Kansas Rail Advocates Organize for New Amtrak Stop

The Northern Flyer Alliance, a grassroots organization of passenger train advocates in Kansas and Oklahoma whose primary goal is the northward extension of Amtrak’s Fort Worth-Oklahoma City Heartland Flyer to connect with the Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chief in Kansas, is also making inroads towards other, more modest but nonetheless significant, improvements to existing Amtrak service in the two states.

The Alliance co-organized a community forum in Emporia, Kansas, in late September to mount a campaign to rebuild the city’s depot, which was destroyed in the late 1990s, and get Amtrak to add the city as a stop on the Southwest Chief route. Emporia is located between Topeka and Newton on the route, which traverses the length of Kansas during the night on its two-day transcontinental journey. NARP wholeheartedly supports the Alliance’s effort.

About 50 people attended the the meeting, which discussed the costs and benefits of the new stop and possible locations. It received television coverage on WIBW Channel 13. Among the interviewees is Northern Flyer Alliance President (and NARP State Representative) Deborah Fischer Stout.