OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma’s Heartland Flyer passenger train has another two years of life, The Daily Oklahoman reports.
The state and Amtrak signed a two-year contract that will keep the Oklahoma City-to-Fort Worth, Texas, train running through 2004, state and Amtrak officials announced Tuesday.
The contract with Amtrak will be $4.6 million for the period from June 1 through May 31, 2003, and $4.8 million for the following year.
Remaining federal money from a $23 million federal subsidy that launched the train in 1999 and money earned by the state from ticket sales and concessions will finance the next two years of operation.
The state will provide nearly 50 percent of that from money it has earned the past three years from ticket sales and concessions, a state official said.
“If we didn’t have that money to put back in this, we wouldn’t have a two-year contract,” John Dougherty, assistant rail programs division manager for the state, said.
The state has earned about $1.3 million a year from ticket sales and concessions.
The train runs daily from Oklahoma City with stops in Norman, Purcell, Pauls Valley, Ardmore and Gainesville, Texas.
Earlier this year, some state legislators and transportation officials were concerned about the train’s fate after efforts to come up with additional funding for it failed. Officials said there was enough money for another year or possibly two of operation.
“It’s just great. I am really excited,” said Rep. Bill Nations, D-Norman, who with Sen. Dave Herbert, D-Midwest City, battled unsuccessfully in the Legislature for more state money for passenger rail service.
“Our state-supported passenger service, the Heartland Flyer, has proven to be very popular with the citizens of Oklahoma,” said Paul Adams, deputy director of the state Transportation Department. “We are extremely pleased to announce with Amtrak the continuation of daily service for two more years.”
After a 20-year absence, passenger rail service resumed in Oklahoma when the Heartland Flyer began daily runs from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth on June 15, 1999.
The passenger rail service got started when U.S. Sen. Don Nickles, R-Ponca City, got $23 million in federal money to subsidize the train.
The decision to extend the initial three-year contract was based partially on the desire of Oklahomans to have passenger rail service available, state transportation officials said.
Since it began its inaugural run, more than 185,000 people have ridden on the train, officials said.
“Amtrak has a terrific partnership with the state of Oklahoma, and we look forward to providing two additional years of service,” said Don Saunders, Amtrak senior vice president. “We are proud to celebrate the third anniversary of the Heartland Flyer and continue to link the citizens of Oklahoma and Texas to our national passenger rail system.”
Tom Elmore of Moore, the executive director of the North American Transportation Institute, said he is glad the train will be operating for at least another two years.
“I think it’s great that it happened,” Elmore said.
But he said the state and Transportation Department need to extend passenger rail service north from Oklahoma City to Kansas City, Mo., which would enable it to get mail contracts to help pay for itself.
Elmore said the Transportation Department should have used more of the federal money initially to give Oklahoma a passenger route from Fort Worth through Oklahoma City to Kansas City.
If the state doesn’t make this train self-sustaining, it will be fighting a funding battle forever to keep the train in operation, Elmore said.
Herbert and Nations tried unsuccessfully to win passage of a proposal to let Oklahomans vote on increasing the gasoline tax by a penny to help expand passenger train service in the state. Herbert has authored this proposal the past few years.
The train exceeded expectations for the number of passengers who would use it in its first year of operation, said Joe Kyle, division manager for rail programs with the Transportation Department.
The number of passengers using the train in its first year was four times the estimate, Kyle said.
Dougherty said the number of passengers riding the train in its first year was 71,129. In the second year, 60,814 rode the train.
As of May 31, 56,000 had ridden the train this year, he said. Final figures will include number of passengers through June 14.
The number of passengers dropped in October and November after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, he said.
Special events celebrating the third anniversary of the Heartland Flyer will be held in stops Friday along the route to Fort Worth.