KDOT OKs study of Amtrak expansion
John Green, The Hutchinson News
Friday, December 5, 2008
State transportation and Amtrak officials have agreed on the scope of a study to determine the feasibility of state-supported train service from Kansas City, Mo., to Fort Worth, Texas, via Newton.
The Kansas Department of Transportation has budgeted $200,000 for its portion of the study, which will identify construction and equipment requirements, as well as potential annual operating costs needed to run the service.
The Oklahoma and Texas transportation departments are also cooperating in the study, which will be done by Amtrak.
The study will consider factors such as potential schedules, railcar and locomotive availability and capital needs for rail improvements to accommodate passenger service, said Ron Kaufman, KDOT’s chief of public involvement in Topeka.
Amtrak has already done some preliminary work, Kaufman said, so the study is expected to be complete sometime in 2009.
The service, if implemented, should have no impact on the schedule or routes of the Southwest Chief, Amtrak service that serves Hutchinson on the route from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Also, as part of the study, BNSF Railway will analyze the capacity of its tracks on the 600-plus-mile route because a passenger rail service would have to share them with BNSF freight trains.
Places for proposed stops in Kansas — at least for the study — include existing stations in Lawrence, Topeka and Newton, plus new stations in Emporia, Strong City, Wichita and Winfield or Arkansas City.
Being in the study is not a commitment for the city to host a station, Kaufman said.
Fourteen towns in Kansas were initially considered for stops.
“In Kansas, we assessed the economics, population density and demographic characteristics of each town,” Kaufman said. “We’re using the same approach used around the country to identify those locations that would probably be best suited to reach the highest potential ridership.”
The number of stations must create a balance between service and speed, Kaufman said.
“The more often you stop, the slower the trip and that loses riders,” he said. “We’re looking at six or seven stops along the way as a reasonable number.”
The study envisions four different scenarios:
• A nighttime roundtrip between Newton and Oklahoma City, connecting with the Southwest Chief and extending the Heartland Flyer — a train that makes a daily roundtrip between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City — using the existing trainset.
• A nighttime roundtrip between Kansas City and Fort Worth via connections at Newton and Oklahoma City. It would not connect to the Southwest Chief, but would use the existing Heartland Flyer and a new service between Kansas City and Oklahoma City.
• A daytime roundtrip between Kansas City and Fort Worth via Newton and Oklahoma City using a new, stand-alone service and two new trains for the entire route.
• And a daytime roundtrip between Kansas City and Oklahoma City using a new, stand-alone service and two new trains for the entire route.
If the study recommends the service be considered, it would still be up to legislatures in each state to decide if their states should support it.
“They’d have to locate the funding and provide it,” Kaufman said. “It would be up to KDOT and the Legislature to decide if the cost is worth the benefit and provide the funding. That said, in the last six months there’s been a nice flurry of activity at the federal level to provide funding to assist states. That’s great news.”
dale011 (anonymous) says...
This is wonderful news.
December 5, 2008 at 3:11 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Free4all (anonymous) says...
This is great, We use the train and would enjoy the convenience of an Emporia stop rather than watch the train go bye to only drive to Topeka to pick up family members at 5am.
December 5, 2008 at 5:38 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
b3bill (anonymous) says...
This is really good news. Emporia needs passenger train service restored. Of course it won't be suitable or desirable for everyone, but that's ok, nothing else is either. At least having the option to take Amtrak to/from Emporia would be there.
It is a shame that Amtrak's Southwest Chief no longer stops here, even though it still goes through each day. Some other long distance passenger routes have "whistle stops", which means the train is notified ahead of time to stop only if passengers are there to get on or off the train. With The Southwest Chief being an all-reserved train, and with today's communication means, it should be simple for Amtrak to coordinate stopping here for just a couple minutes when there are passengers getting on or off. A depot is not required to do that. Other towns do it.
Hopefully the effort to get Emporia as a stop on the new proposed Amtrak route will get ongoing strong support by the elected officials of Emporia and Kansas. They need to stay on top of this and represent Emporia as being a stop for Amtrak. I hope a lot of their constituents are planning to hold them accountable to work hard on this. As a separate item, these same officials should once again request Amtrak to make Emporia a whistle stop for The Southwest Chief. There is no need to wait to make that request. Emporia needs to be a stop for both The Southwest Chief and the new proposed train.
Emporia needs everything like this it can get. It is one way to help improve the town and provide transportation service for many people.
December 5, 2008 at 9:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
MelissaE (anonymous) says...
Is the Southwest Chief the one that starts in CA and ends in Chicago? If so, I rode that and literally watched as the train went through Emporia around 3am-ish only to land in Topeka so my mom could drive there to meet us to take us back to Emporia. I thought it was pretty odd that it never stopped there even though it goes through right through Emporia (who had a depo) every so often.
I think that bringing another train to town (going north & south) is a great thing. :)
Melissa
December 5, 2008 at 10:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Free4all (anonymous) says...
That was the train I was commenting on Melissa. My wife came back from CA and I did watch for it to go by on the bridge a block away from my house at around 4am. Then left for Topeka and still beat it there by 15 minutes. Flying can be such a hassle now that we both prefer a relaxing (sometimes) train ride.
December 5, 2008 at 11:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Yes, great news for many reasons besides having this wonderful mode of transportation available to us. A new depot for Emporia hopefully means jobs for local construction folks. I wonder if there will be taxi service so we don't have to leave our cars in a parking lot. I also wonder if there will be some sort of security for the area so people can indeed leave their cars when they go away for trips. I wonder where they would build a depot? Just wonderin' lotsa stuff.
December 6, 2008 at 11:09 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )