with some link to Missouri, why not Jefferson Service?!

My idea -- which I didn't submit because IIRC only Missouri residents were eligible for a prize -- would be Mark Twain Service. He's linked intimately to Missouri and a lot more famous than Carl Sandburg, Illinois poet of the early 20th century and Illinois train of the early 21st.

 

Does anyone know if the "Finalists" who submitted the train names have been notified? From my review of the rules, if a finalist name is submitted by more than one person, a single entrant would be drawn at random to represent that name.

I am writing this with some self-interest as I submitted "River Cities" as my suggestion (although I am sure it was also submitted by many others) I am kicking myself as I also considered submitting "Truman Service" since you could submit multiple names.

 

Yes, the press release linked in the original posting names the five finalists. To save you from having to follow the link, the finalist for River Cities Corridor -- a good name IMHO, as I said above -- is Richard A. Chenault of Webster Groves. Is that you?

 

I guess it would help if I read the actual press release! I heard about the finalists about a week ago and assumed the press release that was linked had the same scarcity of detail as the article I read in the KC Star. Unfortunately I am not Richard Chenault.

 

I know this is an old post, but, I wanted to update anyone that wanted to know. They announced the winning name today. It is......TA DA...Missouri River Runner.

 

Thanks for the update!

 

Aloha

I like it (as said by Jerry Lewis) Mahalo for the update.

 

Does the line actually run along the Missouri?

 

For a good portion of the trip, yes it does.

 

Missouri River Runner?

I would have preferred something more like: Missouri River Flyer, Missouri River Eagle, Missouri River Limited, or Missouri River Star

 

I just saw the article on Amtrak.com and it said 1159 people voted for:ShowMeMO! It almost won! If that had won, it would have been the worst train name ever.

cpamtfan-Peter

 

Not too bad. The full press release says that MoDOT has heard complaints about delays and that they are taking steps to improve service.

The MoDOT website: http://www.modot.org/othertransportation/r...ametheTrain.htm

A question for my Missouri brothers and sisters. Where is Glendale?

 

I'm not 100% sure, but, it looks on the map to be south and west of St Louis proper; out near I-270 and I-44. One of the little 'burbs, I suspect.

As far as the trying to improve the service....the last trip I took, in early January, we were EARLY into Kansas City, and only 5 minutes late coming back into Kirkwood. That is a HUGE improvement over the norm for that route....

 

The website says they have completed the track work east of Jeff City and on the Osage River bridge so maybe things are getting better. Mrs. como is taking Amtrak to St. Louis this week. I'll have to ask her to write a report. She had one of those four hour late experiences a few years ago but so far has not held it against me when I say we can take the train.