{"id":58470,"date":"2025-07-12T02:38:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T02:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/58470\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T02:38:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T02:38:13","slug":"dfw-oklahoma-train-to-keep-running-thanks-to-temporary-funding-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/58470\/","title":{"rendered":"DFW-Oklahoma train to keep running thanks to temporary funding boost"},"content":{"rendered":"

A popular Amtrak train that ferries passengers between Dallas-Fort Worth and Oklahoma will continue running for now, despite state funding falling through. <\/p>\n

The Regional Transportation Council of the North Central Texas Council of Governments voted Thursday to redirect $3.5 million in regional toll revenue to cover operating costs of the Heartland Flyer for another year. <\/p>\n

The 206-mile rail line<\/a>, which traverses the Interstate 35 corridor, was under threat of suspension by October<\/a> after the Texas Legislature failed to include $7 million in requested funds \u2014 enough to fund support operations for two years \u2014 in its $338 spending bill this session. <\/p>\n

The route is operated in partnership between Texas Department of Transportation and the Oklahoma DOT and has been in operation since 1999. <\/p>\n

Breaking News<\/p>\n

Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond.<\/p>\n

Related:Future of D-FW to Oklahoma train in limbo as funding falls through<\/a><\/p>\n

Historically, the Lone Star State has provided about $2.5 million annually in funding for the Flyer \u2015 less than half of the operating costs, according to Texas Rail Advocates.<\/p>\n

The NCTCG in February allocated $100,000 to keep the rail line operational through September.<\/p>\n

The funding approved by the RTC this week would help bridge the gap until the next legislative session, where the TxDOT can again ask the state to fund the rail line. The train served 80,000 passengers last year \u2014 a 14% increase \u2014 and reached $2.2 million in ticket sales. <\/p>\n

Halting operations could mean federal funds for the train would be pulled back, and being without the rail line would jeopardize regional transportation planning for the FIFA World Cup games next summer, RTC director Michael Morris said during Thursday\u2019s meeting. <\/p>\n

In a letter to the council, officials noted the Flyer generated more than $5 million in economic benefits and $23 million in economic activity in the region. <\/p>\n

\u201c…The Heartland Flyer alleviates congestion on one of Texas\u2019 busiest highways and supports workforce mobility and job access \u2013 key pillars of Texas\u2019 $97.5 billion travel industry,\u201c according to the text. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn Fort Worth alone, the $3.5 billion tourism economy benefits significantly from continued rail service,\u201d said the letter, signed by the mayors of Fort Worth and Gainesville, as well as Denton County Judge Andy Eads. <\/p>\n

The Heartland Flyer also connects to the Texas Eagle between Chicago, Fort Worth and San Antonio, with further connections on the Sunset Limited for travel between San Antonio, El Paso and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

NCTCOG will seek reimbursement of the funds from the state and \u201cinitiate a ridership campaign reducing the need for a subsidy,\u201d according to Thursday\u2019s agenda. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A popular Amtrak train that ferries passengers between Dallas-Fort Worth and Oklahoma will continue running for now, despite…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,7372,358,522,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-58470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fortworth","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-transportation","13":"tag-tx","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114837950022452649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}