Check it out! Is this too cool, or what? City attractions on track to be tied by train | NewsOK.com

City attractions on track to be tied by train
By Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer

Plans are moving forward for an excursion train between the Adventure District and Bricktown, with organizers announcing Monday they have obtained funding for a $625,000 stop at NE 50 and Grand Boulevard.

The excursion train restored by the Oklahoma Railway Museum is able to make only out and back trips from the organization's Oakwood Station at NE 36 and Grand Boulevard.

When the new stop is completed this summer, travelers will have the option of getting off at NE 50. They then can hop on a shuttle operated by Remington Park that also serves the Oklahoma City Zoo, Science Museum Oklahoma and other Adventure District attractions.

With the NE 50 stop complete, organizers say the next task is to extend the route into Bricktown.

"When we have the opportunity to have visitors who are staying downtown, and they want to go to attractions in the Adventure District, they'll be able to do so by train,” said Harry Currie, director of the Oklahoma Railway Museum. "This will be another addition for the whole community.”

Looking at the future

On Monday, top contributors and representatives of the Adventure District gathered for a tour of the new route, which passes through the Lincoln Park Golf Course and adjoins the new upscale Rose Rock neighborhood.

Courtney Gutekunst, coordinator of the Adventure District, thinks the train could be key to linking the area, anchored by the zoo, several museums, Remington Park and the Softball Hall of Fame Stadium, with Bricktown. The Adventure District is visited by an estimated 3 million people a year, while Bricktown has previously estimated its visitor count at 10 million a year.

"There is huge potential whenever this train track is completed for trains to go from the museum, then north to the Adventure District attractions, and then south to Bricktown,” Gutekunst said. "It really could be huge.”

Lee Allan Smith, a longtime community fundraiser and chairman of centennial projects and events, said efforts to create the excursion train service go back more than 20 years to when he visited with then-Mayor Andy Coats about acquiring old Santa Fe Railway tracks between the Adventure District and downtown.

The NE 50 and Grand train stop was made possible, Smith said, largely by the donation of land by Ben Kates, the owner of Midwest Wrecking.

Passengers aboard the train Monday included Joe Kyle, who reported numbers on Amtrak's Heartland Flyer passenger service to Fort Worth, Texas, are matching the best reported since the service was relaunched several years ago. Kyle, head of the railway division at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, worked with the state Centennial Commission to clear up access to tracks into Bricktown, and he predicted the excursion train will experience similar popularity with travelers.

"It's a really good trip. It connects a vibrant part of Oklahoma City with another vibrant part of Oklahoma City. I would really like to see it happen.”
By the way, if you've not been to the Oklahoma Railway Museum, I recommend that you do ...



Some pics are in my Trains 2 article ... Doug Dawgz Blog: Okc Trains Part 2