FREQUENCY, CONNECTIVITY, DEPENDABILITY.

Once upon a time, Amtrak offered the Lone Star, formerly Texas Chief, serving Chicago, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, and various Texas cities, and before that The Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe supplemented its Texas Chief with a Tulsan and a Kansas Cityan, which continued into Oklahoma or Texas, while Missouri Pacific ran multiple Eagles across Missouri and Arkansas to much of Texas.

What remains today is a Southwest Chief through Kansas, a Heartland Flyer between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, and a Texas Eagle that sometimes carries a through sleeper from Los Angeles for Chicago.  Trains correspondent Bob Johnston recently essayed a trip from Chicago to Marshall, Texas.  In order to evaluate the connectivity between the Chief and the Flyer, he laid on a circle trip.

Extending the Heartland Flyer 198 miles to connect with the Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chief at Newton, Kan., has been a goal of passenger rail advocates ever since the state-funded train between Fort Worth, Texas, and Oklahoma City debuted in June 1999.

In the meantime, passengers wishing to travel between these north-south and east-west routes utilize a nocturnal Amtrak Thruway bus service operated by BeeLine Express. The northbound bus departs Oklahoma City in the evening after the Chiefs are scheduled to stop. It then returns south after they depart, arriving at the Oklahoma City Amtrak station in time for patrons to catch the southbound train to Fort Worth. At least, that’s the way it is supposed to work.

With corridor designation and infrastructure improvement grant applications seeking to extend the Heartland Flyer to Newton, Trains News Wire recently traveled from Chicago to an event in Marshall, Texas, via Newton, Oklahoma City, and Fort Worth to evaluate the current setup.

The bus connection between Newton and Oklahoma City is a guaranteed connection, something Amtrak have trouble doing, as long as passengers book their passages on the Chief and Flyer on the same reservation. Mr Johnston did not, because a split reservation was cheaper, and he almost got stranded.

On the morning of July 20 for instance, the BeeLine bus and driver waited until after 5 a.m. for 18 passengers off the eastbound Chief. They were destined for Wichita or Oklahoma City, though none were ticketed for the Heartland Flyer.

However, one passenger off of the earlier arriving westbound Chief was traveling from Topeka, Kan., to Austin, Tex., and two others connecting to the southbound Flyer were scheduled to board the bus at Wichita. Since waiting until 5 a.m. for eastbound No. 4 would mean westbound No. 3’s passenger would miss the Fort Worth-bound train, BeeLine General Manager Jim Lynch arranged to have an independent contractor drive a second, “on time” departure out of Newton to Fort Worth. A van normally covering such occasions happened to be in the shop, so the passengers piled into its last-minute substitute: a Ford pickup.

A fourth southbound passenger off the westbound Chief (me) also squeezed in. My trip was booked Chicago-Oklahoma City and Oklahoma City-Marshall, Tex. on two separate reservations because this was the cheapest saver fare combination.

In hindsight, that was a big mistake. Had the other three passengers not been connecting to the Flyer that night, Lynch would not have known to schedule the extra trip. Though more expensive, booking the entire four-segment journey on one reservation would have ensured making all connections.

Bee Line have their own bus network, and the buses that meet the trains also connect with Bee Line services onward from Wichita, making for some challenging operating conditions.  Mr Johnston suggests that even with a through service beyond Oklahoma City to Newton, or, under ideal conditions, Chicago, connecting buses for Oklahoma or Texas passengers originating somewhere along the Chief's route will still be useful.

On board, amenities are better, if still not up to Santa Fe standards, on the Chief, and inadequate in numerous ways on the Eagle.  The dining car is again offered, on a space-available basis, to coach passengers riding the Chief.

Though Superliner coaches are comparatively roomy, there is no substitute for spaciousness in the Sightseer Lounge that invites camaraderie not possible anywhere else on the train or other travel modes. With sun streaming overhead as trees and landscape rush by ceiling-to-table windows, the car acts as a welcome gathering place away from the regimentation of seats.

The same can be said for the Chief’s dining car. Coach customers are invited to walk there after meals-included sleeper passengers are given their choice of seatings. The flat $45 pay-in-advance pricing at dinner may be steep by historical standards, but Alexis, the lead service attendant, is quick to note while taking payment that the cost with alcoholic beverage included is on par with Los Angeles and Chicago restaurants (breakfast is $20, lunch $25, and all kids’ meals are $20). The tab didn’t deter two scouts from an Indianapolis suburb. Though not joined at dinner by their compatriots, they devoured the flat iron steak and pan-roasted chicken breast entrees and lauded the cocoanut shrimp appetizer.

The Eagle, on the other hand, is a Downing Jenks nostalgia trip.

The Texas Eagle used to offer a separate dining car and lounge, two sleeping cars, and a transition sleeper. Amtrak management, however, reduced it three years ago (the pandemic, you know) to one sleeping car, one standard coach and one baggage coach between San Antonio and St. Louis, along with a “Cross Country Cafe” combination diner-lounge. A third coach operates between Chicago and St. Louis, since the Eagle augments Lincoln Service offerings.

The current arrangement is completely inadequate. Even with the extra St. Louis-Chicago coach, Trains News Wire observed that the train leaving Marshall, Texas, on July 21 had been sold out for more than a week in advance on the Bloomington-Normal, Ill.-Chicago segment, choking off potential demand for many long-distance trips. This is not unusual. There were enough Chicago-bound passengers at St. Louis to completely fill the extra coach.

But the biggest drawback is the constant crush of passengers attempting to frequent the cafe car. For more than an hour both at dinner and breakfast, the line stretched most of the way through the adjacent coach while Megan, the lead service attendant, completed transactions and secured the food. She did get some preparation assistance from the diner’s “chef,” who otherwise solely served sleeper passengers meals in a bowl. Despite the never-ending crush, Megan maintained a patient, unflappable demeanor and passengers in the line respected the challenge she faced. Approaching Chicago, a fellow crew member announced that this was Megan’s first solo trip following training. Bravo!

Mr Johnston's concluding observations suggest that current Amtrak management think more like their Missouri Pacific counterparts than like people making the trains worth travelling again.

This Texas Eagle downgrading is reversible if management has the will to devote enough resources to restore a Sightseer lounge and more capacity to the train. It serves more large intermediate population centers than the Southwest Chief or any other western overnighter except perhaps the Coast Starlight. Until that happens, Amtrak is leaving revenue and passenger comfort on the table.

The Eagle fills a morning departure slot toward Chicago and a midafternoon departure for St. Louis on the emerging corridor, and apparently the corridor traffic plus the odd Springfield politician or the Illinois State University students leads to crush loads sometimes.  A long-distance train that's not able to run at the track speeds of the corridor trains, and is subject to terminal delays around Chicago and St. Louis, and consistently degraded consists, sometimes featuring both the lounge and a proper diner, sometimes offering that Cross Country Cafe car alone, isn't making many friends.