Just after sunrise at Oklahoma City’s Santa Fe Depot, commuters, college kids and long-haul travelers climb aboard the Heartland Flyer for the roughly four-hour ride to Fort Worth. The daily train, Oklahoma’s only intercity passenger rail line, is still rolling thanks to a stitched-together mix of local and regional dollars after decisions in Austin blew a hole in its budget.
Route, Roots And Ridership
The Heartland Flyer, operated by Amtrak, runs once a day between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth and links passengers to the Texas Eagle and Amtrak’s wider national network, according to Amtrak. Service launched in June 1999 after roughly twenty years without regular passenger trains in Oklahoma, a comeback detailed by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and other local reporting. Regional planners and officials say the corridor carries about 80,000 riders a year, a figure cited during coverage of the funding clash by The Dallas Morning News.
Funding Fight And Local Patchwork
Under the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, known as PRIIA, shorter passenger rail corridors are…..