TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Officials are looking to establish an Amtrak passenger rail service between Texas and Kansas.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that about two dozen people gathered on the platform of Topeka’s Amtrak station Friday to meet a special inspection train that was traveling from Fort Worth, Texas, to Kansas City, Missouri. The train was meant to give Amtrak officials and some state and local officials the opportunity to see what a new route following the Interstate 35 corridor could look like.
Amtrak official Joe McHugh says the inspection car had seen a “tremendous turnout” from communities north of Oklahoma City, which haven’t seen passenger rail service since 1979, when Amtrak halted its Lone Star train.
McHugh says Amtrak will work with BNSF Railway, which owns the tracks, to establish service.