Clinton may go "back in time" to attract new industries

CLINTON, MO - City leaders hope their community’s location between Springfield and Kansas City, and it's access to transportation options, will attract some new industrial development to town.  

Officials are eyeing acreage northeast of the interchange of Route 13/7 and Route 52 for a future industrial park.  The site would be accessed directly from 52 and Vansandt Road.  

Mark Dawson, Economic Development Director for the City of Clinton, tells Ozarks First that they’ve been examining the concept for the past three to four years and it remains in the conceptual stage.

While the site is near two highways, city leaders hope to construct new rail access to serve any potential industries needing to ship or receive goods by train.  When it comes to planning the spur project, the city would find itself in a good position. That's because a former rail corridor runs past the site. 

The old line near the site, the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, was removed in the 1990s. After that, it was converted into the Katy Trail State Park. The hiking and biking path has become a popular tourism draw for the Clinton area and mid-Missouri.  

The federal Rails-To-Trails Act of 1983 paved the way for abandoned train corridors to become recreational paths. It stipulated that a trail can be built on an abandoned rail route as long as it can revert to its original use if the need arises in the future.

In the case of Clinton, if trains return to the Katy corridor, it wouldn’t mean the end of that segment of the state park. 

Dawson says the city is looking at having the trail run beside a train track for the nearly two-mile stretch leading to the potential industrial site.

Dawson said, “We have reviewed the Federal Transportation Commission Rails and Trails White Paper that was released in May of 2021, and if we were to develop a short rail spur, we would encompass the best practice ideas from this document.”

At a recent public forum in Clinton, MoDOT officials mentioned the rail project was on the long-term needs list, but there isn’t funding allocated at this point.  Nor was a timeline provided for potential construction.  

This isn’t the first time in years that officials in the Clinton area have worked to upgrade and improve rail service.

Ashley Swartz, Executive Director of Kaysinger Basin Regional Planning Commission, tells Ozarks First that a partnership resulted in rail capacity improvements being made to the Missouri & Northern Arkansas Railroad at Montrose.  That project has brought additional rail traffic which will help secure the long-term viability of the route.