The ''Kansas City Mule'' and ''St. Louis Mule'' were a pair of 283-mile (455 km)
passenger trains
In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often know ...
operated by
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
running between
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
Ann Rutledge
Ann Mayes Rutledge (January 7, 1813 – August 25, 1835) was allegedly Abraham Lincoln's first love.
Early life
Born near Henderson, Kentucky, Ann Mayes Rutledge was the third of 10 children born to Mary Ann Miller Rutledge and James Rutledge ...
'', which originated in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. In January 2009, Amtrak consolidated these trains under the name '' Missouri River Runner''.
History
Amtrak introduced the two trains on October 26, 1980, in partnership with the state of
Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
, which provided a yearly subsidy of $484,000. It ran along a route that had been served for most of the 20th century by the
Missouri Pacific Railroad
The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad ...
. In July 1971, the route became the western leg of Amtrak's ''
National Limited
The ''National Limited'' was the premier train of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on its route between Jersey City, New Jersey and St. Louis, Missouri, with major station stops in Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati, Ohio. (Buses took passen ...
,'' which ran from
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
to Kansas City. That train, in turn, was the successor of the famed ''
Spirit of St. Louis
The ''Spirit of St. Louis'' (formally the Ryan NYP, registration: N-X-211) is the custom-built, single-engine, single-seat, high-wing monoplane that was flown by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first solo nonstop transatlant ...
,'' which had run from 1927 to 1971.
The ''National Limited'' was discontinued due to budget cuts in 1979, reducing service along the St. Louis-Kansas City corridor to just one train, the ''
Ann Rutledge
Ann Mayes Rutledge (January 7, 1813 – August 25, 1835) was allegedly Abraham Lincoln's first love.
Early life
Born near Henderson, Kentucky, Ann Mayes Rutledge was the third of 10 children born to Mary Ann Miller Rutledge and James Rutledge ...
,'' which ran from
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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to Kansas City via St. Louis. Missouri officials wanted to maintain the same level of service between the state's two major cities, and urged Amtrak to preserve a regional service for the state to supplement the ''Ann Rutledge.''
Although the two trains shared the same route, the eastbound train was known as the ''St. Louis Mule'' while the westbound train was called the ''Kansas City Mule''. Contemporary news accounts referred to the combined service as the "Missouri Mule", although Amtrak timetables used the individual names.
The ''Mules'' originally stopped at Kirkwood, Jefferson City, Sedalia and Warrensburg. Amtrak added Lee's Summit and Washington as flag stops in April 1981 on a one-year trial basis; Lee's Summit was retained in 1982 while Washington was dropped late 1981 in favor of Independence. Amtrak reinstated Washington on the October 29, 1995 timetable for another one-year trial period; this time Amtrak retained the stop. Hermann became a permanent stop on September 28, 1991. Trains had previously stopped only during Hermann's annual ''Maifest'' and ''Octoberfest''.
Between April 29, 1984 and November 4, 1993 the ''Mules'' operated with the '' River Cities'', a Kansas City section of the ''
Carbondale, Illinois to connect with the New Orleans-bound train. Westbound trains split from the northbound ''City of New Orleans'' at Carbondale and continued to St. Louis, where they joined the ''Kansas City Mule.'' A funding crisis caused Amtrak to discontinue the ''Mules'' between April 1 and July 1, 1995.
Because the tracks were owned by
Union Pacific
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...
(UP), which acquired MoPac in 1983, freight trains had priority over passenger trains. This often resulted in severe delays for Amtrak, such as those seen in May 2007, when the Missouri Department of Transportation blamed UP for the disruptions.kansascity.com roken link/ref>