Amtrak Plan May Get Derailed

Tulsa's closest access to Amtrak is more than a hundred miles away. A plan to extend it to Tulsa might be derailed by a plan to take it to Wichita.

The News On 6's Emory Bryan reports it doesn't have to be one plan or the other, but that could very well happen. The state would have to pay to start up the service and the Wichita route is much less expensive.

The rail line has a deal with Greyhound so riders can take the bus to Oklahoma City and connect with the train. Tulsa City Councilor Rick Westcott thinks that's just not good enough.

"Northeastern Oklahoma taxpayers are paying for Amtrak, we're just not getting the service," said Rick Westcott of the Tulsa City Council.

He wants the rails used for passengers, with a downtown station for Amtrak that connects with Oklahoma City, but there's growing alliance behind a $5 million plan to extend Amtrak service to Kansas on a route that bypasses Tulsa.

"If you go northeast from Oklahoma City through Stroud and Tulsa to Miami and Vinita, you add 1.1 million potential riders.  I think it's not what costs the least, it's what serves the most Oklahomans," said Westcott.

The plan to connect the rail lines Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas picked up speed with legislation signed years ago by Governor Keating.

Just two months later, the Heartland Flyer from Texas rolled into Oklahoma City, but the route was never extended to Kansas.

So the Amtrak line from Fort Worth ends in Oklahoma City. From there it could go north to Wichita and connect to an existing cross country route or it could go east to Tulsa and beyond. That's a longer and much more expensive option.

When Amtrak rolled an inspection train through Tulsa in 1998, it was determined the rails to Oklahoma City needed a lot of work, now estimated to cost $110 million.

That's the main reason Tulsa hasn't had passenger rail service since the "Lone Star" back in 1979.

Councilor Westcott wants to make sure Tulsans don't get railroaded into paying for a new Amtrak line, that doesn't even have a crossing here.

The rails between Tulsa and Oklahoma City can only take passenger cars up to 25 miles an hour, so they're unusable without major work.

The rail line from Oklahoma City to Wichita is in much better shape.