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Link: ''Kansas cities support Amtrak routes to Dallas area" "
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by sfthunderchief: [QB] [QUOTE]Originally posted by PullmanCo: [qb] Let's play a little game. It's called "Who is the Spin-Meister?" From the article: [QUOTE]says John Mills, of Topeka, a retired Amtrak employee who has been a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Railroad Passengers since 1977.[/QUOTE]NARP. That says a lot. Let's see. Amtrak serves Newton at THREE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING! (301AM and 325AM by the current PTT) People out there think a cross-platform transfer between trains at 3AM is going to win return customers. That's the part that amazes me. Look, if Kansas is going to do this, it needs to do it right, such that it might take some of the burden off I-35 and and MCI-OKC-DFW city pairs. Kansas Legislature starts the annual wrap-up session tomorrow. If Kansas Public Radio is anywhere near right, Legislature has to back $130M out of the budget for next FY. Two years from now (remember, the Legislature cannot start actively considering this until the study is back in the fall of 09, which means the January 2010 legislative session), it'll be interesting to see how the proposal plays. [/qb][/QUOTE]I believe you have it correct about the spin-meister. Of course this guy Mills happens to be the source d'jour for the article. There was another article today in the Wichita Eagle. In it they quote Autumn Heithaus of Wichita. She appears to be one of the leaders and catalyst for a movement that has swept this agenda to the forefront (compared to recent years of inactivity) of an initiative that has rattled Deb Miller and her office into activity. The other driving force is a State Senator from Winfield, Kansas who has organized 28 of her colleages in the Kansas legislature to support a bill she plans to introduce in the next legislative term (2009). She apparently got wind of the two Passenger Rail Investment and Reform/Improvement bills and sees a daytime passenger train operating between Kansas City and Oklahoma City delivering festival goers to the Bluegrass Festival. She has excited other colleagues who wish to see tourists visiting the still developing Prairie National Park, and others who want to see connectivity among about a dozen big name colleges and universities along the route. Lastly she has made a very clear case that the State Capitol in Topeka doesn't even have airline service and that the only airport in Kansas with real commercial airline service is in Wichita. She has persuaded many of her Senate colleagues that the State deserves more and can get it for about $6 million annually. The State department of transportation woke up and smelled the coffee on January 11th when the Senate/House transportation committee on which she she sits politely suggested that KDOT look into this (meaning fund-a-study). KDOT doesn't seem to have any real imagination or inherent initiative to do anything beyond building billion dollar highways, like a proposed 6 laner from Leavenworth to Spring Hill, Kansas that nobody in the area wants or is clamoring for. KDOT talks cautiously about this development and adds little innuendos like "capacity study" "feasibility", and confusing dodges about "route study" (they also did this in a rail plan they developed in 2000), however (and PullmanCo you may find this intersting) the real route being talked about and planned for is a daytime operation out of Kansas City headed for connection in Oklahoma City with the Heartland Flyer with thru service to Fort Worth. Amtrak is pretty excited by the work that Autumn Hiethaus has done, specifically some 20 city councils up and down the route have passed resolutions requesting daytime passenger rail service. These include major cities in Kansas including Topeka, Wichita, Lawrennce and Emporia, Arkansas City, and Newton, and numerous smaller cities as well. There are a number of cities in Oklahoma that have passed resolutions also. Not one of these towns supports the idea of a single expansion at 3:00 am to Newton. All of these resolutions have been passed since December and have been delivered to their state senators and legislators, the governor and the four Kansas U.S. House Members. All these communities are really interested in is the same type or kind of economic development that Oklahoma got with the development of the Heartland Flyer. The information I share here is published on an organization website: [URL=http://www.northflyer.org.]www.northflyer.org.[/URL] [/QB][/QUOTE]
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