Survey seeks input for area passenger railroad service

Texas Panhandle residents interested in seeing passenger rail service return to the area can make their voices heard with a new Amtrak service study.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is conducting an Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study to evaluate the restoration of daily long-distance intercity rail passenger service and the potential for new Amtrak long-distance routes.

This study will ultimately create a long-term vision for long-distance passenger rail service and identify capital projects and funding needed to implement that vision.

To add a comment to the study, residents can follow this link and mention their support for adding Amtrak service to Amarillo, Texas: https://bit.ly/4677Eyz.

Supporters of passenger rail service say that it boosts economic development and that it connects rural communities to the nation by providing greater travel opportunities.

According to the FRA website, the Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study will: Evaluate options for restoring or enhancing to daily basis intercity passenger rail service along routes; Select preferred options for restoring or enhancing service; Develop a prioritized inventory of capital projects and other actions required to restore or enhance the service, including cost estimates for those projects and actions; Develop recommendations for methods by which Amtrak could work with local communities and organizations to develop activities and programs to continuously improve public use of intercity passenger rail service along each route; and Identify Federal and non-Federal funding sources required to restore or enhance the service.

Eighty years of passenger train service between Dallas and Denver ended when the Texas Zephyr made its final southbound run coming through Clarendon on September 11, 1967, according to the files of The Donley County Leader. The final northbound run had been made the day before.

The FRA says Amtrak was established by the Rail Passenger Act of 1970, which removed the requirement for US railroads to provide intercity passenger rail service and created Amtrak to fulfill that role instead. In 1971, the US Department of Transportation (US DOT) designated 21 city pairs between which intercity passenger trains should operate, and Amtrak began service between those cities later that year. The new passenger rail system was about half the size (by route miles) of the pre-1971 US passenger rail system, which had been operated by multiple railroads.

In 1975, The Clarendon Press reported that representatives from Clarendon and other area towns addressed hearings in Fort Worth attempting to persuade Amtrak to implement passenger service between Dallas and Denver.

At the request of Congress, several long-distance routes were added to Amtrak’s system in the 1970s, but long-distance service contracted in the following decades – especially after a 1978 US DOT report that recommended significant service reductions, the FRA website reports.

Long-distance network service reductions over the past half century have resulted in some communities losing common carrier transportation options, as well as the economic and social benefits of those connections.