Hope lingers for the Heartland Flyer

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Feb 12, 2002 by Bill May

Despite the national publicity surrounding Amtrak's threat to shut down long-haul passenger service, the Heartland Flyer is expected to continue, at least for another year.

"I don't expect it to be impacted if Amtrak does shut down its long-distance passenger service," said Joe Kyle, railroad program director for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

For one thing, with nearly three years' experience behind the Heartland Flyer, which operates between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, tourism and chamber officials in cities along the route want to continue, if not broaden, the service.

Even though officials thought when service was inaugurated June 15, 1999, that initial ridership would be great -- it was, even better than anticipated -- they thought after the novelty wore off, the number of passengers would decline.

That hasn't happened, Kyle said.

Of course, nothing can match the first month's service when more than 50,000 people rode the train. Still, recent passenger totals are encouraging.

"We had a strong drop right after the Sept. 11 terrorists' attacks, everybody did, but passengers have come back," he said. "Our December figures are about what they were last December. That's the last month for which we have total numbers.

"It's encouraging."

Still, rail fans do have some concerns.

Passenger service was instituted on a three-year trial basis, with a $23 million federal grant and some state money. Officials had hoped the train would become self-supporting within the three-year period.

It hasn't.

The three-year period ends June 14.

It's not going to suddenly come to an end, because there is enough money to keep it operating for about another year.

Most of this money comes from fare boxes, concession revenues and some left over federal money, Kyle said.

This gives chamber of commerce and tourism officials within the communities with a train stop a little breathing room to jump-start lobbying efforts to keep the train running.

The train has given new life to many of the downtowns, especially those that have developed festivals and have tourist-related shopping near the depot.

For three years, the coalition -- including representatives from the Texas Eagle line and from a proposed route to Newton, Kan. -- has developed a cohesive plan to advertise the Heartland Flyer corridor outside Oklahoma.

It seems to be working, they say.

Expanding the service would help even more. A key element of the Oklahoma rail passenger plan is to start service between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, as well as expand the Heartland Flyer north.

Connections then could be made at different points -- Kansas City and Newton -- to let travel agents and tourists alike know that Oklahoma is on the map.

Oklahoma's rail plans, though, could come apart if Amtrak carries out its threat.

Both the Southwest Chief -- between Chicago and Los Angeles with stops in Kansas City and St. Louis -- and the Texas Eagle -- Oklahoma's only connection with the national system -- could be eliminated if unprofitable routes shut down.

The reason Amtrak is making these threats is pure and simple: money.

Amtrak cannot meet the congressionally mandated schedule of becoming self-sufficient by the end of 2002, especially if unprofitable long-haul routes must continue.

The publicly supported rail service -- which has been in business more than 30 years -- would become merely a commuter system in several segments of the country if it doesn't receive further federal money, according to Amtrak President George Warrington.

"Everyone knows that you can't make a profit while running a network of unprofitable trains, but that is exactly what we are expected to do," he said.

This cutback, which will involve cutting 700 jobs, will be done in October, if Congress doesn't give Amtrak another $1.2 billion for Fiscal Year 2003, which begins Oct. 1.

Amtrak is anticipating a $200 million shortfall this year.

President Bush's budget, though, calls for $521 million for Amtrak.

When Amtrak drew up the list of 18 potential routes to cut, it was not considered a big surprise. After all, the General Accounting Office -- the investigative arm of Congress -- found in 1998 that long-distance trains were the company's biggest losers. This was reinforced earlier this year by the Amtrak Reform Council.

Rail fans are particularly upset over the threat to pull most of the east-west service. After all, they say, Americans have had access to east-west rail travel for more than 135 years.

"There has never been a time you couldn't go coast to coast on rail (since the first transcontinental line was completed in 1869)," said Bruce Richardson, president of United Rail Passenger Alliance, which supports continued subsidies for long-haul routes.

Most of the profitable lines are in the heavily traveled Northeast or are operated under an agreement with states. This includes the Heartland Flyer.

So, if money can be raised, there's no threat to that line.

These state-supported routes are profitable because in negotiations, Amtrak wrung out concessions that the state subsidies would guarantee profitability.