It’s 8 a.m. in Oklahoma City. As many people across the metro are getting into their cars to take on the morning commute, dozens of travelers gathered at the Santa Fe Depot are preparing for a different kind of journey.
The Heartland Flyer is a passenger rail service run by Amtrak that connects Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, Texas. It began service in 1999, 20 years after passenger rail service in Oklahoma ended due to budget cuts.
“There was a 20-year gap in any sort of passenger rail service in Oklahoma because of cutbacks on train service in parts of the country. And a train which went from Chicago down into Texas, passing through Oklahoma City and other points, was taken off the system,” said Texas Rail Advocates president Peter LeCody…