Legislators Exchange Words Over Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer

HeartlandFlyer

 

The legislator who authored the Eastern Flyer Passenger Rail Initiative to soon begin passenger serve between Tulsa and Oklahoma City is telling other legislators they don’t know what they’re talking about in wanting to cut the state’s share of funding the Heartland Flyer.

Rep. Richard Morrissette D-OKC, responded to one legislator who called for the elimination of the Flyer and the claims of another who complained the Flyer was “always late.”

“The Heartland Flyer is a rolling advertisement for the Chambers of Commerce from here to north Texas, including the cities of Norman, Washington, Pauls Valley, Purcell, Ardmore, hopefully Thackerville very soon and on to Gainesville and Fort Worth,” said Morrissette, a candidate for Corporation Commission. “Texans come up here to visit Bricktown and catch a Thunder game–and we have a university study to prove it.”

He said the Flyer carried more than a million passengers in the past 15 years or an average of 70,414 riders a year.

“I have more than 7,000 rail and mass-trans advocates who have had about enough of this regressive transportation talk,” said Morrissette. “The Heartland Flyer is not a budget concern because it pays for itself.”

He was responding to the call of Tulsa Republican Senator Dan Newberry to end the subsidies and supportive comments from Bartlesville Republican Senator Earl Sears who said the subsidy should be “trimmed.” Senator Kyle Loveless, a Republican from Oklahoma City complained the train was always late.

Morrissette told Newberry and Sears it was not possible to trim the Flyer budget because Oklahoma made a pact with Texas and the subsidy is set in contractual stone.

“And Senator Loveless, the BNSF Railway has done a marvelous job over the past month keeping the train on time, with only three trains being more than 30 minutes late,” he added. Morrissette said