This article is quite intriguing but has some fundamental flaws -- primarily because its author is well-intentioned but ill-acquainted to railroading. Let me first say I am a 100 percent fan of the concept of passenger rail between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. And, I would add that such service needs to be part of an expanded network that connects to St. Louis and Kansas City to the east, and with the existing Heartland Flyer service to Ft. Worth.
That being said, the Sooner Subdivision is very challenged in providing passenger service. The existing alignment is full of curves and undulations that would pohibit "high speed" rail of any sort -- even if the tracks were brought up to modern-day passenger standards. I make no apologies when I say let it go. It has significant value as a freight railroad and would be better suited in private hands. At day's end, its passenger rail value is marginal at best. Those are the true realities -- not Gary Ridley, not highways, not politics.
So is there a need for passenger rail and what could be done? The Turner Turnpike frequently pushes the threshold of its capacity and is a functionally obsolete roadway. OTA has done its best, but there's only so much you can do with late 1940s design standards. In the not too distant future, it will need a complete rebuilding. Whether it is rebuilt to four lanes or six lanes depends on practical alternatives -- hence passenger rail. Ideally, some form of modern high speed rail could parallel the Turnpike's alignment, which as we all know is very straight. Since passenger trains have less issues with undulations -- and there are a lot of them -- a parallel alignment with cut, fill or viaducts to achieve adequate rail grades is feasible.
Perhaps a more practical alternative is to seek utilization of BNSF's Avard Subdivision west from Tulsa to Perry, then south on their Red Rock Subdivision from Perry to OKC. A ton of money has been invested in these subs -- including additional sidings and most recently Centralized Traffic Control on the Avard. This is astounding in its own right, and would allow passenger rail speeds to likely approach 70 mph along many segments. It also puts Stillwater, Ponca City, Enid, Guthrie and Edmond within range of rail service.
I'm not sure a state railroad commission would be beneficial or not. What I do know is that there are many transportation questions that we will need to answer in the coming decade or so ... and we need to do its smartly and without name calling.
"By contrast, Southwest Airlines offers 10 flights daily from Tulsa to Dallas from Tulsa and nine from Oklahoma City."
A bit excessive there. Southwest only has 5 flights between Tulsa to Dallas and will be going down to 4 flights between OKC and Dallas. American will be going to 9 flights from OKC to Dallas and has 8 flights from Tulsa to Dallas.
The author's use of the superlative "superb" with regard to Gary Ridley is considerably more than puzzling. Seems as though Oklahoma journalists have nearly all blindly subscribed to the overriding praise of Ridley despite the cold and obvious realities of his tenure as ODOT Director.
In Oklahoma City, Ridley quite deliberately carried out the needless destruction of the elegant OKC Union Station rail facility to make way for the equally unnecessary "relocation" of four miles of Interstate 40 -- heedless of a storm of well-founded public protest.
"Well, Tom -- there WAS a time when we didn't even have to ASK you what you thought" -- was his utterly arrogant and dismissive response when I asked, point-blank, why ODOT never seriously addressed any of the very serious questions from the public about the clearly pre-emptive destruction of the irreplaceable rail passenger facility.
Getting right down to the heart of the matter, Gary Ridley is a highway lobby thug -- of the sort who should never have been allowed anywhere near the leadership of the state's Department of Transportation. When cornered, ODOT, under Gary Ridley, has regularly and outrageously resorted to deliberate deception, often even as it impugned the motives and goals of unpaid citizen activists whose questions it refused to address.
It is quite clear that Ridley and the highway lobby obsessively carried out the destruction of the Union Station rail facility to deny its very cost-effective use to create needed alternatives to ODOT's "highways-only kingdom" while covering themselves with a fog of nonsensical diversionary propaganda, not the least of which was outrageous lowballing of cost estimates for their project.
The outcome of this determined orgy of vandalism and destruction -- as clearly counted-on by ODOT and its co-dependent special interest partners -- is that, instead of getting a very low cost leg-up on the need for improved (and competitive) metropolitan mobility through the use of the improbable patrimony known as Union Station, central Oklahomans will now probably never have a decent transit system. In one bold stroke, Ridley and company sent Oklahoma City to the back of the line for transit development -- and they quite certainly meant to do exactly that. In an era when US troops are constantly fighting around the world for oil, however, the gratuitous destruction of this rail center with its portent of fuel-efficient alternatives through simple, cheap, adaptive reuse of historic existing assets easily rises from mere, dirty malfeasance to obvious and inescapable treason.
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COMMENTS
Re: Hey, Porter
3 comments total
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Re: Hey, Porter
That being said, the Sooner Subdivision is very challenged in providing passenger service. The existing alignment is full of curves and undulations that would pohibit "high speed" rail of any sort -- even if the tracks were brought up to modern-day passenger standards. I make no apologies when I say let it go. It has significant value as a freight railroad and would be better suited in private hands. At day's end, its passenger rail value is marginal at best. Those are the true realities -- not Gary Ridley, not highways, not politics.
So is there a need for passenger rail and what could be done? The Turner Turnpike frequently pushes the threshold of its capacity and is a functionally obsolete roadway. OTA has done its best, but there's only so much you can do with late 1940s design standards. In the not too distant future, it will need a complete rebuilding. Whether it is rebuilt to four lanes or six lanes depends on practical alternatives -- hence passenger rail. Ideally, some form of modern high speed rail could parallel the Turnpike's alignment, which as we all know is very straight. Since passenger trains have less issues with undulations -- and there are a lot of them -- a parallel alignment with cut, fill or viaducts to achieve adequate rail grades is feasible.
Perhaps a more practical alternative is to seek utilization of BNSF's Avard Subdivision west from Tulsa to Perry, then south on their Red Rock Subdivision from Perry to OKC. A ton of money has been invested in these subs -- including additional sidings and most recently Centralized Traffic Control on the Avard. This is astounding in its own right, and would allow passenger rail speeds to likely approach 70 mph along many segments. It also puts Stillwater, Ponca City, Enid, Guthrie and Edmond within range of rail service.
I'm not sure a state railroad commission would be beneficial or not. What I do know is that there are many transportation questions that we will need to answer in the coming decade or so ... and we need to do its smartly and without name calling.
Re: Hey, Porter
A bit excessive there. Southwest only has 5 flights between Tulsa to Dallas and will be going down to 4 flights between OKC and Dallas. American will be going to 9 flights from OKC to Dallas and has 8 flights from Tulsa to Dallas.
Its not hard to fact check this stuff.
Re: Hey, Porter
In Oklahoma City, Ridley quite deliberately carried out the needless destruction of the elegant OKC Union Station rail facility to make way for the equally unnecessary "relocation" of four miles of Interstate 40 -- heedless of a storm of well-founded public protest.
"Well, Tom -- there WAS a time when we didn't even have to ASK you what you thought" -- was his utterly arrogant and dismissive response when I asked, point-blank, why ODOT never seriously addressed any of the very serious questions from the public about the clearly pre-emptive destruction of the irreplaceable rail passenger facility.
Getting right down to the heart of the matter, Gary Ridley is a highway lobby thug -- of the sort who should never have been allowed anywhere near the leadership of the state's Department of Transportation. When cornered, ODOT, under Gary Ridley, has regularly and outrageously resorted to deliberate deception, often even as it impugned the motives and goals of unpaid citizen activists whose questions it refused to address.
It is quite clear that Ridley and the highway lobby obsessively carried out the destruction of the Union Station rail facility to deny its very cost-effective use to create needed alternatives to ODOT's "highways-only kingdom" while covering themselves with a fog of nonsensical diversionary propaganda, not the least of which was outrageous lowballing of cost estimates for their project.
The outcome of this determined orgy of vandalism and destruction -- as clearly counted-on by ODOT and its co-dependent special interest partners -- is that, instead of getting a very low cost leg-up on the need for improved (and competitive) metropolitan mobility through the use of the improbable patrimony known as Union Station, central Oklahomans will now probably never have a decent transit system. In one bold stroke, Ridley and company sent Oklahoma City to the back of the line for transit development -- and they quite certainly meant to do exactly that. In an era when US troops are constantly fighting around the world for oil, however, the gratuitous destruction of this rail center with its portent of fuel-efficient alternatives through simple, cheap, adaptive reuse of historic existing assets easily rises from mere, dirty malfeasance to obvious and inescapable treason.
Meanwhile -- what's wrong with Oklahoma's press?