I read that Kansas has asked Amtrak to conduct a study of Kansas City to Fort Worth service. Other than the old Santa Fe route, what others still exist? Didn’t Katy and Frisco have some kind of service?
Thanks,
Roy
The only route I recall still operating at the time of Amtrak was the Santa Fe Texas Chief. The MKT/ Frisco had dropped there joint Texas Special between St. Louis and San Antonio and MKT continued the train as a Kansas City - San Antonio train but without looking it up I believe it had disappeared a couple of yeras before Amtrak. The Texas Chief was a Chicago - Kansas City - Ft. Worth/Dallas- Houston - Galveston train at one time and Amtrak operated it as far as Houston. The only other Kansas City - Ft. Worth operation I recall was the Twin Star Rocket of the Rock Island between Minneapolis and Houston but was discontinued by the time of Amtrak. Today I would say the only route for a reinstated passenger service would have to be the former AT&SF now BNSF. The others are not in that great a shape and the BNSF for part of the route at least is double tracked.
Al - in - Stockton
The Rocket Island’s The Twin Star Rocket ran from Minneapolis to Fort Worth and Houston via Kansas City. From Minneapolis to KC it was Train #17. From KC to Houston it ran via El Reno, OK, Fort Worth, Dallas and intermediate stops. South of El Reno it was Train # 24. Northbound it was Train #s 23 and 18.
In 1963 it departed KC at 10:00 p.m., with a scheduled arrival at El Reno at 4:40 a.m. It was carded for Fort Worth at 8:39 a.m., Dallas at 9:40 a.m., and Houston at 2:15 p.m.
Between Kansas City and Fort Worth the assigned equipment was a Minneapolis - Houston R.I. parlor lounge car, a Minneapolis - Houston R.I. sleeper (8 Duplex Roomettes, 6 Roomettes, and 4 Double Bedrooms, a Kansas City - Houston R.I. sleeper (8 Roomettes and 6 Double Bedrooms), a dinning car from Minneapolis to Houston, and chair cars from Minneapolis to Houston.
Interestingly, the sleepers between Minneapolis and Houston were operated by the Rock Island Railroad. Connecting sleepers between Minneapolis and Los Angles were operated by Pullman.
The Rocket was cut back to Fort Worth in 1964, and it was withdrawn from service south of Kansas City in 1967. It appears to have been a viable alternative to the Texas Chief between KC and Fort Worth, with better departure and arrival times from KC and Fort Worth.
As Al has said, I believe the only viable route today between KC and Fort Worth would be the BNSF.
Although I would like to see an expansion of the Flyer north of OKC to atleast Newton take place, I’d be shocked if it ever happened. I’ll believe it when I see it. The problem here is the state of KS and where the funds will come from. Keep in mind TX & OK are states rich w/ oil revenue and because of that, they can do lots more regarding to infastructure upgrades. KS is about 100 yrs ahead at being behind. The talk of a train returning to on the old Lone Star route has been going on since around 1986 and almost 25 yrs later its been the same yak, yak, yak. The city of Wichita is spending millions build a waterwalk downtown that is being modeled from what San Antonio and OKC did w/ their downtown upgrades. This thing has been going on since 2003, has had to be reduced far from what was first planned due to the price tag. Again us Jayhawkers live in a consevative state that needs to get up to par w/ its neighboring states. Wichita has always taken a back seat to KC, OKC & Tulsa. NM communter rail system is going gangbusters and if a state like that can create its own rail system, KS should atleast be able to scrabble funds to bring one pasgr train on board.