With the on-going budget crisis, there’s talk of eliminating state funding for the Heartland Flyer…the passenger rail service from Oklahoma City to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. If that were to happen, it would make it difficult to move forward with the proposed Eastern Flyer…a passenger train from Tulsa to OKC. Evan Stair is President of Passenger Rail Oklahoma and he claims the Heartland Flyer brings millions of dollars to the state and the appropriation should stay. Stair says critics’ claims the train only sends Oklahoma dollars to Texas are bogus, he says it’s a two-way deal benefiting both states.
He says the fate of the state funding won’t be known until near the end of the budget process later this month.