Published: May 24, 2008 12:53 am            

Flyer expansion focus of Pauls Valley meeting

Transportation officials from three states will converge on Pauls Valley next Saturday, May 31, for a regional meeting to discuss the future expansion of the Heartland Flyer.

According to a letter sent to the Pauls Valley Chamber of Commerce, the meeting will be held at the Nora Sparks Memorial Library and will begin at 10 a.m.

The meeting is being hosted by The Northern Flyer Alliance, a grass roots organization whose aim is to expand passenger rail service north of Oklahoma City into Kansas.

“The group wanted to meet in Pauls Valley because our city was simply the most centralized city for the meeting,” said Della Wilson, PV Chamber Director.

In a letter to Wilson, Northern Flyer Alliance Executive Director Autumn Heithaus said the Alliance will make a presentation to transportation officials from Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma.

“This presentation will include exciting updates out of the state of Kansas and Washington D.C. This will affect your community and your input is needed to complete this study,” Heithaus said.

In March Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) requested a study by Amtrak on the feasibility of providing state-sponsored rail service between Kansas City, Mo., and Oklahoma City, via Newton, Kan.

The study is set to begin this summer and will consider potential schedules and existing Amtrak stations, as well as railcar and locomotive availability among other start-up costs.

Saturday’s meeting in Pauls Valley is the first step toward the $200,000 feasibility study.

According to Heithaus four different operating scenarios will be discussed during Saturday’s conference.

“The first is a Heartland Flyer expansion on its existing schedule to Newton, Kansas, connecting with the Amtrak train running between Chicago and Los Angeles,” she noted in her letter.

The route between Kansas City and Newton is served by the Amtrak Southwest Chief (Trains 3 & 4), which stops in the early morning hours in Lawrence and Topeka and operates daily between Chicago and Los Angeles.

The second proposal, Heithaus said, is an expansion of the Heartland Flyer to Kansas City through Wichita.

“The third is a new train operating between Oklahoma City and Kansas City, possibly on an altered timetable,” she continued.

A fourth possible scenario includes a segmented route with three trains:

•A train operating between Kansas City and the Wichita area;

•A train operating between Wichita and Oklahoma City; and’

•Leaving the current Heartland Flyer schedule intact as a third train.

“With skyrocketing fuel costs and the need to bolster local economies, Amtrak passenger trains could become the economic engine upon which Oklahoma rides,” Heithaus noted.

Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant has encouraged state-supported routes as the fastest growing portion of Amtrak’s business.

“We have carried out several studies in the Midwest and elsewhere in the last few years, with Illinois doubling the size of its state rail program since 2006 and California continuing to rack-up growth that has contributed to five straight years of record Amtrak ridership,” he said.

        

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