Katy/Amtrak Bike Routes near St. Louis / St. Charles

One of the theoretically* cool things about the Katy Trail is that Amtrak's Missouri River Runner runs near much of the trail and allows passengers to transport bicycles. The train is therefore a shuttle option, allowing riders to take the train one way and ride their bicycles the other way.

I frequently see questions about bicycle route recommentations between the trail and the train stations on the east end of the trail. Since I live in this area, I feel compelled to put together some good information on this topic. My goal is to plot out a complete set of course options, test ride all of them, with video, and post links to Garmin/Strava routes for use by anyone.

(* I have not personally attempted this yet. I understand there are quite a few caveats, and I do not yet have any personal experience doing it.)

St. Charles or Machens?

At the time of this writing, the eastern terminus of the Katy Trail is the trailhead known as Machens. It is named after a little road, and there is nothing around except flat, open agricultural fields. Importantly, there is no parking here. (The Black Walnut trailhead, three miles southwest of Machens has a small parking lot.)

I don't know when the trail was extended out to Machens, but many years ago, St. Charles was the easternmost trailhead on the trail. It is my assumption people planning to ride to St. Charles are mostly doing so based on old information.

That said, St. Charles is a much more desirable place to start or finish a multiday bicycle journey. There are several parking options, numerous eateries, bicycle shops, a park, a lovely shopping district, and even a casino. I assume there is lodging. Machens, in contrast, ends in the middle of a corn field with no parking, at the end of a road the neighbors want to treat as private.

Kirkwood or St. Louis?

I haven't gotten to the bottom of why Kirkwood is recommended as the train station to use rather than the one in St. Louis. It may simply be that it's closer to St. Charles or even Machens. However, another possibility may be that a surprising number of people in the St. Louis area are unaware that there is an Amtrak station in downtown St. Louis (I've seen more than one online debate about this, even though its existence is easily verifiable). Both are stops for the Missouri River Runner, and both allow bicycles.

I will say that the Kirkwood station is in a nicer area. There are restaurants and shopping nearby, and Kirkwood has a large population of cyclists and an irrational romance about their train station. St. Louis generally has a high crime rate, though the Amtrak station seems set well apart from that. (Anecdotally, I once left a car parked at the St. Louis station for several days, and nothing happened to it.)

Alton Amtrak Station

There is an Amtrak station in Alton, Illinois, and it is about a 17 mile ride from Machens. Even though this station is on the same line, it is not a stop for the Missouri River Runner. However, it is possible to get connecting trains to wherever, and apparently space for bikes can be reserved. I don't know anything about it first-hand, but I have provided a route, and ridden it.

Shuttle Service

The prevailing advice seems to be to take a shuttle between the trail and the station. This isn't bad advice, because the bicycle options through the northwest part of St. Louis County are not great. A significant advantage of the Katy Trail is that riders are largely sheltered from traffic hazards. The experience of riding through NW St. Louis County is going to be almost the complete opposite.

I don't have any shuttle knowledge.

Other Routes Under Investigation

St. Charles – St. Louis (Gateway) Amtrak via MetroLink

This option yields the shortest bicycle ride (10 miles), by taking advantage of the MetroLink.
Route: Katy Trail (at MO-370) to St. Louis Station via MetroLink