(The following article was posted on the Daily Ardmoreite website on December 13.)
ARMORE, Okla. — Santa Claus will take a breather from hectic North Pole activities to ride the Amtrak Heartland Flyer on Saturday, from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, Texas.
While aboard, he will hand out candy canes to the passengers and read holiday stories to children. During the stops in Norman, Purcell, Pauls Valley and Ardmore and Gainesville, Texas, Santa will briefly step off the Heartland Flyer to distribute candy at the stations. Photos aboard the train with Santa will be available for a $3 charge.
Ridership on the Heartland Flyer rose by nearly 17 percent in the most recent Amtrak fiscal year and was up again last month by more than 17 percent, when compared to November 2003.
Schedules for the train can be downloaded from the www.amtrak.com Web site, which offers personalized service, along with on-line reservations, booking and train status updates.
Information is also available from the www.heartlandflyer.com Web site, which features pictures of every station on the route as well as a calendar of events.
The Heartland Flyer is operated by Amtrak under a contract with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation with the support of the Heartland Flyer Coalition, a grass-roots group representing the communities along the 206-mile route.
Amtrak provides intercity passenger rail services to more than 500 destinations in 46 states on a 22,000-mile route system. For schedules, fares and information, passengers may call 800-USA-RAIL or visit www.amtrak.com.