NEWTON, Kan. — Extending the Heartland Flyer 198 miles to connect with the Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chief at Newton, Kan., has been a goal of passenger rail advocates ever since the state-funded train between Fort Worth, Texas, and Oklahoma City debuted in June 1999.
In the meantime, passengers wishing to travel between these north-south and east-west routes utilize a nocturnal Amtrak Thruway bus service operated by BeeLine Express. The northbound bus departs Oklahoma City in the evening after the Flyer arrives, rolling into Newton before both Chiefs are scheduled to stop. It then returns south after they depart, arriving at the Oklahoma City Amtrak station in time for patrons to catch the southbound train to Fort Worth. At least, that’s the way it is supposed to work.
With corridor designation and infrastructure improvement grant applications seeking to extend the Heartland Flyer to Newton, Trains News Wire recently traveled from Chicago to an event in Marshall, Texas, via Newton, Oklahoma City, and Fort Worth to evaluate the current setup.
Ticketing through connections is key
The table below shows how the Flyer and Chief connect if all trains are on time.
When booking on the Amtrak website, travelers must make sure their final destination through the connection points at Newton and/or Oklahoma City is part of the same reservation. This allows the Newton Amtrak agent, BeeLine drivers, and train conductors to see which passengers are transferring.
That’s especially important when trains are chronically late. Unfortunately, the Southwest Chief is regularly suffering hours-long delays this summer on BNSF Railway’s freight-heavy Southern Transcon. Through Saturday, July 29, the eastbound Chief arrived into Newton earlier than 4 a.m. only 11 times during the month. In contrast, the westbound Chief made the connection on 26 of 29 occasions; two of the misses were caused by tardy Chicago departures.
Nevertheless, passengers aren’t stranded at Newton in the wee hours. On the morning of July 20 for instance, the BeeLine bus and driver waited until after 5 a.m. for 18 passengers off the eastbound Chief. They were destined for Wichita or Oklahoma City, though none were ticketed for the Heartland Flyer.
However, one passenger off of the earlier arriving westbound Chief was traveling from Topeka, Kan., to Austin, Tex., and two others connecting to the southbound Flyer were scheduled to board the bus at Wichita. Since waiting until 5 a.m. for eastbound No. 4 would mean westbound No. 3’s passenger would miss the Fort Worth-bound train, BeeLine General Manager Jim Lynch arranged to have an independent contractor drive a second, “on time” departure out of Newton to Fort Worth. A van normally covering such occasions happened to be in the shop, so the passengers piled into its last-minute substitute: a Ford pickup.
A fourth southbound passenger off the westbound Chief (me) also squeezed in. My trip was booked Chicago-Oklahoma City and Oklahoma City-Marshall, Tex. on two separate reservations because this was the cheapest saver fare combination.
In hindsight, that was a big mistake. Had the other three passengers not been connecting to the Flyer that night, Lynch would not have known to schedule the extra trip. Though more expensive, booking the entire four-segment journey on one reservation would have ensured making all connections.
“Amtrak has given me latitude to hire a private contractor to haul connecting people separately so they can make the Heartland Flyer,” Lynch later tells Trains News Wire. “If a passenger misses a ticketed connection, at Amtrak’s expense we offer a Wichita or Oklahoma City hotel room and food voucher, then pick them up the next morning. We enjoy a fabulous relationship with Amtrak.”
Flyer won’t wait
A long-scheduled BeeLine stop in Wichita allows for some flexibility. “I can have the bus leave Newton 25 minutes late and still make the connection in Oklahoma City,” says Lynch, who also regularly communicates with the Chief’s Dodge City-Kansas City conductors to pinpoint the train’s progress. If the northbound Flyer is delayed, the BeeLine bus can wait no longer than 20 minutes due to tight bus connections at Wichita to other cities. In that case, a separate vehicle also brings passengers to Newton .
According to Lynch, Amtrak insists the Heartland Flyer’s Oklahoma City departure not be delayed — even 5 minutes — for one or two passengers. “When I’ve had five people or more connecting, they will hold the train for 15 minutes, but not a nickel more,” he says.
During the first nine months of Amtrak’s 2023 fiscal year, ridership rose 5.7% and revenue 12.4% from 2019; compared to the same period through June last year, both are up about 20%. Even with the growth, Amtrak last week announced a Heartland Flyer fare sale, reducing prices up to 35%.
The train has lots of personality, thanks to its friendly operating crew and veteran cafe attendant Merrill Graham, who stimulates sales by touting specialty cocktails on the morning run. More than a dozen BNSF Railway freights in both directions got out of the way, enabling an on-time arrival into Fort Worth, where the midday temperature was 103 degrees.
Should the Flyer be extended to Newton on a line without passenger service since Amtrak cut the Chicago-Houston Lone Star in 1979, there will likely still be a need for BeeLine’s customer focus and dedication if the eastbound Chief’s timekeeping continues to have problems.
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