Amtrak

The Kansas Department of Transportation estimates it will cost $311 million to restore Amtrak passenger rail service from Oklahoma City to Newton that was abandoned nearly half a century ago, officials said Wednesday.

All aboard the gravy train. A proposed Amtrak route connecting Oklahoma City to central Kansas by train has been selected to receive federal funding.

Kansas and Oklahoma are eyeing an extension of the Heartland Flyer rail route that would connect Oklahoma City to Newton, Kansas. When they updated the public on the project this week, officials said they’re optimistic the project will be selected for competitive federal rail funding later this month.

A passenger on board the Amtrak train that crashed into a truck and derailed in Missouri on Monday, killing four people, has described the harrowing moment when his carriage rolled.

Three people from the Amtrak train were killed in addition to one person in the dump truck, authorities said.

The money is part of a settlement agreed to in 2020 after the Justice Department found that Amtrak violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to meet accessibility standards.

As a bipartisan bill that would dedicate $1.2 trillion dollars to improving the nation’s infrastructure waits for lawmakers in Congress to take action, Oklahomans have ideas on what they’d improve in our state if they had the chance. More public transportation is high on the list.

The westbound train, Empire Builder, was on its way from Chicago to Seattle when it left the tracks Saturday after near Joplin, Mont., killing three people.

"You and your family could travel coast to coast without a single tank of gas onboard a high-speed train," President Biden said. The map shows 30 new routes across the U.S. that funding could create.

NPR reported on Friday that the ticket for a two-hour ride between Chicago and Bloomington-Normal, Ill., stations usually costs $16. Amtrak had based the higher price on adjustments to train cars.