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Thu March 27, 2008

Flyer service may expand to Kansas

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Heartland Flyer passengers board the train at the depot in Oklahoma City. The Kansas Department of Transportation is studying the possibility of expanding the train north. BY PAUL HELLSTERN, The oklahoman
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By Ja’Rena Lunsford
Business Writer
When the Heartland Flyer launched in 1999, John Dougherty said that was the just the beginning of passenger rail service in Oklahoma.

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"Of course we'd like to move on to phase one and two,” said Dougherty, assistant division manager of rail programs for the state Transportation Department.

That may happen in the near future, taking the Heartland Flyer north of Oklahoma City and into neighboring Kansas.

The Kansas Department of Transportation recently asked Amtrak to do a study on what it would take to provide passenger rail service between Oklahoma City and Newton, Kan. The hope is to connect the Heartland Flyer to Amtrak's Southwest Chief, which runs daily from Chicago to Los Angeles.

"We have a good train whose ridership is increasing and we have a dead end in Oklahoma City,” Dougherty said. "I think the leadership of both states sees the benefit of working together.”

The study, which will cost the Kansas Transportation Department between $150,000 and $200,000, also will look at the possibility of extending the Heartland Flyer to Kansas City. Amtrak expects to begin the study this summer and complete it next year.

"We have carried out several studies in the Midwest and elsewhere in the last few years,” Alex Kummant,