Tulsa-OKC: BNSF Willing to Discuss

BNSF is ready to discuss beginning passenger service with the State of Oklahoma if the state will lay $50 million on the table.

The state of Oklahoma owns the rail way from Oklahoma City to Sapulpa. But Burlington Northern Santa fe Railroad owns the stretch of track from Sapulpa to Tulsa. Wescott had worried that only Amtrak would be allowed to use that corridor. But he says after talking with company representatives at Thursday's meeting, that's no longer the case.

"They (BNSF) are willing to discuss, willing to negotiate with the state of Oklahoma or any private entity that the state might contract with," Wescott said. "So what we thought was going to be a big problem is not."

http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/progress-o ... il-service

BNSF also says that they could be ready in 6 months.

The study commences: http://www.krmg.com/news/news/local/odo ... okc/nSfzx/

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation has launched a study funded by a federal grant to determine the feasibility of passenger rail service between Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
KRMG has learned that just under $4 million in federal grant money is funding the study, which began in recent weeks.
The grant came from the Federal Railroad Administration.

...

An Oklahoma high-speed rail initiative was launched in 2002, and looked at the possibility of a 150-mph line running genrally along the Turner Turnpike between Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
Proposed cost estimates, according to a FRA study released during a 2009 workshop in Houston, put the price of building such a line at between $800 and $950 million.

Jeff Smith wrote:The study commences: http://www.krmg.com/news/news/local/odo ... okc/nSfzx/

OKDOT already owns a rail corridor that could handle 79 mph trains just by using welded rail instead of the old bolted rail in place. Replacing the rail with new rail shouldn't cost much - at most the costs would be $5 Million/mile. They only need the cooperation with BNSF for train station access in OKC and Tulsa, the last 10 miles at most. Shucks, if they're willing to spend slightly more to straighten out some curves, I can see 110 mph maximum speeds on OKDOT oowned tracks.
It's 107 miles between downtown OKC and Tulsa, the elapse times would be:
Class 3 = 60 mph = 107 minutes; 1 hour and 47 minutes
Class 4 = 79 mph = 81 minutes; 1 hour and 21 minutes
Class 5 = 90 mph = 71 minutes; 1 hour and 11 minutes
Class 6 = 110 mph = 58 minutes
No grade separations would be required at these speeds, and most of the rail classification upgrades save an additional 10 minutes.
How fast is fast enough for most passengers between OKC and Tulsa? I suggest speeds of 110 mph or less is sufficient, there's no need to go as fast as 150 or 200 mph.
The most expensive single item to implement this rail corridor is being built presently, the new interstate/railroad bridge over the Arkansas River entering downtown Tulsa.

Wanted to add, after reading the Tulsa committees report, that there's two main possibilities between Sapulpa and Tulsa:
1) Sharing tracks with BNSF freights
2) Laying a new track for passenger trains use only in the BNSF corridor.

Option 2 may be more expensive at the start, it might mean cheaper operations later using a third party vendor. Option 1 will probably require Amtrak as the operator.