Passenger Trains > Heartland Flyer Extension Very Close to Approval!!

Great news for those people who live along the existing Amtrak Heartland Flyer route. In the future, you all will likely be able to take a train to towns like Perry, Wichita, and Newton(connection will be available to the SW Chief route). It’s good that two roundtrips will run from Fort Worth to Oklahoma City. Hopefully eventually both would be able to run to and from Newton. A heads up, eastbound SW Chief Train # 4 departs Newton at 2:19 while westbound # 3 departs Newton at 2:41.

https://www.normantranscript.com/news/heartland-flyer-to-expand-council-nods-approval-for-more-passenger-rail/article_143f10f6-d177-11ec-879f-3fc825450529.html?fbclid=IwAR2Ic6IqiXbsN1ZPsw0vFbOZRMCFWJOwjVLtCteS_A23VoY99llE0TgpoV0

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/14/22 07:31 by Passfanatic.

This is the Norman, OK city council................   That is nice, BUT meaningless.  

In Ohio where I am, the mayors of Dayton, Columbus, Crestline, etc. have all spoken for the 3-C corridor.  But until the Governor of Ohio (DeWine) speaks out clearly and strongly and repeatedly for it, it is dead in the water.  

It takes massive broad support to start or restart train service by an army of advocates.  Then we have to deal with NEC oriented Amtrak.  (They do not even know where Norman, OK is)

Finally you have negotiate with BNSF.  

Still some years away.  Do not make your travel by train plans.

Ed

Newton, KS and Cleveland Ohio have two things in common-many of the long distance trains that serve those two stations are during the nocturnal hours. In Newton Kansas, if both Train # 3 and 4 are on schedule, they pass within a couple of minutes of each other. It's going to be interesting to see how many people will be tranferring from the Heartland Flyer to the Southwest Chief at Newton Station. If enough people are willing to stay up in the middle of the night, then there could be many people connecting from the Heartland Flyer to the SW Chief. Hopefully there will be some establishments that will be open late night hours in Newton. There will probably be many people using the Heartland Flyer to travel between towns along that route. You might have somebody who lives in Arkansas City who would want to take the train to visit a doctor in Wichita. It would be nice someday if more than two roundtrips of the Heartland Flyer could run. In addition, extending the trains to Dallas.

That's great news, let's hope they can schedule them on end to end connections with the Chief and Eagle!

Presently, Train # 821, the Southbound Heartland Flyer arrives into Ft. Worth at 12:27 pm. SB Texas Eagle Train # 21 departs FTW at 2:10 heading for San Antonio. Returning, the northbound Texas Eagle departs San Antonio at 7:00 am, arriving into FTW at 1:58 pm. The northbound Heartland Flyer Train # 822 departs FTW at 5:25, arriving into Oklahoma City at 9:25. Yes, give or take, it should be possible to connect between the Heartland Flyer and Texas Eagle and vice versa at FTW. Something tells me that the 821 and 822 will cross into Kansas.

I don't know if many people would be connecting from the Texas Eagle to the Heartland Flyer and then to the SW Chief. For example, a person who lives in Austin who wants to go to Los Angeles will likely fly. For rail travel, they might as well just take the Texas Eagle to the Sunset Limited. It's been almost a decade since I rode the Texas Eagle and Sunset Limited. Last time I did, there were through cars attached from the Texas Eagle to the Sunset and vice versa in San Antonio.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/22 20:24 by Passfanatic.

Passfanatic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Presently, Train # 821, the Southbound Heartland
> Flyer arrives into Ft. Worth at 12:27 pm. SB Texas
> Eagle Train # 21 departs FTW at 2:10 heading for
> San Antonio. Returning, the northbound Texas Eagle
> departs San Antonio at 7:00 am, arriving into FTW
> at 1:58 pm. The northbound Heartland Flyer Train #
> 822 departs FTW at 5:25, arriving into Oklahoma
> City at 9:25. Yes, give or take, it should be
> possible to connect between the Heartland Flyer
> and Texas Eagle and vice versa at FTW. Something
> tells me that the 821 and 822 will cross into
> Kansas.
>
> I don't know if many people would be connecting
> from the Texas Eagle to the Heartland Flyer and
> then to the SW Chief. For example, a person who
> lives in Austin who wants to go to Los Angeles
> will likely fly. For rail travel, they might as
> well just take the Texas Eagle to the Sunset
> Limited. It's been almost a decade since I rode
> the Texas Eagle and Sunset Limited. Last time I
> did, there were through cars attached from the
> Texas Eagle to the Sunset and vice versa in San
> Antonio.

It would give them better access to places like Kansas City and Albuquerque though.

Most people don't ride the entire route.

DevalDragon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Passfanatic Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Presently, Train # 821, the Southbound
> Heartland
> > Flyer arrives into Ft. Worth at 12:27 pm. SB
> Texas
> > Eagle Train # 21 departs FTW at 2:10 heading
> for
> > San Antonio. Returning, the northbound Texas
> Eagle
> > departs San Antonio at 7:00 am, arriving into
> FTW
> > at 1:58 pm. The northbound Heartland Flyer Train
> #
> > 822 departs FTW at 5:25, arriving into Oklahoma
> > City at 9:25. Yes, give or take, it should be
> > possible to connect between the Heartland Flyer
> > and Texas Eagle and vice versa at FTW.
> Something
> > tells me that the 821 and 822 will cross into
> > Kansas.
> >
> > I don't know if many people would be connecting
> > from the Texas Eagle to the Heartland Flyer and
> > then to the SW Chief. For example, a person who
> > lives in Austin who wants to go to Los Angeles
> > will likely fly. For rail travel, they might as
> > well just take the Texas Eagle to the Sunset
> > Limited. It's been almost a decade since I rode
> > the Texas Eagle and Sunset Limited. Last time I
> > did, there were through cars attached from the
> > Texas Eagle to the Sunset and vice versa in San
> > Antonio.
>
> It would give them better access to places like
> Kansas City and Albuquerque though.
>
> Most people don't ride the entire route.

That is true-depends on which stations they board at along the Eagle plus whether if the passengers would be able to get to bed during the middle of the night. Remember that the SW Chief has had many stretches of very sloppy on time performances. If let's say 3 arrives into Newton very late and I am talking probably about three hours or more late, basically, sleep patterns among the passengers could be interrupted a lot. At least, those who have booked rooms on the SW Chief will certainly be able to get to bed right after they board. I have been at Amtrak stations in the middle of the night for a few hours-not recently thankfully. In 2010, as part of a cross country rail trip, I was riding the entire Empire Builder route. I rode 28 from Portland to Spokane and then switched to 7 at Spokane, which I took to Seattle. I certainly got to bed super duper late that night but managed ok. For those passengers who might be heading from the DFW Metroplex, Austin, and San Antonio to Albuquerque or Kansas City, if they don't wait to deal with staying up in the middle of the night, my advice would be to keep using the same transportation options. Probably many of those people drive and fly. It's about a nine hour drive from Fort Worth to Albuquerque and then eight hours from Fort Worth to Kansas City. There are people who probably use Greyhound but I couldn't sit for more than maybe 5 hours on a Greyhound bus. ABQ Sunport isn't as big of an airport as Dallas-Fort Worth. I don't know how many direct flights there are between the two.

Passfanatic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> That is true-depends on which stations they board
> at along the Eagle plus whether if the passengers
> would be able to get to bed during the middle of
> the night. Remember that the SW Chief has had many
> stretches of very sloppy on time performances. If
> let's say 3 arrives into Newton very late and I am
> talking probably about three hours or more late,
> basically, sleep patterns among the passengers
> could be interrupted a lot. At least, those who
> have booked rooms on the SW Chief will certainly
> be able to get to bed right after they board. I
> have been at Amtrak stations in the middle of the
> night for a few hours-not recently thankfully. In
> 2010, as part of a cross country rail trip, I was
> riding the entire Empire Builder route. I rode 28
> from Portland to Spokane and then switched to 7 at
> Spokane, which I took to Seattle. I certainly got
> to bed super duper late that night but managed ok.
> For those passengers who might be heading from the
> DFW Metroplex, Austin, and San Antonio to
> Albuquerque or Kansas City, if they don't wait to
> deal with staying up in the middle of the night,
> my advice would be to keep using the same
> transportation options. Probably many of those
> people drive and fly. It's about a nine hour drive
> from Fort Worth to Albuquerque and then eight
> hours from Fort Worth to Kansas City. There are
> people who probably use Greyhound but I couldn't
> sit for more than maybe 5 hours on a Greyhound
> bus. ABQ Sunport isn't as big of an airport as
> Dallas-Fort Worth. I don't know how many direct
> flights there are between the two.


Nice Big Block of Text. Too bad I quit trying to read it about three lines into it.
You want people to read your stuff then don't make it hard labor to do it.