Amtrak 822 highballs north out of Fort Worth bound for Oklahoma CIty on BNSF’s Fort Worth Subdivision. Photo by Matt Shell
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On June 5, Amtrak announced that its Heartland Flyer service between Fort Worth, Texas and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma will be suspended after October 1 due to a lack of funding from the state of Texas.
The route depends on funding from multiple sources, including the federal government and the Texas and Oklahoma state departments of transportation. However, the Texas Legislature did not allocate the requested $7.05 million over two years necessary to keep the Heartland Flyer running. For context, the Texas Department of Transportation is planning to spend $40.4 billion over that same period.
The BLET and BMWED are working together through the Teamsters Rail Conference to seek out alternative funding from Texas Governor Greg Abbott or the Texas Department of Transportation to keep the Heartland Flyer service running. The route is an important one for Amtrak, servicing more than 80,000 customers in FY24 and alleviating congestion along the busy I-35 corridor. It’s also important for those Amtrak engineers and other railroaders whose jobs are tied to the Heartland Flyer.