Heartland Flyer's Future???

[Patrick]

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.”

[BG918]

Why don't they just extend it to Tulsa? It would be great for both cities, and also places like Chandler, Stroud, Bristow, and Sapulpa that the train would make stops at on the way. In the future a line from Tulsa to Claremore, Vinita, and Miami onto Springfield and St. Louis, then connecting to Chicago and the East Coast, would be a good option.

[HOT ROD]

We need to implement Express Service between OKC and Ft Worth, add it to the current schedule but change the times. Here is my stab at it.

Weekday
OKC-FTW: 5am - 7am EXPRESS
FTW-OKC: 8am - 10am EXPRESS
OKC-FTW: 12n - 4pm LOCAL
FTW-OKC: 7pm-10pm LOCAL

Weekend
OKC-FTW: 8am - 12n LOCAL
FTW-OKC: 5pm - 9pm LOCAL

We could continue with this schedule using the existing train. The Express Service would run from OKC Santa Fe train station to FTW train station non-stop. Local service would be like it is currently.

The addition of Express Service would be attractive for business clientel, as they could quickly get to FTW/Dallas and OKC at the beginning of the day to conduct business then stick around to shop/eat and take the train back (except FTW-OKC business pax would need to stay the night - even BETTER!!! support our downtown hotels!!! or leave by noon). The Express Service also provides other options for Oklahomans, especially since we are subsidizing the train. It is MUCH too underutilized currently!

The Express Service may also add additional revenue, as the price would be a bit higher than the local service. Business pax would surely pay the price, as would other pax as the price would be cheaper than flying and easier than driving.

Additional revenue (sustaining the train service) could be achieved with a gasoline/diesel tax. Such a tax may only need to be a statewide assessment of $0.001 per gallon, but may be enough to not only sustain the existing service but could also add staff to the OKC train station (like ticket agents, automatic ticking, security, gate agents, vending/keeping the building open).

We could also (and should have already done this) add in a restaurant and gift shop to the train station. The restaurant could be a full service outfit to serve pax and the community plus a smaller one (like a deli) for train pax. The gift shop could be an OKC tourist shop, like we have been talking about. We could also get a car rental outfit there as well!

These ideas, in addition to the sales tax increase and Express Service, should provide more than enough $$ to not only keep the train here and moving but also may add service up to Wichita and Newton KS. Of course, such a route would need another train but the additional revenue of the (Express Service, sales tax, full service restaurant and deli at the station, gift shop and car rental at the station) should provide enough revenue to sustain it all and make a profit!

One more idea, we could get TX to cough-up some cash for the line. Heartland Flyer runs for at least 50 miles in TX, so that increment should be assessed to TX. For instance, the train runs for 175 miles in OK and 50 miles in TX (approximate), so TX should pay 20% of the line. This could come in the form of diesel for the line, if nothing else. OK would not cover that.

If we expand to KS, a similar assessment to them should be required.

Imagine this:

Express Service weekdays OKC-FTW RT
revised local service
full-service restaurant inside the OKC train station
deli/fast food restaurant inside the OKC train station
gift shop inside the train station
car rental booth(s) inside the train station
at least two full-service AMTRAK ticket/reservation clerks at the station
gate service clerks at the station
baggage clerks at the station
security personnel at the station

would accomplish the following:
1) full utilization of the Heartland Flyer
2) more attractive service for business clients
3) more attractive service for OK client
4) the train service is more OK oriented (instead of FTW oriented) as FTW business pax would still be required to stay overnight in downtown OKC hotels [this is a good thing]
5) the train service would be permanently funded
6) the additional services/amenities would pay for the people performing the service plus add to the overall revenue and pay for the operation of the service.
7) a new restaurant would open in downtown
8) we could finally get a fast food outfit downtown [despirately needed, we need food diversity in the heart of downtown]
9) we could finally get an OKC oriented gift shop [which the zoo could set-up a permanent kiosk, as could other OKC attractions and hotels]
10) we could see a definite return of cabbies in downtown OKC
11) we would see a return of rental car agencies in downtown OKC (much needed!)
12) we would have a near 18 hour operation of the train station (using my conceptual hours) [train would run from 5am - 10pm]
13) with the advent of amenities and additional service, downtown OKC becomes even more attractive as a tourist and business destination
14) we could use some of the $$ to advertise the service (part of the TX allottment could be for advertising in TX market about OKC business and tourism)
15) other markets would benefit, even though the Xpress does not stop, more people may take the local [as they go down to FTW for business on xpress then take local back home and purchase locally on the way back]

Guys, this seems like a no brainer to me. How come it is so difficult for ODOT to do this. The same thing should have been done to the UNION BUS terminal. Retail and restaurant has been needed there for some time. Ditto that at Will Rogers World Airport.

We need to make sure amenities come as part of these new attractions! That new METRO terminal should have included retail space and a fast-food restaurant. Additional revenue for METRO and additional amenities for bus pax.

[HOT ROD]

I think it would be easier to extend to KS than TUL, as the track improvement would not be economical. The KS track is straight and is said to support high-speed, as does the TX track.

The Tulsa track was not well thought out, as it is too wine-dy (?). There is not even good freight track connecting OKC-Tul, I believe - which explains all the truck traffic.

Tulsa could be an expansion once the KS route (and additional improvements to TX and the OKC train station) are made. For now, we could implement AMTRAK Motorcoach from OKC-STL via Tulsa and Joplin. It could stop at Tulsa's train station and build revenue and momentum for that route. In fact, hopefully the motorcoach revenue would go specifically for the OKC-TUL train track improvements to implement the service, as hopefully the other options will sustain and improve the existing Heartland and expansion.

I agree BG, a Chicago - Oklahoma City Sooner Express route would be nice [hopefully in the future] but it may take a while for that and I think a Motorcoach could get that started!

[HOT ROD]

I received this reply from the mayor's office. It is nice to see them on the same page as we are!

From : <frances.cory@okc.gov>
Sent : Monday, August 16, 2004 9:17 AM
To : HOT ROD
Subject : RE: Heartland Flyer suggestions

Thank you for your recent email of August 7, 2004. I appreciate you taking the time to express your interest and concern in the Heartland Flyer.



Your comments regarding the need for expansion of this service are certainly well taken. I am pleased to learn that the Heartland Flyer is nearing completion of its fifth year in service. Being in the center of the United States, we are committed to transportation efforts through our city. Our railways, highways and airways are vital to our economic development and future growth.



Thanks for taking the time to write us.



Fran Cory for Mayor Mick Cornett

Executive Assistant

[Patrick]

Yeah, Frances Cory has been the mayor's secretary for years now. I've talked to her numerous times. If she says the city is committed to keeping the service, then she's probably right! She definitely would know. Anyways, that's great news! Sounds like the leadership we have in this city is superb.