Amtrak still wants the business, however, and on Friday said it could continue to operate the twice-daily service from Kansas City to St. Louis for $2.5 million less than first expected.

Amtrak earlier said it would need $8.9 million to operate the two round-trip trains in the next fiscal year, which begins in July.

But Brian Weiler, director of multimodal operations for the Department of Transportation, said Friday that Amtrak had decided to ask for $6.4 million to run both trains next year.

The company said the lower figure includes only the actual operating costs of running the trains, and not overhead and depreciation costs associated with the routes, he said.

Still, Weiler said, the department wants to seek competitive proposals from private operators to take over the service.

Though the six-member Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission unanimously approved the move, at least one commissioner was skeptical about the long-term future of the rail service.

Commissioner Barry Orscheln of Moberly noted that although ridership has stayed constant around 200,000 per year, costs have doubled in the past five years.

"At what point do we say it's not worth it anymore?" Orscheln asked.

The Department of Transportation already has received a letter from a St. Joseph company interested in taking over the service. The company, Herzog Transit Services Inc., operates commuter rail lines in California, Texas and Florida and has said it could run the Kansas City-St. Louis service for significantly less than Amtrak.

Though transportation officials want to explore the option, Weiler said it would be difficult to have a private operator in place by July 1, when the new fiscal year begins.

Moving to a private operator also wouldn't help solve the problem in the current fiscal year: Amtrak has said it will drop the service to one round-trip train a day by March 1 if it does not get an additional $1.2 million.

That is because lawmakers last year appropriated only $5 million for the service in the current year, and Gov. Bob Holden is requesting the additional $1.2 million in a supplemental appropriation.

But legislative leaders say they thought the $5 million was meant for the whole year, and that transportation officials would have to ask Amtrak to trim services to live within the appropriation.

Weiler said he hoped transportation officials could look at cost savings to reduce the $6.4 million figure for next year even more. This could include eliminating the cafe car on the trains and adding a $5 surcharge to tickets.

It also could mean not staffing train stations in Jefferson City and Kirkwood, the only two communities on the route besides Kansas City and St. Louis that have manned stations.

Sen. John Russell, a Lebanon Republican and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, was pleased to hear transportation officials are looking for ways to save money on the rail service.

However, that doesn't mean he can support funding both trains next year or a supplemental appropriation to save both trains in the current year. Russell said the state, faced with its worst budget crisis since the Depression, has to look at priorities.

"I'm still reluctant to say that we can fund it," he said.