By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — The Kansas Department of Transportation estimates it will cost $311 million to restore Amtrak passenger rail service from Oklahoma City to Newton that was abandoned nearly half a century ago, officials said Wednesday.
Investment in federal, state or local funding would be necessary to modify track to deal with bottlenecks exacerbated by blending freight and passenger traffic and to address shortcomings at train stations along the two-state corridor. The Heartland Flyer operates on 200 miles of track from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, Texas, but the plan would be to extend in 2029 the northern terminus to Newton where passengers could connect the Southwest Chief operating the Chicago-to-Los Angeles route.
“The full reconnection of this corridor, which was discontinued in 1979, will provide increased transportation choices and economic opportunity for rural and urban residents and businesses,” said Martin Alvarez, KDOT’s rail project coordinator.
Alvarez said the base infrastructure price — excluding annual operating costs of passenger service — would be $175 million in Kansas and $136 million in Oklahoma.
He said on a conference-call planning update with more than 100 people interested in the project that KDOT anticipated the cost of the passenger-rail endeavor could surge to $573 million if the objective was to accommodate passenger trains running at a maximum of 79 mph on the Kansas and Oklahoma line. Otherwise, passenger trains could operate at about 55 mph, which would extend passenger travel times.
KDOT undertook a comparable planning process in 2011 in anticipation of filling the passenger rail gap and bolstering rail traffic into Kansas City, Missouri, but that effort feel short due to lack of financing. New optimism was created by President Joe Biden’s signing of legislation outlining massive federal investment in rail system improvements.
It’s unclear whether President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-led House and Senate would seek to unravel infrastructure programs tied to Biden and associated with the Heartland Flyer proposal.
Under KDOT’s assessment, the new section of passenger service would provide consumers with a daily northbound and southbound runs from Newton to Fort Worth. The trip from Newton to Oklahoma City would be about 3.5 hours, while the Newton to Fort Worth ride would take 7.5 hours.
KDOT said that if completed and operational in 2029, the new service would add 16,000 riders in the first year and grow to 33,000 within four years. The federal government would subsidize operational expenses, but that commitment would gradually shrink over six years before leaving operational expenditures with participating states.
Pete Meitzner, a member of the Sedgwick County Commission in Kansas, said he was pleased KDOT made public the information on potential capital and operational costs of running the Heartland Flyer north through Wichita. He said data was essential to the upcoming lobbying effort to secure Kansas government support for the development. The Legislature previously earmarked $5 million aside for the project.
“It’s important we all understand, if you’re getting ready to talk to any of your legislators, that you have a grasp of what the actual costs might be,” he said.
Laura Kliewer, director of the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission, urged KDOT to expand the scope of planning to consider advantages of extending the Heartland Flyer route to Kansas City, Missouri. The economic impact of servicing Topeka, Lawrence and Kansas City should be a feature of the study, she said.
“I think there’s a lot of people that want to see that happen,” Kliewer said.
In addition, Kliewer asked an Amtrak representative on the call if the company would consider covering a portion of infrastructure improvements required to bolster reach of the Heartland Flyer.
Thomas Stennis, director of government affairs for Amtrak, declined to make such a pledge.
“No, it’s a state-supported route,” he said. “The improvements are traditionally done by states or a state’s partner.”
The states of Texas and Oklahoma jointly fund daily service on the Heartland Flyer from Fort Worth to Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma and Kansas officials, along with representatives from Amtrak and BNSF, have been in discussions since 2023 about seeking federal authorization and funding to expand passenger service. In December 2023, the Federal Railroad Administration accepted KDOT’s application to have the Oklahoma City-to-Newton extension be part of a corridor development program.
