Amtrak says it is committed to Kansas KSN-TV

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Wichita, Kansas — As Wichita city leaders and state leaders try to get Amtrak back in the air capital, Amtrak leaders say they are committed to bringing passenger rail service to Wichita’s largest city.

“Oh, we would love to see an Amtrak stop in Wichita,” explains Marc Magliari with Amtrak. “Wichita last had Amtrak service in 1979.”

Magliari says Amtrak remains committed to the rest of the state of Kansas as well, even though there are problems with the rail line in Western Kansas.

In a statement released by the passenger rail service, Amtrak says:

“Funding to maintain and improve track will be needed in coming years in order for the Southwest Chief to continue to serve the current route. Several ideas for funding and public action were discussed by Amtrak and BNSF.”

The Southwest Chief from Amtrak runs from Chicago to Los Angeles. It stops in Kansas City and Newton, before moving on to western Kansas.

Amrak officials want to make it clear, they have no plans to move the Southwest Chief out of Kansas. In fact, they say the rail service is firmly committed to serving western Kansas. Still, something needs to be done with the track in western Kansas that need work, or the Southwest Chief could be routed differently.

The Amtrak officials continue in a news release:

“However, decisions and financial commitments will be needed by the end of 2014.  If they are not in place, steps will need to be taken to operate the train via a different route between Newton, Kan., and Albuquerque by early 2016.”

Marc Magliari says Amtrak is working hard with cities to see what can be done.

“The cities have already begun to meet and they’ve been talking with their state DOT’s to look at solutions,” explains Magliari. “And we’ve proposed a solution in April. And the state DOT’s sent us a letter saying that solution doesn’t work for them. But we still have a lot of time to work out a solution. We have the rest of this year and all of next and into 2014 before we would have to make a decision in the Southwest Chief re-routing.”

Amtrak asked the states of Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico to come up with 0 Million to help with the tracks in western Kansas. The states department of transportation declined.

“We remain highly committed,” says Magliari. “We get many inquires all the time about expanding service. This last year we had the best passenger numbers we’ve ever seen. Record numbers. We recognized and appreciate all that the cities have done and continued to do along the Amtrak routes.”

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