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Suggestions for improving East-Midwest and North-South routes and connectivity. |
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 Proposal
to restructure Texas Eagle & expand Heartland Flyer |
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While new route suggestions might seem to come from a distant galaxy at this
time in Amtrak's continuing funding crisis, ideas and new ways of doing things
should never be put to bed. Imaginative thinking and thinking "outside of the
box," as the cliché' goes, breeds innovation. Besides, if people only do things
the way they've always been done, nothing will get done.
The following concerns restoring the Texas Chief/
Lone Star route, one of Amtrak's most patronized long-distance trains
during the 1970s, which ran from Chicago-Kansas City-Topeka-Wichita-Oklahoma
City- Fort Worth/Dallas-Houston.
With little additional equipment, the
Heartland Flyer, a stub end
service running only four or so hours from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, could be
extended northward to Newton, Kan., north of
Wichita, to provide passengers
direct connection to Amtrak's popular east-west
Southwest Chieftrain, which
runs from Chicago to Los Angeles via
Kansas City and Albuquerque.
Improving the Texas Eagle
The following proposal shows what type of
investment could be made to improve that service and add more passengers from
Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and points beyond
Amtrak should also seriously consider
restructuring gthe
Texas Eagle and provide a more direct and less circuitous routing
from Chicago to the second largest U.S. state. This
proposal shows improvements that can be made by extending the
Heartland Flyer from Fort Worth to
San Antonio, and from Oklahoma City to Chicago, via Kansas City.
In another proposal, from a Texas-based transportation consultant, extends
the successful
Heartland Flyer,, which runs
Oklahoma City to
Fort Worth, to northern cities and restores a long-needed
north-south line running from the Twin Cities
(Minneapolis/ St. Paul) to Kansas City,
Wichita, Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, Austin and
San Antonio.
http://www.onlinetoday.com/users/mobdaldm/md060697.htm
The popular Oklahoma route was discontinued purely for political reasons during
the "Carter bloodbath" of 1979 when Brock Adams, President Carter's
transportation secretary, ordered a severe Amtrak budget cut.
The following
proposal restores only the Lone Star/
Texas Chief route, Kansas City - Fort Worth.
The proposal has a needed overnight train running from Chicago to Kansas City
and proceeding through Kansas during daylight hours to Oklahoma City, arriving
Fort Worth late evening. Northward, the train leaves Fort Worth in the morning,
arriving Oklahoma City mid-day, Kansas City, late evening, Chicago, next
morning.
This idea could add needed second frequencies to the
Heartland Flyer,
which departs Oklahoma City
early morning, arriving Fort Worth
early afternoon.
Northward, the
Heartland Flyer
leaves Fort Worth 5 p.m., arriving
Oklahoma City late evening.
Perhaps this should be a first step
to returning the needed north-south connectivity.
http://www.trainweb.org/midtown/fortworth.htm
Among the many benefits of the proposal is the service provides DAYLIGHT rail
service to Kansas, and its biggest city, Wichita. Kansas' only passenger train,
the successful Southwest Chief, travels through the Sunflower State mostly in
the wee hours of the morning.
The Carter Bloodbath - the worst cut in Amtrak history -
discontinued nearly a half-dozen other prominent trains, including the
National Limited, which ran New
York/Washington - Philadelphia - Pittsburgh - Columbus, Ohio - Indianapolis -
St. Louis -Kansas City with through car connections to the Southwest Limited
(now Southwest Chief) in Kansas City, as
well as Chicago-Nashville-Florida, also fell to the ever-falling (when it comes
to Amtrak funding) budget ax .
This proposal,
for service
from Washington D.C. to Cincinnati, St. Louis, Little Rock, Dallas and beyond,
improves the current Cardinal route and restores a partial National Limited,
tying it in with the current Texas Eagle, which runs Chicago-St. Louis - Dallas
- Fort Worth - Austin - San Antonio.
The Webmaster's personal preference would be to keep the current
Cardinal, which runs Chicago - Washington D.C. via Cincinnati, but add this
route as an adjunct, since the proposed schedule would cut the fantastic scenery
between Washington D.C. and Cincinnati.
Other improvement ideas-
Making Newton, Kan., a rail hub for Kansas City to Oklahoma and Texas service
OTHER ROUTE IMPROVEMENT IDEAS:
More great ideas for
improving Amtrak - for adjusting equipment utilization to marketing.
Suggestions for
restructuring Amtrak's western routes
More proposals - including those from the
United Rail Passenger Association, will
be posted to the MOKSRail Web site in the future. They are worth your
consideration.
Ideas for expanding
Amtrak's Auto-Train service
