Could June 30, a deadline only ten weeks away at this writing, mark the final run for Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer, the only passenger train in Oklahoma? That could happen, according to a report posted by the Texas Rail Advocates (TRA):
“North Texas is on the cusp of losing the only daily train that serves Fort Worth, Gainesville and Oklahoma points because the yearly funding for the train was stripped out of the Texas legislative budget. The Heartland Flyer, in operation since 1999, carried more than 80,000 passengers last year and is in jeopardy of being discontinued as early as June due to lack of funding. It would mean more than 50,000 vehicles a year back on Interstate 35 and a loss of sales tax revenue, hotel and restaurant traffic and well as tourist dollars if the train goes away.”
The Flyer is a remnant of the Texas Chief, operated historically by the Santa Fe and retained as an Amtrak route during the 1970s, although its name was changed to the Lone Star Limited in 1974. Before the train was discontinued in 1979, it ran between Chicago and Houston, through Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, Temple, and other intermediate stops. A portion of the route came back on June 12, 1999 under the Heartland Flyer name. Only the four-hour run between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth returned to the nation’s passenger train map. The part of the route between Oklahoma City and Newton, Kansas (which is served by the Southwest Chief, Trains 3 and 4) did not return, although there have been proposals from time to time to restore that segment. Today’s train serves Fort Worth and Gainesville in Texas, and Ardmore, Purcell, Pauls Valley, Norman (home of Oklahoma University) and Oklahoma City in the Sooner State.
The TRA report also said: “Fighting to stay alive is not a new thing for the Heartland Flyer, which is a partnered service between the Texas and Oklahoma Departments of Transportation and operated by Amtrak crews. Every two years local and regional elected and appointed officials have fought for funding, sometimes getting a last-minute reprieve. Ridership continues to build post-pandemic. Last year ridership was up 14%.” Despite those increases and the economic benefits that a passenger train brings to the communities it serves, the Flyer’s survival is in jeopardy. The problem this time lies with difficulties getting the Lone Star State to pay its share of funding, according to TRA: “Texas picks up less than half of the operating costs of the train, some $2.5 million a year and Oklahoma shoulders the balance. The Texas share has not changed in the past decade, while all costs have escalated. TxDOT asked for an ‘exceptional item’ in this year’s budget to bring the Texas share of costs up a realistic level, but budget planners in Austin stripped out the request as well as the base operating cost.”
TRA President Peter LeCody defended the train and urged his fellow Texans to contact their legislators and ask them to keep the funding going. The above-cited report on the TRA website said: “This is an interstate transportation choice for many in North Texas. This train serves college students going to Norman and Oklahoma City or coming to Fort Worth, day tourists coming to Cow Town and it’s the only direct surface public transportation option between Fort Worth, Gainesville and other Oklahoma stops. You want to take a bus? You change in Dallas.” Rich Andreski, CEO of Trinity Metro, which operates the TEXRail line and buses in Fort Worth, told other attendees at the TRA’s Southwestern Rail Conference on April 8: “Now is the time to advocate.”
According to LeCody, the money for the train has gotten caught up in Texas politics. He told Railway Age: “This is nothing new. Every two years, we’ve had to go in and fight for the same meager amount of money. For the last decade, there has only been a $2.6 million appropriation per year for the operating side of the Flyer. This did not account for any inflation adjustment or increase in the cost of operations. A loaf of bread probably cost about $1.50 ten years ago and, at today’s prices, you’re probably paying over $4.00 a loaf. $2.6 million ten years ago doesn’t cut it in today’s economy.” LeCody cited a 2010 study by the Texas Transportation Institute. According to the TRA report: “A previous study by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute showed that for every dollar the state of Texas spent on the Heartland Flyer it returned over five dollars in economic benefits to the cities that the train serves.”
LeCody added that he and his colleagues are actively campaigning in Austin to get the money that would keep the train going. He told Railway Age: “We’re down there, trying to educate and inform officials that: a. the Flyer’s ridership is increasing since the pandemic, b. it’s part of a North Texas transportation network that feeds Amtrak’s Texas Eagle, the Trinity Railway Express, TEXRail, and the Trinity Metro network out of Central Station in Fort Worth, and c: what we really need to see in the future is a dedicated fund for reviving passenger rail like the one that was recently enacted in the State of Kansas.” He added: “We also need a second frequency on that line” and said that the decision on funding for the Flyer will happen within the next several weeks.
Advocates along the old Texas Chief and Lone Star Limited route have been pushing for the return of passenger service along the gap between Newton, Kansas (on the Southwest Chef route) and Fort Worth (on the Texas Eagle route) since only half of that route came back, almost 26 years ago. The current operation includes a bus bridge between Oklahoma City and Newton, but the bus does not make intermediate stops, except at Wichita, Kansas. Proposals have called for extending the Flyer to run between Oklahoma City and Newton during overnight hours, which would connect with the Southwest Chief westward to Albuquerque and Los Angeles, and eastward to Kansas City and Chicago. Other proposals have called for a daytime train that would add a new frequency on a different schedule.
Ironically, the proposal to extend the Flyer northward has been gaining ground in Kansas. TRA reported on Friday, April 18’ headlined Kansas secures passenger rail future as Texas risks regional setback with Heartland Flyer. The report was datelined Topeka, Kansas and began: “In a bold move for regional mobility and economic development, Kansas has officially secured a future for expanded passenger rail service with the signing of Senate Bill 125 on April 10, 2025. The new law gives the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) unprecedented authority to support passenger rail initiatives, including the long-anticipated Heartland Flyer Extension north from Oklahoma City connecting with the Southwest Chief in Kansas, with stops in Edmond, Guthrie, Perry, Ponca City, Arkansas City, Wichita, and Newton.” Initial funding starts at $5 million.
TRA also commented, saying: “This milestone puts Kansas on track to become a central connector in the Midwest Regional Rail System, positioning it for increased tourism, job growth, and transportation access. Yet as Kansas moves forward, Texas—one of the original anchors of the Heartland Flyer—may be stepping back” and “The Heartland Flyer Extension is about more than just rail. It’s about people, it’s about access to medical centers, universities, airports, and economic opportunity. By expanding north through Kansas, the route could eventually link Texas to the full Midwest passenger rail grid, strengthening regional cooperation, generating regional economic growth and reducing highway congestion, especially on Interstate 35.”
The Kansas-based Northern Flyer Alliance (NFA) campaigned at the Kansas legislature for the northward extension of the Flyer and reported its victory in Topeka on its website on April 16: “In a bold move for regional mobility and economic development, Kansas has officially secured a future for expanded passenger rail service with the signing of Senate Bill 125 on April 10, 2025. The new law gives the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) unprecedented authority to support passenger rail initiatives, including the long-anticipated Heartland Flyer Extension north from Oklahoma City connecting with the Southwest Chief in Kansas, with stops in Edmond, Guthrie, Perry, Ponca City, Arkansas City, Wichita, and Newton.”
However, the same report cautioned: “This milestone puts Kansas on track to become a central connector in the Midwest Regional Rail System, positioning it for increased tourism, job growth, and transportation access. Yet as Kansas moves forward, Texas—one of the original anchors of the Heartland Flyer—may be stepping back.” The extension to Newton, Kansas, would allow connections with the Southwest Chief in both directions.
NFA President Deborah Fischer Stout confirmed the details. She told Railway Age: “We want an endowment that’s self-replicating” and described the politics behind the effort to secure funding for the proposed train. It included SB 86, a Senate bill that would provide $5 million in funding that could support operations for three years, starting in July 2026 and running through June 2029. That bill, which was narrowly directed toward a rail appropriation, was folded into SB 125, an omnibus budget bill:
According to Stout, the Senate was supportive, but the House referred the appropriation to the Finance Council, a Kansas institution that includes the governor and legislative leaders. The Finance Council approved it, and Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, signed the budget bill. In the current session, Republicans hold more than two-thirds of the House seats and more than three-fourths of the Senate seats.
Stout is upbeat about the new funding source. She told Railway Age: “We don’t have to ask for money, and KDOT [the Kansas Department of Transportation] has everything we need for a state match.” She said that the money can be used for operating support for the proposed train, and it would be spent as a multimodal project under KDOT’s Eisenhower Legacy Transportation (IKE) Program as a “no-limit” project. During the campaign for funding, she established the Kansas Passenger Rail Caucus and stressed the business benefits and return on investment in passenger rail, citing a study in Missouri that demonstrated such a result, as well as the Texas Transportation Institute study also cited by LeCody. The NFA website said, “According to a Kansas University Benefit Study, we would see an economic return of better than 3:1. The Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M reports that the current Heartland Flyer passenger train produces $18 million in benefits, and it costs $4 million per year to keep it running.” Regarding the Missouri study, the NFA website said: “Missouri’s 2021 Amtrak Economic Impact Study further reinforces the benefits of sustained investment. Missouri saw $208 million in annual economic activity, generating $12 million more in state tax revenue than it costs to operate the Missouri River Runner, an Amtrak-operated state-supported corridor. These figures are proven, not theoretical; they reflect real dollars, real jobs, and real mobility options.”
Even with this victory in Kansas, the Flyer will not be running north of Oklahoma City anytime soon. Stout said that KDOT had estimated that service could begin in 2029, but she also warned that it could take longer. In the meantime, the best-case scenario is that the Flyer will continue to operate on its current route, with a bus to connect passengers between Newton, Wichita, and Oklahoma City. The most ironic scenario would be that trains will run north of Oklahoma City starting four or five years from now, but there will no longer be a train south of Oklahoma’s capital, because Texas failed to come up with the money to run the train after June 30, 2025.
That is the specific result that advocates in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, including the Texas Rail Advocates and the Northern Flyer Alliance are making such a concerted effort to prevent.
