Interest in Tulsa-OKC passenger rail heightens again

Source: Tulsa World, Okla.self storageJan. 05--Amtrak's Heartland Flyer between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, Texas, has boarded more than a million passengers since it started operation nearly 15 years ago -- and service to Tulsa was supposedly not far behind.But since then only a handful of tourist trains have made the slow, windy trek from Sapulpa to Oklahoma City, mostly filled with railroad enthusiasts.Starting next month a promotional rail company, Iowa Pacific Holdings, will chart three round-trip passages from Tulsa to the Oklahoma capital and back called the "Eastern Flyer," a test for many to see if there is even enough interest to chart a regular service route."We really want to see what the demand is for regular passenger rail," said Tracie VanBecelaere, a spokeswoman for Watco Cos., a small railroad operator in the state based out of Pittsburg, Kan., and a partner on the Eastern Flyer trip. "The main reason to run this is to get a feel for what passenger service could be like."Iowa Pacific and Watco plan to bring retro passenger cars to Oklahoma on three weekends, making round trips from Sapulpa starting in the morning with a return trip at night. Tickets start at $70 with additional charges for sitting in luxury cars and food service.No one involved with the project says the Eastern Flyer compares to the kind of regular passenger rail service many in the region have sought for decades. The ticket costs are too high to justify commuter passenger service, the trip too slow.But in a region deprived of passenger train service for 46 years, the Eastern Flyer gives some hope that a route to Oklahoma City might be within reach.The Eastern Flyer promotional train has sold more than 700 tickets, Iowa Pacific officials said Friday. Also, the state Department of Transportation received thousands of comments supporting a rail plan, saying it would connect Oklahoma City to Tulsa and reduce the need to drive.A line in limboAny chance of a Tulsa-to-Oklahoma City train route is made possible by a 97.5-mile stretch of state-owned rail line known as the Sooner Sub.The class II railroad connects from Sapulpa to Oklahoma City on a windy stretch of rail that runs through Bristow and Stroud.The state bought the little-used railroad in 1998 to keep it from being abandoned. Stillwater Central Railroad, a part of Watco Cos., leases that stretch of railroad for about $500,000 a year.The remaining stretch that connects Sapulpa to Tulsa is owned by BNSF Railway. BNSF Railway is owned by billionaire investor Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway. A subsidiary of the company, BH Media, bought the Tulsa World last year.After 15 years of ownership, ODOT says interest has grown in the Sooner Sub line and the state has put the stretch of rail up for sale."The intention since the line was purchased was always to sell it at a later date," said Tim Gatz, ODOT's deputy director.However, Gatz said that there have been provisions made in state law to make sure that the Sooner Sub line is available for passenger rail in the event of a sale.Passenger rail advocates fear that the sale of the Sooner Sub line could kill the chances of service between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Watco Cos. is interested in developing passenger rail on the line and will likely make a bid on the rail line, VanBecelaere said.But now the rail line is in need of desperate repair. Watco executives have said the line needs more than $200 million in repair and upgrades to be in condition for regular passenger rail service. Siding areas would need to be added to allow trains to pass one another and stretches of track need to be straightened.Due to the track's current condition, trains are only capable of traveling about 30 miles per hour, said Craig Moody, rail programs division manager at ODOT. At that rate, a trip from Sapulpa to Oklahoma City would take more than three hours, nearly double the travel time of a car along the Turner Turnpike.ODOT plans to take bids on the Sooner Sub line through Jan. 30, and the department will pass a recommendation on to a board of the governor's cabinet later in 2014.Decades of effortsTulsa had passenger train service for decades until 1967, when the nation's passenger rail system crumbled and was eventually consolidated into Amtrak, the publicly funded but for-profit entity that provides most of the country's passenger rail service.Even Oklahoma City had a 20-year absence of train service until Amtrak's Heartland Flyer began in 1999, thanks to a federal grant and widely surpassed ridership expectations.But even with higher-than-expected passenger rates, the serv迷利倉ce was nearly cut when the federal grant ended in 2005 before a rally to restore the service resulted in the Legislature giving $2 million a year to subsidize the line.A Tulsa connection seems like an obvious addition that could eventually connect passenger rail service to Kansas City and the rest of the upper Midwest. Amtrak passengers wishing to travel from Oklahoma City to Chicago first have to head east to Little Rock, Ark., before heading north through St. Louis.Practically the same route is required to travel to Denver, Albuquerque, N.M., or any destination in the west.Alternative routes to the West would take passengers south through San Antonio, then west to El Paso, Texas, and then through New Mexico, Arizona and California."Oklahoma City to Tulsa is the missing link in this part of the country," said Evan Stair with Passenger Rail Oklahoma, a private advocacy group. "The demand is there. They could do four to six trips a day."The Federal Railroad Administration in 2009 identified Tulsa to Oklahoma City as one of 11 potential rail projects targeted for possible federal funding.ODOT made a proposal for federal transportation dollars in 2009 for a high-speed rail project that would accommodate a train running 110 miles per hour, but the $2 billion proposal was rejected.Local and state politicians have tackled the concept of an Oklahoma City-to-Tulsa rail line several times over the last two decades, but those efforts have fizzled as high costs for the project are replaced by other funding priorities.Tulsa Transit even studied a link to connect Broken Arrow to downtown Tulsa, but the proposed $43 million project again lost momentum because of costs and a lack of popular support.Another proposal being studied by lawmakers and transportation officials in Kansas calls for a line connecting Oklahoma City to Newton, Kan., just north of Wichita, that would connect to Amtrak lines and bypass Tulsa entirely."It's really the best way to connect Oklahoma City to the rest of the country," said Gary Lanman, vice president of the Northern Flyer Alliance. "If you want Amtrak service, this is the way to go."The Tulsa City Council formed a committee in 2012 to advocate for a passenger rail line to Oklahoma City and get it established as quickly as possible. A report from the task force said that cities along the Fort Worth-to-Oklahoma City route have seen increases in local sales because of passenger rail traffic.In early 2013, the Oklahoma Legislature commissioned a study on the Oklahoma City-to-Tulsa passenger rail corridor, calling for an environmental study and developing proposals for what passenger rail might look like.The intent of the study, Gatz said, is to have a "shovel ready" rail project in the event that a federal transportation grant develops to cover costs on repairs, upgrades and equipment purchases.It's too early, said Gatz, to see if ODOT may endorse a plan to bring a national carrier such as Amtrak to extend service to Tulsa or to contract with a local operator such as Watco Cos.The state intends to finish gathering data sometime in 2014, develop a handful of proposals and then hold a second round of public meetings sometime next year. The entire study should be finished by summer 2015.Kyle Arnold 918-581-8380kyle.arnold@tulsaworld.comSome 700 tickets sold already for Eastern FlyerOrganizers of the Eastern Flyer, the promotional rail service from Sapulpa to Oklahoma City, reported on Friday afternoon more than 700 tickets sold in its first week of sales.The rail service, which operates on the Stillwater Central Railroad in conjunction with the Iowa Pacific, has promotional trains scheduled for Feb. 9, 15 and 23.The Feb. 15 train has sold out tickets for standard class and standard with first-class dining service. Tickets for all classes on the other two trains remain as of Friday afternoon.Tickets range from $69.75 to $271.50."The demand for rail travel continues to grow and ticket sales crushed our overall goal of 300 tickets," said Angela Arias, vice president of marketing for Iowa Pacific's Premier Rail Collection.For more information visit easternflyer.com or call 855-487-1430.Tulsa-Oklahoma City passenger rail corridor$235.5 million: Estimated costs for improvement to Sooner Sub rail line97.5: Miled from Sapulpa to Oklahoma City on Sooner Sub line46: Years since regular Tulsa-to-Oklahoma City service ended10: Miles of track between Tulsa and Sapulpa owned by BNSF RailwaysCopyright: ___ (c)2014 Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.) Visit Tulsa World (Tulsa, Okla.) at .tulsaworld.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉