WL>         The _Sunday Oklahoman_, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, had
WL>a column on this very subject on August 10.  It was a column by
WL>a _Boston Globe_ writer named Jeff Jacoby.  (And Boston is a
WL>place often held out as an example of where public transit
WL>succeeds.)
 
  I saw a deal in the Arkansas Railroad Club newsletter (Little Rock)
[from the Tulsa World, July 7 and August 10, 1997)...that efforts are
underway to try to return Amtrak service to Oklahoma. One possibility is
a route from St. Louis to Tulsa to Oklahoma City to Fort Worth...part of
that from the southern route of the BNSF (Frisco) main line to be sold
to Oklahoma from BNSF for $10 million. Should talks with Amtrak be
successful, Tulsa-Oklahoma City service would begin by 2000. The cost of
the segment would be $27 million capital, with a $12 million annual
operating loss...but it costs only about 4 miles of interstate highway.
 
  Also, from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, Aug. 24,
1997); I noted where it has been nearly a year since the Union Pacific
merger (or acquisition) of Southern Pacific...they have a glut of cars,
and a lack of crews to operate them...railroad gridlock, as it were.
Several engines are on a siding in North Little Rock, waiting to be
converted for UP's use, or to be sold or scrapped.
 
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 * OLX 1.53 * Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance.  -Plato
 * PDQWK 2.5 #5
 
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