Heartland Flyer

Heartland Flyer
A southbound Heartland Flyer boarding in Norman, Oklahoma.
Overview
Type	Inter-city rail
System	Amtrak
Termini	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Fort Worth, Texas
Stations	7
Daily ridership	230
Ridership	84,039 total (FY11)[1]
Operation
Opening	14 June 1999
Owner	BNSF Railway (track)
Operator(s)	Amtrak
Technical
Line length	206 miles (332 km)
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend 0 mi  0 km  Oklahoma City 20 mi  32 km  Norman 35 mi  56 km  Purcell 57 mi  92 km  Pauls Valley 102 mi  164 km  Ardmore OK/TX border 141 mi  227 km  Gainesville 206 mi  332 km  Fort Worth

Amtrak Heartland Flyer ( interactive map)

The Heartland Flyer is a daily passenger train that follows a 206-mile (332 km) route between Fort Worth, Texas and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Amtrak serves as contractor, initially only for the State of Oklahoma, but now also to the State of Texas.^[2]

During fiscal year 2011, the Heartland Flyer carried over 84,000 passengers, a 2.8% increase from FY2010. The train had a total revenue of $1,911,994, an increase of 5.8% over FY2010.^[1]

History

On June 14, 1999, after a 20-year absence, passenger rail service between Oklahoma and Texas was reinstated. First-year ticket sales reached 71,400 passengers, surpassing Amtrak's original 20,000 projection.^[3] The Heartland Flyer carried 68,000 passengers during FY 2007. In September 2007 it had carried 500,000 passengers since its inception,^[4] and in November 2013, it carried its millionth passenger.^[5]

Route and equipment used

The train serves a portion of the former Chicago-Houston Lone Star route. It connects to the national passenger rail system in Fort Worth through the Texas Eagle which serves San Antonio, Los Angeles, California, Chicago, and stations along the way. Trinity Railway Express provides local service to Dallas, where a connection to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system provides connections to several cities in the Dallas area. A scheduled run between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth takes four hours and fourteen minutes.^[6]

Locomotives commonly used on the Heartland Flyer include the General Electric P42DC and P32-8WH. Rolling stock includes Superliners. For many years, the train was powered by only one locomotive, and a Non-Powered Control Unit (NPCU) on the end of the train opposite the locomotive made the train bi-directional. In 2009, the NPCU was replaced with a standard Genesis P42DC, and the train now has locomotive power on both ends.

Threatened discontinuance

The temporary federal funding for the service was used up by 2005. However, regional passenger rail advocates came out in force on April 11, 2005, for a state capitol rally sponsored by PassengerRailOk.org. Keynote speaker, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett addressed the crowd along with the mayors of Perry, Guthrie, and Purcell, Oklahoma, encouraging the state fund the service and to expand the train into Kansas.^[7] State lawmakers kept the Heartland Flyer in operation by passing House Bill 1078 that provided an annual $2 million subsidy to continue the service.^[8]

Expansion proposals

Several proposals for extending the route of the Heartland Flyer, or providing additional service over all or parts of its route, have been made over the years. Expansion planning revolves around portions of the former Lone Star route and the state-owned route from Oklahoma City to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The line to Kansas City would stop at Wichita's Union Station and follow the route of Amtrak's Southwest Chief north of Newton, Kansas. Recent interest in Kansas and Oklahoma communities has been sparked by the proposal and many towns have released resolutions supporting the idea and requesting stations should the route ever be extended. Some of these cities include Wichita, which lost its train service with the discontinuance of the Amtrak Lone Star in 1979. Emporia was eliminated as an Amtrak stop in 2000 but may once again have a train station. Nearly a dozen other communities ranging in size from the tiny community of Strong City, Kansas (pop. 570), to Wichita, with nearly 358,000 residents have passed these resolutions.

A study conducted by Amtrak in 2009 resulted in four proposed service extensions:^[9]

• Extend the current train north to Newton, Kansas, where passengers could connect with the Southwest Chief to both Chicago and Los Angeles, which stops in Newton in the middle of the night.
• Add a second day train from Fort Worth to Kansas City, which would offer twice daily service over much of the route but wouldn't connect with other trains.
• A variation of the first plan would extend the overnight train to Kansas City.
• A variation of the second plan would terminate the day train at Oklahoma City, rather than operating all the way to Texas.

According the August 2010 issue of Trains Magazine, a combination of options one and two as noted above is not out of the question, either, allowing for day and night service, plus perhaps thru-car service to/from the Southwest Chief.^[9]

In late 2011, the Kansas Department of Transportation released the results of a study into new service south to Fort Worth, presenting the options of a night train from Texas to Newton, with start-up costs of $87.5 million and an annual subsidy of $4.4 million, or a day train to Kansas City, with start-up costs of $245.5 million and an annual subsidy of $10 million.^[10]

During the 1990s, service to San Antonio, Texas, via Austin in conjunction with a reroute of the Texas Eagle west from Fort Worth to El Paso, Texas via Sierra Blanca was considered. This would have created another connection with the Sunset Limited.^[11]

Part of the route used by the Heartland Flyer is designated by the USDOT as the South Central High Speed Rail Corridor and is slated to be upgraded to high-speed rail service should funding ever become available. The corridor extends from San Antonio, Texas, to Tulsa through Fort Worth and Oklahoma City. Another branch of this corridor extends from Fort Worth through Dallas to Little Rock, Arkansas. ^[12]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Heartland Flyer.

• Heartland Flyer Coalition
• Heartland Flyer route page at Amtrak.com