January 23, 2024 - TRA Newswire -

The Regional Transportation Council (RTC) of the North Central Texas Council of Governments has approved a request of $100,000 to ensure that there are no service disruptions this year on the daily Amtrak Heartland Flyer that operates between Fort Worth, Gainesville and Oklahoma City. 

NCTCOG Transportation Director Michael Morris noted that in November 2024, their staff learned that Texas' share of funding for the Heartland Flyer passenger rail service could have a potential funding shortfall of about $72,000 in their current 2024 fiscal year operating budget, which ends later this year.

Increased operating costs from Amtrak resulted in the shortfall and the state of Texas can't seem to find any funding for passenger rail above a set $2.6 million budget for the service. That $2.6 million Texas share has not increased in over a decade, despite increased costs. More than half of the total yearly funding is supplied by the state of Oklahoma, which partners with TxDOT. 

In the last fiscal year according to average statistics, the daily round-trip train resulted in over 50,000 vehicles diverted off the busy I-35 corridor between Fort Worth, Gainesville and other Oklahoma cities. 

The transportation staff at the North Texas Council also received approval of the transportation Council to inform the Texas legislature that the TxDOT request for funding the interstate rail service is inadequate.

"This is an interstate passenger rail service which means the state of Texas, not a local or regional transportation council should be responsible for adequately funding the train," according to Texas Rail Advocates President Peter LeCody. "By the Council of Governments having to step in more than once shows that there's something wrong at the state level in wanting to promote, maintain or expand passenger rail service of any type in our growing economy. This service is crying for a daily second round-trip and we're still locked in fighting for the same budget for ten years."

The $100,000 guarantee from NCTCOG will be drawn from Regional Toll Revenue (RTR) funds and will help assure that there is adequate funding for the daily round-trip train. Both ridership and revenue have been increasing on the Heartland Flyer, despite no marketing help on the Texas side from the state transportation agency.

The Heartland Flyer serves Fort Worth and Gainesville in Texas, makes stops at Ardmore and several other Oklahoma towns on its daily roundtrip to Oklahoma City. The train jumped from 72,379 passengers to 80,371, comparing FY 2023 to FY 2024, an increase of 11%. 

The RTC had previously approved $700,000 for a shortfall for fiscal year 2023, which was ultimately not needed as the Texas Department of Transportation finally resolved the funding gap. Transportation staff previously reported this to the RTC. The current request was for the funding shortfall for the 2024 fiscal year. 

In the current legislative session, TxDOT has proposed a one-time out-of-budget request for $2.1 million for the Heartland Flyer. The Exceptional Item, one of many in the agency's Legislative Appropriation Request, holds no guarantee that state appropriators will approve the line item during the current session in Austin. 

Photo Credit: Oklahoma Department of Transportation