(The following story by Stephanie Harris-Smith appeared on the Hope Star website on June 20.)
HOPE, Ark. — The Hope Advertising and Tourist Promotion Commission Secretary Paul Henley recently asked the Amtrak train system to make a stop in Hope.
“We made a formal request for them to stop in Hope. It is already coming by but it is not stopping,” Paul Henley, commission secretary, said. The trains come through Hope going west in the morning around 6 a.m. and then heading east about 9 p.m.
“We are doing this from tourism standpoint, that was my involvement to begin with, to encourage tourism. If people stop on the trains to visit Hope, that is tourism, to stop to look at the Clinton site, or just visit the city in general, but now with gas prices the way they are, and rail passenger traffic is definitely increasing, and Amtrak is coming right by our front door anyway, getting them to stop just makes good sense,” Henley said.
He said a few years ago a request had been made for Amtrak to stop in Hope.
“Amtrak ran into trouble and thought it would cease to exist. Now it is going strong,” he said. He said now seems to be a good time to have made the request. “It would help our local folks when they wanted to take trips to get on Amtrak right here and go where they want to go and they come back to our very own hometown.”
Henley said the closest stop is Texarkana.
“I have talked with the Texarkana Amtrak and they expressed concern because a lot folks that come from our Hope area take that Amtrak now,” he said.
He said he believes the need will only increase over time.
“It can only increase in the years to come, with the increased costs of individual transport. Passenger rail service is really going to be a hot item in the future, because it really may be necessary for us to get around,” Henley added.
Henley said the main obstacle in pursuing the Amtrak stop would be the absence of a loading platform. He recently attended an Amtrak meeting in Austin, Texas, and is in constant contact with Amtrak.
“We hadn’t been able to get the specifications on the height of an Amtrak loading platform. I brought back the specifications and now we are drawing up plans,” Henley said.
He said a third point to consider related to Amtrak making the stop here is that Hope is a high speed rail corridor designation from Dallas to Little Rock.
“They eventually hope to add a second track from Dallas to Little Rock just for passenger service. Right now, the problem with passenger service is that is it kind of slow. One of the main reasons it is slow is because freight trains have priority over passenger trains. If we had a rail designed just for passenger service that would cut your times down tremendously and get them back on time,” Henley said.
Henley said he is not sure when the commission will know if they have the go-ahead.
“We have been in constant contact with Amtrak. It has to be cleared through Amtrak and Union Pacific, because that is Union Pacific’s area. That is kind of the problem with Amtrak right now; they rent space from Union Pacific and Union Pacific is freight.”
He said the sooner, the better.
“One of the important parts of this is getting on the new time schedule, because when they have a complete timetable schedule for service, we want to be included on the next printing. There is just some time involved in this,” he added. “Once we get the go- ahead, putting in the passenger loading platform would not take that long. It is just a concrete sidewalk 16 feet wide for two blocks. It could be done in just several days and then we would be ready to accept passenger service.”
Hope/Hempstead County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mark Keith said he is in support of Amtrak stopping here.
“It would be a great asset for our community to have Amtrak boarding here. It stops in Malvern and Arkadelphia and they are less than 30 miles apart. We should have a shot at it,” Keith said.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to get on the train and ride to Dallas to catch a plane rather than make that four hour drive?” he asked. “It seems as though we are approaching it in a cautiously optimistic manner and have a far better depot that Malvern does.”
The loading platform would run from Walnut Street to Elm Street next to the railroad track, according to Henley.