William J. Flynn

CEO Amtrak

Amtrak held a Zoom media event on Tuesday, June 9th to discuss their plans to extend and expand the frequencies for the Heartland Flyer Train. Attending the meeting were Senator Moran of Kansas, Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn, Amtrak President Stephen Gardner and officials from Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. They proposed covering all of the capital costs and early support costs while the states will participate after the third year.

Amtrak's Vision:

Fort Worth – Oklahoma City – Wichita – Newton

Amtrak’s vision extends the existing Heartland Flyer route to serve Wichita and link to Amtrak’s Southwest Chief:

• Expand from 1 to 3 round trips between Oklahoma City (OKC) and Fort Worth (FTW), connecting with Texas Triangle services to Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, and the Texas Eagle to Los Angeles, Tucson, St. Louis, and Chicago.

• Extend 1 Fort Worth – Oklahoma City round trip to Wichita and Newton, KS

(NEW) for a connection with Amtrak’s Southwest Chief to Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Kansas City, and Chicago.

Corridor Growth

Extension and improvement of Amtrak’s existing Heartland Flyer service would enhance existing service between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City, bring new service to Wichita, and increase connectivity to the Amtrak network via Newton. Although Oklahoma City and Wichita are only 160 miles apart, the last time they were connected by passenger rail was in 1979. Additionally, the service would connect to the Texas Triangle routes included in Amtrak’s corridor vision. The Dallas/FortWorth area is home to over 7.5 million people, the fourth largest in the United States, and the route in total would serve an area with over ten million residents.

The Amtrak Media Event is below:

https://vimeo.com/amtrakmedia