(The following story by James Coburn appeared on The Edmond Sun website on April 1, 2009.)
EDMOND, Okla — Edmond remains a viable possibility for a passenger rail stop, said Gary Ridley, director of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, this week.
Leaders of local, state and federal government have been working with the Northern Flyer Alliance to bring commuter rail between Guthrie, Edmond, Oklahoma City and Norman. The Northern Flyer Alliance wants to extend passenger rail from Fort Worth and Oklahoma City to Wichita. From Wichita, passengers could travel to Chicago and other Amtrak linkage points.
The Heartland Flyer is Oklahoma’s Amtrak service. Two trains run each day between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, making additional stops in Norman, Purcell, Pauls Valley and Gainesville.“It’s my belief that we do need to extend that service to Newton, Kan.,” Ridley said.
However, Ridley said it’s his personal belief that Amtrak would need to help Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas subsidize the project. Oklahoma and Texas currently subsidize the Heartland Flyer with nearly $4 million a year, he said. And Amtrak doesn’t put any money in the Heartland Flyer although it does for most all other areas of the nation it serves, Ridley said.
Any type of mass transportation whether it’s on ground, water or in the air needs to be convenient, affordable and dependable to establish ridership, Ridley said. Mass transportation also has to be subsidized, he added.
“Once you understand those four elements of any mass trans, then you can plan out how you want it to be,” Ridley said.
Kansas Department of Transportation spokesperson Ron Kaufman reiterated to The Edmond Sun that members of the Kansas state Legislature have expressed interest in expanding the Amtrak service through Kansas.
Ridley wrote a formal letter to Amtrak in 2008 requesting that Oklahoma be considered in additional expansion of services.
Amtrak is conducting a feasibility study on expanding its service. This study is expected to be completed late this year, Kaufman said.
“What we didn’t have and still don’t have is good information about the cost,” Kaufman said. “And we’ve got to have that before we talk to the Legislature and ask them to pony up some money.”
Ridley said ODOT would figure out how much the state should subsidize the Flyer after examining the study’s details on ridership. According to Amtrak, its Fort Worth route to Oklahoma City has more than 8,000 passengers a month. This is an increase of 30 percent more passengers and revenue above 2007 figures.
“I think one day you’ll see passenger rail to Tulsa from Oklahoma City. I think at some point we’ll see passenger rail service from Tulsa to Kansas City. And that ties into St. Louis and the Midwest.”
When asked, Ridley said the Oklahoma City route to Kansas would be the easiest route to put in play. Arcadia is the nearest stop to Edmond that the Oklahoma City to Tulsa track affords. Ridley said this track would be more difficult to implement because of geometrics and the existing track condition.
“It’s owned by the state and we’re using it for freight operations, but it certainly cannot handle passenger service,” he said.
Ridley encourages planning by cities
Oklahoma owns about 850 miles of rail line, which may be more than any state in the union, Ridley said, making the cost of operations small.
Whether or not Edmond can expect a passenger train to stop here will depend on the investment from Kansas, Amtrak and communities along the way, Ridley said. He encourages towns and cities to make plans for accommodating passenger rail.
“I’m a firm believer that the country is moving in that direction,” he said. “Whether it will be in the next four years, or the next 10 or 15, I don’t know. But at some point of time, passenger rail service will come back.”
He projects that the cost of oil and gasoline will escalate, making mass transit a way of life for most people.
The federal stimulus package will not provide for ongoing subsidization needs of passenger rail, Ridley said. But federal stimulus dollars could play a role in the expanding commuter rail, Kaufman said. The overall stimulus package provides $8.1 billion for high speed rail services, Ridley said. The stimulus bill also provides roughly $1.75 billion of subsidies for Amtrak passenger rail.
Specific projects for passenger rail have not been identified in the stimulus package, Kaufman said. Details have not been announced about how to apply for passenger rail stimulus funds between Oklahoma and Kansas.
“The great thing about that package is it applies a lot of money into passenger rail across the country,” Kaufman said. “And unlike some funds for other sources of transportation modes, they have a longer frame for which we can request funds for passenger rail.”
Burlington Northern Santa Fe owns the rail line from Fort Worth to Oklahoma City and north through Edmond to Kansas.
Ridley said ODOT has been in contact with Burlington Northern Santa Fe about how it can help improve its rail service in Oklahoma. BNSF has told ODOT what is essential in order to speed up service in the state.
A high-tech control facility in Fort Worth controls all train traffic in Oklahoma, Texas and the Southwest. Delays occur with passenger rail and freight service due to logistics. And fixing the problem is estimated at $750 million, Ridley said. However, he learned from BNSF that 50 percent of major improvements could be done for less than $80 million.
“I think they are going to ask the states for their assistance in supporting some of their use of stimulus money that is set aside for passenger rail,” Ridley said.
He said it would be advantageous for passenger rail lines to be made more safe.
ODOT spokeswoman Terri Angier said rail companies also must consider their business practices in allowing passenger rail.
“To them it means dollars, also,” Angier said. “So we have to work oftentimes with rail companies in terms of asking them if we could use that.”
Ridley said rail companies make their money moving freight. ODOT also has a good passenger rail partnership with BNSF, he added.
“They certainly have to consider their business plan before they can let passenger rail service on their line,” Ridley said.