People love the Heartland Flyer, but nailing down its true economic impact is far from on track

Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer has been chugging along for more than five years on its 418-mile daily round trip from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, Texas, with a rise in ridership during the past several years. It’s Amtrak’s No. 1 passenger train in customer satisfaction.

But tough questions remain about funding, possible expansion and the commitment of state, city and local players who will decide the Flyer’s fate.

The train doesn’t make a profit and it’s unlikely to do so in the future. So is it worth keeping?

A little more than a year remains until the route’s federal funds from the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 derail by design in September 2005. Nonetheless, the train’s backers are considering possibly providing a full- or part-time caretaker at Oklahoma City’s Santa Fe Station, train schedule changes, expansion northward and establishing long-term funding sources.

Figures supplied by Marc Magliari, media relations manager for Amtrak, show the Flyer’s ridership for June up 11 percent when compared to June 2003, or 5,638 riders compared to 5,079.

From October 2002 to June 2004, ridership has grown 17.9 percent. Nearly 290,000 passengers have journeyed since the route began anew in 1999, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation reports. Since its beginning, 171,611 passengers have boarded the Heartland Flyer in Oklahoma City, 47,124 in Norman, 11,077 in Purcell, 30,395 in Pauls Valley, 42,968 in Ardmore and 64,837 in Gainesville, Texas.

But information about the economic impact was scant.
Inquiries with ODOT, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, the OKC Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, the office of the Oklahoma City Manager and the Oklahoma Department of Commerce came up wanting for readily available economic impact models.


Joe Kyle, ODOT’s rail program division manager, said Oklahoma is asking Amtrak to provide information on a wide variety of topics while exploring various options to improve service, including whether a schedule reverse or the addition of another train would bring in more daily visitor traffic into Oklahoma City.

Currently, the Flyer departs by schedule around 8:25 a.m., arrives in Fort Worth, Texas, by 12:39 p.m. and returns to Oklahoma City by 9:39 p.m. Late-night arrivals into Oklahoma City face the prospect of having a two-night’s stay to conduct a day’s business here via train.

When passengers arrive in Oklahoma City late, no Amtrak station agent is available and the restored historic building is locked up.

“We are working closely with ODOT and others to look at ideas on how to further improve service,” Magliari said. “Changing the schedule is one of the things we’re talking about, but there are costs involved. As for opening the Santa Fe Depot at night, I know ODOT and the property owner have been in conversations.

“We are hoping to work out some arrangement, but to put a staff member at the station is not productive use of a full-time person. Perhaps something can be worked out for a caretaker to be present on a less than full-time basis?”

Kyle said the property’s landlord, Jim Brewer, meets federal requirements for maintaining the station. Brewer said he’s been in discussions with Oklahoma City Manager Jim Couch. He said he’d also like to possibly see one of the Bricktown police officers there to meet the train.

“I went in and spent a lot of my own personal money and time on the Santa Fe station and it is gorgeous,” Brewer said. “I don’t know what Amtrak is doing, but we will discuss it … I will be glad to help in any way … We need to see if there’s some budget to help with that train. We’re working on it and we think the city and convention and tourism people can help.

“I’m sure there’s a good economic impact in Oklahoma City. I’d like to see a lot more Texans coming this way. We’ve got great hotels, restaurants and entertainment. We’re getting ready to get on the fast track.”

Couch confirmed the pair have future meetings. Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett has asked Couch to hold discussions with Amtrak to see what it would take to keep the station open at night, he said.

“Funding wasn’t put in this year’s budget, but we’re going to see what we can do and may talk to other players,” Couch said. “Obviously, a city this size needs to provide a lot of transportation options … We hope Amtrak has a long future with Oklahoma City, with better hours, more service and better amenities.”

Judi Elmore, Heartland Flyer Coalition chair, said each community along the route has either built or renovated depots for an investment of about $6 million. She said by using local contractors for the renovations, the trickle-down impact is impressive.

“Many groups, particularly those from the Altus and Lawton areas,use Ardmore as a boarding place,” Elmore said. “The Flyer leaves at 10:20 a.m., meaning groups are likely to eat breakfast and shop while waiting for the train. As the owner of a Main Street business, I can affirm that the train has a positive impact on Ardmore.”

But Elmore wasn’t sure a full-time agent at the Santa Fe Depot is “feasible.” She suggested that part-time agents, possibly working shifts, might be more realistic.

“No one seems to be able to come up with a way to fund an agent or any of the many other ideas we’d like to see implemented,” she said. “The key is for the Oklahoma Legislature to provide a dedicated source of funding, then we can realistically discuss staffed stations, automated ticket machines and expansion plans. Reversing the Flyer’s schedule is one of many options we’ve discussed, but that’s still in the discussion stages.

“While we do have a number of ‘day trippers’ to Texas, more passengers are using the Flyer to connect to the Texas Eagle, Amtrak’s daily service to Chicago and San Antonio and thrice-weekly to Los Angeles and Orlando. The Eagle connection has to be considered in any fine-tuning. We’ve noticed more Texans are visiting Bricktown. The current schedule requires an overnight stay in Oklahoma City, rather than an afternoon – that translates into two hotel nights, two days of meals and more. Schedule reversal would eliminate that second night’s stay and might not have the positive economic effect many seem to anticipate.”

Dean Schirf, vice president of government relations for the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, said politics helped Oklahoma lose service for 20 years beginning in 1979. He recalls solid usage of Santa Fe’s Texas Chief prior to Amtrak taking over the national passenger rail system in 1972, and afterward when Amtrak’s Lone Star took over the route.

Schirf said Oklahomans, especially senior citizens, complained when the service that flowed all the way from Chicago to Oklahoma to Houston shut down.

“We should have never lost it,” Schirf said. “Political decisions were the demise of our train … At that time, we were in a time of transition and didn’t have a lot of political clout in Washington D.C. … Train routes that survived seemed to have a lot of political clout.”

Schirf’s doubtful Oklahoma will receive any more Heartland Flyer federal funds. He praised former state Sen. Dave Herbert and U.S. Sen. Don Nickles for their support. While funding measures usually pass the Oklahoma Senate, they have had more difficulty passing in the House, he said.

“It would be a good thing if Texas would finance a part of that service,” Schirf said. “It all comes back to money.”
He suggested an idea that might help could be the expansion of the route north to Perry, to possibly connect with the Southwest Chief, a route that stretches from Chicago to Los Angeles, with its nearest connection point to Oklahoma in Newton, Kan.

“Our passengers who want to go to Chicago have to go south to Fort Worth and that’s a long journey,” Schirf said, “but we are struggling to keep the one single train we have funded. We have to solve the problem of taking care of the financing of our existing service … We’re committed to retaining this service and the challenge is ‘how?’ If we expand north, I’m not saying they’re going to make a profit, but if you expand the amount of stops, it will help the operational budget.”

For Kyle, all options are open. He said he and ODOT are working on solutions with Amtrak and others to find solutions or options for all the issues on the table.

“We may be able to negotiate a new contract in October,” he said. “We currently anticipate having funding available for another full one-year contract and will see what we can get provided.”