On my 20th birthday of May 20th, 2023 (I like to call it my "2020"), I spent time with my family riding the transit of Salt Lake City (FrontRunner, TRAX, and S Line streetcar). The Blue Line through downtown was packed. It made me happy to see so many people actually using the service. Also enjoyed the TOD along the S Line.
There are a few examples where I live where the connecting bus arrives like two minutes after the train departs or departs like two minutes before the train arrives, and the next connection is like 1 to 2 hours later😞
I lived in OKC I have ridden that same train back in 2000 a few times from pauls valley to okc and back at the time it was fairly convenient its a shame that you cant ride it to tulsa tho
@@RugbyRyan I think they are referencing the weekend of the RRR, they add one more stop from the normal Ft Worth end point, stopping in downtown Dallas. Which has been going on for years.
Just chiming in to say the Heartland Flyer ***"""should"""*** be getting extended to Kansas and daily roundtrip service from OKC to Fort Worth would triple in frequency. It's part of Amtrak corridor id program and all 3 states have approved of the extension and service changes. Maybe it'll happen sometime while we're all still alive hahahaha
At the least, it should go on to Wichita, if not Kansas City. That would be a true heartland train and make it a reasonable north-south route for travelers wanting to go to a city/sports game in Kansas City/Wichita/Tulsa/Stillwater.
In all fairness, a person can take Amtrak commuter bus from OKC to Newton (and Wichita) today, thereby completing the Heartland connection. The problem is the hours are horrible and since it's not a train, it's not convenient so therefore hardly used. Same for Tulsa, there are several OKC-Tulsa bus routes but they are not necessarily Amtrak aligned and therefore - not as convenient/used. Oklahoma needs to take a harder more proactive look at its Amtrak service and OKC metro commuter rail. I know it's all in the works but they need the CR up and running long before they start I-35 crossroads bridge replacement and the I-44/I-40 junction rebuild.. If not rail then true commuter bus (60 foot, articulated or coach) along the I-35 spine needs to start immediately. To think of all of the commuters going into Downtown OKC (from both ways) and students/professors going from Edmond and OKC to Norman; this should be a priority and OU should be looking at adding a streetcar in Norman and an extension of OKC's streetcar into the Oklahoma Health Center.
@rchilde1 I doubt they'll extend the streetcar to the OU health center. With that said, EMBARK does have a bus that goes to the OU health center. I don't know if that service interfaces with the Streetcar.
i feel so blessed to live in a city with highly frequent (8-10 min headways) commuter trains, I sold my car and totally depend on them now. It has genuinely improved my mental health to relax in a train instead of stressing out in a car
This video made me immediately think of the Princeton "Dinky", which connects directly to the New Jersey Transit mainline. Having known a few Princeton alums, many of them have many happy memories of getting home or going on intercity trips while using that service. It can be done.
Always great to see a fellow transit oriented Okie! I'm a student at OU who's currently interning at the state capitol and, in my capacity as an intern, doing research on the OTA's power and whether or not, under their broad jurisdiction, they could have the ability to build passenger rail. My findings so far have been more promising than one might expect, and I plan on presenting a proposal to the OTA before the semester is out. Boomer sooner!
OTA has too much clout and way too much to lose for any passenger light rail service to gain a foothold here. OTA gets revenues from the turnpikes, and more drivers = more money.
Boomer! Good luck with OTA. I’m afraid you’re facing strong headwinds. Not only is Oklahoma generically beholden to the Oil Power, OTA is also way too close to the paving industry. Please keep us posted!
i rode the amtrak and sooner express to OU all 2022 through last spring semester! (edit because i have zero sense of time lmao) simultaneously loved it and wouldn’t wish it on my enemies. you lucked out never having to take the returning amtrak. i had classes that would keep me on campus after the last bus to okc had left all 2022, so i had no other choice at least one day a week. that freight train rail privilege meant it was always at least an hour late, usually more. at least twice it didn’t come until well after midnight. i hope eventually okc and norman (maybe even edmond for our uco friends in a real dream scenario) break down and make real commuter rail happen for us. would have made carless life way more tolerable. 😭
Hey! It’s nice to hear that others have done this recently! The evening trip from Norman to OKC is the only leg of the trip that I’ve never taken, and as much as it’s disappointing that it’s late so often, it doesn’t really surprise me. I did take the last Sooner Express bus of the day once, which is a totally different vibe than what I was used to. As far as commuter rail goes, keep your eye out, because I think there might be some progress on that coming soon. I look forward to seeing multimodal commuting become a viable option for more and more students.
Amtrak by law has and has always had the right-of-way on all rail lines. The issue is from the law's inception freight companies just ignored that and have been able to get away with it. Amtrak isn't allowed to sue to enforce their right-of-way, and the Department of Justice has only ever brought action once, in 1979. Currently, Democracts are trying and failing to get Amtrak the power to bring its own lawsuits (S.1500 - Rail Passenger Fairness Act) and Republicans are trying and failing to officially strip Amtrak of the right-of-way (H.R.3893 - Freights First Act.)
Always a good day when my favorite Oklahomans upload a video! This episode was even more relatable than it usually is for a Texan like me because I DESPERATELY wished that the Heartland Flyer was more convenient. Because I make frequent trips to Ardmore, there is such good reason for me to take this train in isolation... However, I am like an hour and a half away from Fort Worth, my nearest station on that route. If there were closer stations or there was higher frequency, or even if there was an effective public transit route for me to get to Fort Worth, I basically would have no issue with using the service! But sadly, none of those are the case, and making a once a day train (which, I must say, leaves Fort Worth during peak of RUSH HOUR, making getting to that station even more of a pain) without transit links to the suburb I (unfortunately) live in, it's just so infeasible for me to use it. Regardless, I'm happy to see that at least you were able to effectively use the service, and you are 100% right in that there is so much potential for commuter rail in the Norman/OKC region! Thank y'all for doing the good work of spreading our urbanist news to the masses and I can't wait for next video! :)
I may have been a bit "hesitant" about the train at frist but you seemed to be so much happier on days you got to be productive on the train vs days you were stuck in traffic. Due to traffic also the travel times were very similar. Glad it was a win win with the train. (also hey I spot my cat)
I took that train on my 21st birthday to go from Sherman to Fort Worth to drink legally for the first time. Still involved a 30 mile drive each way but that seemed more responsible than drinking and driving because at least I had an hour or so to sober up on the way back.
Its crazy to see someone make our bare bones system work. I go to OU and I can't imagine making this work, that shit's impressive. I talked about Oklahoma's public transit all semester as a Comp 2 topic and I didn't think it was possible.
Tulsa native here who regularly works shows down in OKC! I was providing transportation to one of our artists and I saw the Amtrak for the first time just last weekend. I had no idea OKC had a running train line, and I was blown away! Now I know how I'm going to go down to Dallas the next time I head down there!
I live outside of Tulsa. I wish there was a line between Tulsa and OKC. Over the years, it would have been a godsend to be able to ride train to Okc and then go to DFW. Would have saved soooo much money and saved even more on stress.
The only aspect of the trip I wouldn't match with is the daily coffee shop waiting, I rather just try to find somewhere where I can shelter for free instead. The commute honestly feels normal with how it's just a train (even if it is just ONE train, that single train can definitely be used for many commuters) & bus commute with walking & biking in the fold, but hearing the 1 hour and a half interval for a bus makes this commute exceptional to me. Thanks for showcasing how more free and relaxed it is to just not drive all the time, even without an actual commuter rail service!
Thanks for posting this video I’m not from OK but hearing the news about the tallest building in America being constructed in Oklahoma City I decided to do some research on google maps of the area after wandering around I discovered to my surprise that the city has passenger rail it’s very interesting to see especially in a state like Oklahoma I’ve never rode on a train but I do plan on it
As an OU student, this was SUPER interesting, and im really glad it popped into my feed. I driver over that track daily to get to campus, and I would LOVE to have a station there so I can get back & forth between here and my home in Texas. Fantastic video!
I've ridden the Heartland Flyer twice. The first time, when my kids were little, we transferred in Ft Worth to another train and went all the way to San Antonio. Traveling by train with kids is so nice! Lots of room, and easy for them to walk around. The only problem was, on the Ft. Worth to San Antonio segment, we hit a person on the track and were stopped for several hours. So it was very late when we arrived in SA and our rental car place was closed. A couple years ago, we took the Heartland Flyer again for a weekend in Ft. Worth. We were on the train back to OKC the day after the accident you show in your video. I have ridden trains around the East Coast, as well as in Canada and Europe. I love train travel!
It was fun watching your latest informative video about public transportation. I didn't know you took that route all semester, but good for you! It was also a neat opportunity to catch up with my grandson! Good job! (With special appearance by Marigold!)
i started taking the train to visit my daughter and grandbaby in TX. no stress on my car and i get to relax. I have become completely jealous of the DFW transit system.
I did a semester abroad at OU in 2017 and at the time I hadn't learned to drive - therefore Uber was an expensive necessity. I took the Heartland Flyer once to go down to Austin and really enjoyed the experience! Your video is making me wish I'd made better use of the buses though, I essentially only went into OKC when a friend could drive me. As a lover of trains, trams, metros and buses it's great to see through your channel that Oklahoma is getting onboard with more public transport options!
This is such a great video! I'm from Arlington TX but I've been to OKC many times using the Heartland Flyer and Embark to get around. I've even been on the new Rapid BRT line, which was pretty decent. I mostly stay in downtown OKC though so it was interesting to see the perspective of someone who lives there and actually uses transit to get around the wider area. I've always felt like OKC is doing a lot of great things with public transit, even if it's not perfect yet. But the Heartland Flyer definitely needs higher frequency service. Hopefully that will come with the expansion to Wichita.
Reminds me a lot of my experience on amtrak, and also plotting out the bus routes in my mid size kansas town. A bit complicated, but lots of fun to puzzle out for me.
As someone who has a lot of familial ties to trains and also just so happens to live in Oklahoma (my paternal grandfather actually worked at the train station that was along the original route in Arkansas City), this is one of the best videos I’ve seen in a while.
I didn't even think to take the Amtrak to Norman when I was commuting from OKC. I used the 24 on Mondays and Fridays to take my daughter to her Dad's and it worked out pretty well for about a year.
I don't know how I'm so drawn into this video on a commuting route in a state 1000 miles away from me... but I'm loving this. Maybe it's because I relate to the commuting life and I love trains and wish we had better infrastructure haha. This video is super high-quality!
I can remember the late 40''s and early 50's, when my younger brother and I would board the "Doodle Bug" in Altus, OK, to go visit our grandparents in Crowell, Texas. Our parents knew the conductor, and he would watch over us and be sure that we 1) did not get into trouble, and 2) arrived safely in Crowell. At that time, there were several of those small "Doodle Bugs" which traveled all around southwest Oklahoma and northwest Texas, delivering passengers to where they needed to go. The trains also acted as the USPS sorting centers, which greatly expedited mail delivery, and the baggage cars quickly delivered freight and large items. Some ran twice a day, and there was no day you couldn't get to where you needed to go as quickly as possible, in those days. Alas, the development of automobiles which were capable of long distance travel, and better highway systems brought an end to just about all passenger rail traffic not only here, but throughout the country. It was the beginning of the downfall of US rail travel, and Amtrak or not, it will probably never be resurrected as long as the private companies call the shots. I regret the loss of those trains -- they held our country together.
Maybe you should post this to get more OU students to do it. With demand, that'd force Embark to upgrade and enhance commuter service; make it align with Amtrak and upgrade commuter buses to 60' articulated and/or coach. Nice to see there are frequencies, hard to believe there were no easy ways to commute between the largest city in the state and the largest university that's in the same metro. ....
wow. a public transportation video in oklahoma of all places, a state dominated by black dodge RAM/F150 environmental destroyer TEXAS edition, pavement princess drivers w/ suspended licenses that don't know how turn signals work, have a truck bed they use once a year, & have it lifted to where there can literally be 15 children sitting down in front of the truck & not be visible. i'm cynical for our state & much of america that is designed w/ cars in mind & not people, but this is a wonderfully well produced video. kudos to you.
I love all the details you went in to! Things like choosing your walking path and showing on the map the route options you could take. Very cool to see all of that, gives me more familiarity with an area I’m otherwise completely unfamiliar with.
I'm so happy they finally decided to expand the line. I wanted that 15 years ago when i was going to san Antonio to visit my mom and living in Tulsa. Train travel with a toddler/small child is the way to go fyi! So much easier and more comfortable than flying, although it does take a lot longer.
Super commuting can be stressful, but this is amazing! With the growth of our economy, more people will be traveling from city to city on a regular basis.... ...IF the train was the best way to travel. Planes and cars at their best is disappointing. Trains have the potential to do great in the US (and many don't think so) but I KNOW so.
I grew up in Tulsa, got 2 degrees at OU, and never experienced the public transport options. This was a fantastic video. This is the first time I've seen your channel. Earned one more subscriber today! Great work on this! Can't wait to see what else you do!
Along the BNSF line through Oklahoma City, on the north end of the metro you have Edmond, which is a nice middle-to-upper class suburb that is also a college town, then on the southern end you have Norman, which has the largest university in the state. How some form of commuter rail hasn’t continuously existed along that route at least is insane. Then to the east, you have Tinker Air Force Base, which is one of the largest employers not just in the Oklahoma City metro but in all of Oklahoma, so that’s another commuter route that would be remarkably useful. You could even extend that commuter line from Tinker out towards Shawnee because quite a few people in Shawnee also work at Tinker or the capital, which Shawnee is something of a college town as well with Oklahoma Baptist University. The potential for commuter rail just for people going to school or working at Tinker alone would make it worth it, that’s before you add in people that would use it for work in downtown Oklahoma City or between suburbs or to go into Oklahoma City for entertainment. The work is being done behind the scenes but it’s wild that it ever stopped being such a common method of transportation here.
youtube has to be reading my mind. I'm not a big train person but I think about this train a few times a year. I've only been on it once on a trip down to Dallas with my mother and it was so fun! Or 16 y/o me's idea of fun, so sitting on my phone reading manga for 3 straight hours and watching the scenery. But every time I travel to Dallas I wish I was on the Amtrak. No traffic, no dealing with other drivers (i also just hate driving in general). I could recline and chill for 4 hours like cmon! what a dream
I sure wish we had high speed rail from Tulsa to OKC. Disappointing that Tulsa is not included in the DOT HSR planning. DFW-OKC-TUL-Fayetteville. And then FYV connected to both KC and Little Rock (and on to Memphis).
Some great points about the viability of commuter rail in most markets. Having grown up in the NYC suburbs with Metro North, it never occured to me how spoiled I was with easy access to great transit. Living in Central VA now, it boggles my mind that Amtrak is the only option for intercity transit (or none at all!). NC has a great train which connects most of its cities and we all need it too!
Norman native, I’m sure you may know but they have been expanding the number of rails from Norman to OKC and will be adding a trolley/train between Edmond and Norman
Love to see this! I took the OU-Norman route on weekends back in 2013-2014 when I was a student, tremendous respect to you for being able to make it work with the train! Also, incredible quality on the map animations and everything, this was a really high quality video!
im lucky to live in toronto with GO transit and VIA (despite how slow each one is) but my area is good enough that i can catch any random bus and catch any train and not worry about missing much
I moved to OKC from Ft worth back in 2019. However, I was still working in FW for like 4 months. At some point during this period, my car ate shit. There was a brief period of time where I used the heartland flyer to "commute" back and forth but I was staying in FW Thursday through Saturday and would go back on Sunday night and have Monday thru Wednesday in OKC. It wasn't great, but it worked for a second. I wish the rail system were better.
I'm on OKC native and lived many years in Norman as well. Would love to see far more Passenger rail in this state. Ulsa, Ardmore, Paul's Valley, DFW, Lawton... everything is spread out and this part of the country would be well served by passenger rail I believe.
Coming from the other major college in Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University (Go Pokes), it is deeply frustrating that there was no real easy way of commuting from the Stillwater campus to Edmond (just north of OKC) and back. I wish I could easily get back to OKC by rail, or hell go to Little Rock, Tulsa, Wichita, or Kansas City in a similar and reliable manner without a car. I get Stillwater is rural, but we are the 4th largest town in the state, I believe, and right between Tulsa and OKC.
A city of half a million being served by only a single train per day is just crazy to me. We have cities less than a 20th that size in the extremely sparsely populated north of Sweden that are served more frequently, like Kiruna, the northernmost city in Sweden, population 17,500, which has five daily trains to Luleå, population 79,000, 260 km away, with the largest city in between being Gällivare, population 17,300. And that line is electrified, there's a lot of heavy ore freight traffic on the line because Kiruna is a mining town and Luleå is a coastal city.
Oklahoma City is 710,000 people (2023) not a half of million, which makes your point even more significant. Good news is the frequency is suppose to increase to three times per day OKC-FTW and there will be daily OKC-Newton KS. In addition, Oklahoma City area RTD is hard final on implementing Commuter rail along the I-35 corridor (Edmond-OKC, Norman-OKC) to start. IMO, they should start with commuter bus immediately to build ridership, then as funds become significant - add in the rail (and move the commuter buses to the E-W suburbs).
The massive ore mine and its operations in Kiruna are why it has such extensive train service. But, yes, we know that Sweden, and Europe broadly, have extensive passenger rail. And while the lack of passenger rail in Oklahoma or many other states may seem "crazy" to you it is not at all to the near entirety of us. We, like most of the U.S., are perfectly comfortable and happy with personal vehicle and air travel. Many fail to consider when looking at differences in passenger rail between the U.S. and Europe that while national rail systems in Europe were aimed at creating efficient passenger transport systems within and between countries, the U.S was still in its relative infancy and was still expanding westward. U.S. rail development focused on connecting distant regions and facilitating large-scale movement of people and goods to those increasingly westward and far-flung regions. Also often overlooked is the fact that Europe had long-established cities and population centers. Knowing the size and location of population concentrations presents an entirely different picture for rail development. As does the relatively higher population densities of many European cities. Compare, for example, the Stockholm metropolitan area which despite being just ~38% the size of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area has 1.7 times its population. Finally, the development of the national interstate system in the U.S. made passenger travel across the U.S. - which is effectively tied for the third largest country by area on the planet with Canada and China - dramatically easier. That had strong knock-on effects on passenger vehicle adoption and support, and consequently passenger rail, across much of the country. Low-cost and ubiquitously available domestic air travel in the U.S. is another factor, but that's a different discussion.
@@rchilde1 What's sad is that the United States once had a very robust passenger rail service that serviced even smaller towns like you mentioned. Every town relied on rail to move people between cities, near and far. They were all defunded due to the funds being prioritized for interstate highways in the 1950's and 60's. We barely have a skeleton of passenger rail here except for the Northeast Corridor which remained "mostly" intacted.
Cool video. I saw your laptop screen at 9:23 and felt called to suggest using a program like 7-Zip to move files between folders since File Explorer is notoriously and painfully inefficient, even with small file sizes. It has changed my life and I hope it changes yours!
I was planning a vacation were I take rail up to the east coast, thought I would have to drive to Texas to start the trip, great video, from another public transport fan.
U dont know how happy i am to finally c my city and a route i used to take to home in okc and back to dallas for school. Ppl dont understand that 4 the first time ever okc and oklahoma in general is getting any attention. For years it was nothing here, just a desolate empty poor city, and in the past few suddey were getting recognized. Thx 4 the vid Edit: the train does have wifi btw, its just TERRIBLE lol. It makes mcdonalds wifi look like a pro gamer setup
As a Tulsan currently living downtown (right near the train tracks) I desperately need them to connect the OKC > Dallas train to Tulsa. I'll get up early for it if I have to but doing a weekend trip without having to drive on Texas roads would be amazing. Great video!
There are active plans for a commuter rail between Norman, OKC, and Edmond! Check out the Oklahoma RTA :) I think the spot you mention might even be one of the proposed stops!
Wonderful video! I remember like 6-7 years ago or so, the Heartland Flyer used to have in-train WiFi. I often miss it. When you go through the Arbuckles further south in OK, your cell signal will often cut out for over an hour. Luckily the landscape out the window is so beautiful I dont mind it too much on most of my trips :)
There is a professor at the University of Oklahoma who teaches a Saturday class. He commutes about 6 times a semester from Fort Worth. Not sure if he still teaches, it has been a few years.
I desperately want Tulsa to hook up to the Heartland Flyer line! Given my choice, I think I'd travel the country via train. Such a superior way to planes, buses, or cars. Thanks for this great video!
Having family and work in OKC and college in Norman has been not the best the past year I havent had a car... Glad to see someone else shared this experience with public transit in the metro! So stupid to think we have 3 metropolitan centers with rail going straight through them and we cant seem to set up a decent commuter rail service. Its also a small world, huh? I know Caylor from my time in theatrical lighting design before I switched to environmental engineering. Cool dude! We played card games during backstage tech stuff.
At least Norman is part of the Centra Oklahoma RTA. So, maybe in 15 years the frequent regional rail system you dream of will actually exist between Edmond, OKC, and Norman.
As a former Coloradan, OK could benefit greatly from some light rail. Connecting Tulsa, Norman, OKC and Texas in a rail system would greatly benefit the OK economy and I'd love to be able to just park somewhere and take a train to see different parts of the state.
And you work for the team formerly known as the OKC Dodgers?? That’s awesome! I’m a minor league baseball fanatic, so I hope to get to a game there someday.
Ive taken the Heartland Flyer before. My girlfriend and I took it down and back for a weekend trip to Dallas. We were mostly satisfied with the train, but there is no Sunday service for the train between Fort Worth and Dallas, which forced us to buy an Uber for an otherwise transit dependent vacation.
Hey I’ve done som work at the embark in Norman right by the yellow dog! We had to completely repipe their basement and put a grinding sewer pump down there because of all the homeless people flushing anything they can down the public bathroom. I literally saw a tshirt in there once lol
Well done - I admire your tenacity - only in Oklahoma could you get commuter buses that give transfer stress that rivals an international rail transfer with tickets from two countries that don’t guarantee a connection My god how about that route detour 😅 if we ever had anything like that in Sydney Australia it would be for a major annual festival and have signs posted everywhere and be only a 5-minute walk at most
Excellent video. Went to school in Norman for 3 years, currently live in OKC, and never even knew about this But I have to ask why you would do this. Operating under your claim that transit costs are roughly the same as gas costs, you are essentially trading the cost of car insurance and car maintenance for the unpredictable, inconvenient, life-altering constraints mandated by these modes of public transit. Detriments include, as you mentioned, lack of control over available transit times, and the need to plan everything with a substantial amount of fluff time because of your need to walk to destinations from stations. Other detriments include lack of privacy, the inability to reliably travel in emergent situations, the inability to travel to a particular place without complicating and adding costs to your travel strategy, the inability to transport others to places, the inability to be dropped off where you need to be, the inability to make any plans outside of the unadaptable structure created by your public transit schedule. The list goes on and on. And that's without factoring in that many clunker vehicles can get 28 MPG, which comes out to about 10 cents per mile under current gas prices. Compare that to your 17 cents using public transit. Also, your cost considerations do not factor in costs of occasionally paying for electric, per-mile devices (like the scooter you mentioned using due to the unpredictable destination at which you were dropped off), or the costs associated with purchasing a reliable bicycle. At what point is it no longer worth taking on all of these daily, inane limitations? If a minimalist lifestyle is what you're after, it would be more minimalist, less inconvenient, more freeing, and much cheaper to just live and work in Norman. Again, this is a fantastic video. I just do not fully understand your perspective on it. I don't like feeling compelled to drive everywhere I have to go, but I feel blessed that I have the ability to go anywhere I want to go, and that I am not a slave to schedules based on factors over which I have no control. One last thing: this comment isn't coming from an angle or anything like that. This is strictly going off the content contained in this video. I'd love to be able to just live my life with more conveniences and comforts available to me.
Glad you enjoyed! It really began as more of an experiment than anything, but it ended up being totally enjoyable and worthwhile to me personally. Most of the issues I faced could be resolved with frequent and reliable commuter rail, which could be coming soon to this route. Other than the changes to the bus route, everything was totally reliable, comfortable, safe, and relaxing. Now I’m looking forward to better transit services that will serve this corridor in the future and will have something to look back and compare them to. -Kyler
I love trains, and I wish I'd known about the Heartland Flyer when I was going to OU. I don't know how I missed out on it, and it would have made my flights easier to go out of DFW rather than OKC. But I will say this for the bus: you could have taken your bike with you, which would have helped out in Norman. Is there no bike space on Amtrak? I've also taken the City of New Orleans from Champaign, IL (my hometown) to Chicago, which is a _delight!_ But my best train experience was the three--day ride from Illinois to California my family took when I was 7. We didn't get a sleeper, just had us kids stretch out under the seats while my parents slept upright. That was an incredible trip.
Imagine if BNSF had sidings- long enough for freight trains - and would respect the law giving AMTRAK the priority over goods trains? What a wonderful world this could be…
I lived in Norman for a while and driving so much was part of why I disliked it. If I could live in OKC and train commute down it would completely change my academic life. As is, I’m staying in Tulsa where I know all the bugs of traffic!
You're not going to see a commuter train on that line without another track being installed. It's way too busy with freight. Usually Amtrak is late somewhere along its route because of that.
What’s your favorite train story?
On my 20th birthday of May 20th, 2023 (I like to call it my "2020"), I spent time with my family riding the transit of Salt Lake City (FrontRunner, TRAX, and S Line streetcar). The Blue Line through downtown was packed. It made me happy to see so many people actually using the service. Also enjoyed the TOD along the S Line.
My honeymoon trip with the Transsiberian -from Moscow to Vladivostok -> 5771 miles on the same route !
Some years have gone by…
There are a few examples where I live where the connecting bus arrives like two minutes after the train departs or departs like two minutes before the train arrives, and the next connection is like 1 to 2 hours later😞
I lived in OKC I have ridden that same train back in 2000 a few times from pauls valley to okc and back at the time it was fairly convenient its a shame that you cant ride it to tulsa tho
also side fact the riveboats are operated by embark or used to I'm not sure if they still are
The fact the red river rivarly keeps a passanger train line alive is amazing.
Hoping that this means I’ll be able to get a train from college station to Austin soon
@@RugbyRyan I think they are referencing the weekend of the RRR, they add one more stop from the normal Ft Worth end point, stopping in downtown Dallas. Which has been going on for years.
Absolutely crazy that this train is like this with a univerity that close to a major transport center. Good for you for making it work.
The major transport center its near is entirely based on interstates.
OKC bus driver here. Cool to see an OKC urbanist channel. Really wild to see so many recognizable locations.
Just chiming in to say the Heartland Flyer ***"""should"""*** be getting extended to Kansas and daily roundtrip service from OKC to Fort Worth would triple in frequency. It's part of Amtrak corridor id program and all 3 states have approved of the extension and service changes.
Maybe it'll happen sometime while we're all still alive hahahaha
Stay tuned, we will be talking about this in future videos!
At the least, it should go on to Wichita, if not Kansas City. That would be a true heartland train and make it a reasonable north-south route for travelers wanting to go to a city/sports game in Kansas City/Wichita/Tulsa/Stillwater.
In all fairness, a person can take Amtrak commuter bus from OKC to Newton (and Wichita) today, thereby completing the Heartland connection. The problem is the hours are horrible and since it's not a train, it's not convenient so therefore hardly used. Same for Tulsa, there are several OKC-Tulsa bus routes but they are not necessarily Amtrak aligned and therefore - not as convenient/used. Oklahoma needs to take a harder more proactive look at its Amtrak service and OKC metro commuter rail. I know it's all in the works but they need the CR up and running long before they start I-35 crossroads bridge replacement and the I-44/I-40 junction rebuild.. If not rail then true commuter bus (60 foot, articulated or coach) along the I-35 spine needs to start immediately. To think of all of the commuters going into Downtown OKC (from both ways) and students/professors going from Edmond and OKC to Norman; this should be a priority and OU should be looking at adding a streetcar in Norman and an extension of OKC's streetcar into the Oklahoma Health Center.
AMTRAK also plans on adding OKC to STL along I-44 (I think they should call it the I-44 Flyer).
@rchilde1 I doubt they'll extend the streetcar to the OU health center. With that said, EMBARK does have a bus that goes to the OU health center. I don't know if that service interfaces with the Streetcar.
i feel so blessed to live in a city with highly frequent (8-10 min headways) commuter trains, I sold my car and totally depend on them now. It has genuinely improved my mental health to relax in a train instead of stressing out in a car
This video made me immediately think of the Princeton "Dinky", which connects directly to the New Jersey Transit mainline. Having known a few Princeton alums, many of them have many happy memories of getting home or going on intercity trips while using that service. It can be done.
Always great to see a fellow transit oriented Okie! I'm a student at OU who's currently interning at the state capitol and, in my capacity as an intern, doing research on the OTA's power and whether or not, under their broad jurisdiction, they could have the ability to build passenger rail. My findings so far have been more promising than one might expect, and I plan on presenting a proposal to the OTA before the semester is out. Boomer sooner!
Good luck! Rooting for you! Always a fan of more trains
OTA has too much clout and way too much to lose for any passenger light rail service to gain a foothold here. OTA gets revenues from the turnpikes, and more drivers = more money.
Good Luck!! From an OU student working in OKC
Boomer! Good luck with OTA. I’m afraid you’re facing strong headwinds. Not only is Oklahoma generically beholden to the Oil Power, OTA is also way too close to the paving industry.
Please keep us posted!
i rode the amtrak and sooner express to OU all 2022 through last spring semester! (edit because i have zero sense of time lmao) simultaneously loved it and wouldn’t wish it on my enemies. you lucked out never having to take the returning amtrak. i had classes that would keep me on campus after the last bus to okc had left all 2022, so i had no other choice at least one day a week. that freight train rail privilege meant it was always at least an hour late, usually more. at least twice it didn’t come until well after midnight. i hope eventually okc and norman (maybe even edmond for our uco friends in a real dream scenario) break down and make real commuter rail happen for us. would have made carless life way more tolerable. 😭
Hey! It’s nice to hear that others have done this recently! The evening trip from Norman to OKC is the only leg of the trip that I’ve never taken, and as much as it’s disappointing that it’s late so often, it doesn’t really surprise me. I did take the last Sooner Express bus of the day once, which is a totally different vibe than what I was used to. As far as commuter rail goes, keep your eye out, because I think there might be some progress on that coming soon. I look forward to seeing multimodal commuting become a viable option for more and more students.
Build new tracks or don’t bother
Amtrak by law has and has always had the right-of-way on all rail lines. The issue is from the law's inception freight companies just ignored that and have been able to get away with it. Amtrak isn't allowed to sue to enforce their right-of-way, and the Department of Justice has only ever brought action once, in 1979.
Currently, Democracts are trying and failing to get Amtrak the power to bring its own lawsuits (S.1500 - Rail Passenger Fairness Act) and Republicans are trying and failing to officially strip Amtrak of the right-of-way (H.R.3893 - Freights First Act.)
As a frequent victim of trains in the UK, those seats look magnificent
Having ridden both, the heartland flyer’s seats are super comfy. There’s wifi and a concession service as wel!
Honestly the biggest thing that Amtrak has going for it is comfort on the trains.
@@yaush_ honestly u can recline and as long as it's not a holiday or game day you have lots of space plus food and drinks
Always a good day when my favorite Oklahomans upload a video!
This episode was even more relatable than it usually is for a Texan like me because I DESPERATELY wished that the Heartland Flyer was more convenient. Because I make frequent trips to Ardmore, there is such good reason for me to take this train in isolation...
However, I am like an hour and a half away from Fort Worth, my nearest station on that route. If there were closer stations or there was higher frequency, or even if there was an effective public transit route for me to get to Fort Worth, I basically would have no issue with using the service! But sadly, none of those are the case, and making a once a day train (which, I must say, leaves Fort Worth during peak of RUSH HOUR, making getting to that station even more of a pain) without transit links to the suburb I (unfortunately) live in, it's just so infeasible for me to use it.
Regardless, I'm happy to see that at least you were able to effectively use the service, and you are 100% right in that there is so much potential for commuter rail in the Norman/OKC region! Thank y'all for doing the good work of spreading our urbanist news to the masses and I can't wait for next video! :)
I may have been a bit "hesitant" about the train at frist but you seemed to be so much happier on days you got to be productive on the train vs days you were stuck in traffic. Due to traffic also the travel times were very similar. Glad it was a win win with the train. (also hey I spot my cat)
I took that train on my 21st birthday to go from Sherman to Fort Worth to drink legally for the first time. Still involved a 30 mile drive each way but that seemed more responsible than drinking and driving because at least I had an hour or so to sober up on the way back.
I’m only a few minutes in, but I can tell that this is a quality video-it deserves more views!
Its crazy to see someone make our bare bones system work. I go to OU and I can't imagine making this work, that shit's impressive. I talked about Oklahoma's public transit all semester as a Comp 2 topic and I didn't think it was possible.
Tulsa native here who regularly works shows down in OKC! I was providing transportation to one of our artists and I saw the Amtrak for the first time just last weekend. I had no idea OKC had a running train line, and I was blown away! Now I know how I'm going to go down to Dallas the next time I head down there!
I live outside of Tulsa. I wish there was a line between Tulsa and OKC. Over the years, it would have been a godsend to be able to ride train to Okc and then go to DFW. Would have saved soooo much money and saved even more on stress.
@@notbobrosss3670 absolutely, i have to drive to OKC and back every time I work a show
It does make me sad that this is the only train we got ngl. Happy to hear about the experience you had
OU student from Tulsa here, it is good that people are turning towards trains.
The only aspect of the trip I wouldn't match with is the daily coffee shop waiting, I rather just try to find somewhere where I can shelter for free instead. The commute honestly feels normal with how it's just a train (even if it is just ONE train, that single train can definitely be used for many commuters) & bus commute with walking & biking in the fold, but hearing the 1 hour and a half interval for a bus makes this commute exceptional to me. Thanks for showcasing how more free and relaxed it is to just not drive all the time, even without an actual commuter rail service!
Southwest OK resident here. 30 miles east of Lawton, along Highway 81. Light rail would be a welcome thing *here* too.
Must be in Duncan or Marlow huh?
Shady 580 baby lol
@@Trentonj198 Duncan, and you're right.
@@captain_misaki My hometown🫱🏽🫲🏼
How about automated elevated metro instead?
Thanks for posting this video I’m not from OK but hearing the news about the tallest building in America being constructed in Oklahoma City I decided to do some research on google maps of the area after wandering around I discovered to my surprise that the city has passenger rail it’s very interesting to see especially in a state like Oklahoma I’ve never rode on a train but I do plan on it
As an OU student, this was SUPER interesting, and im really glad it popped into my feed. I driver over that track daily to get to campus, and I would LOVE to have a station there so I can get back & forth between here and my home in Texas. Fantastic video!
I've ridden the Heartland Flyer twice. The first time, when my kids were little, we transferred in Ft Worth to another train and went all the way to San Antonio. Traveling by train with kids is so nice! Lots of room, and easy for them to walk around. The only problem was, on the Ft. Worth to San Antonio segment, we hit a person on the track and were stopped for several hours. So it was very late when we arrived in SA and our rental car place was closed.
A couple years ago, we took the Heartland Flyer again for a weekend in Ft. Worth. We were on the train back to OKC the day after the accident you show in your video.
I have ridden trains around the East Coast, as well as in Canada and Europe. I love train travel!
Two rides and two crashes?? That's wild. Glad you're okay, and glad you still love train travel!
It was fun watching your latest informative video about public transportation. I didn't know you took that route all semester, but good for you! It was also a neat opportunity to catch up with my grandson! Good job! (With special appearance by Marigold!)
i started taking the train to visit my daughter and grandbaby in TX. no stress on my car and i get to relax. I have become completely jealous of the DFW transit system.
I did a semester abroad at OU in 2017 and at the time I hadn't learned to drive - therefore Uber was an expensive necessity. I took the Heartland Flyer once to go down to Austin and really enjoyed the experience! Your video is making me wish I'd made better use of the buses though, I essentially only went into OKC when a friend could drive me. As a lover of trains, trams, metros and buses it's great to see through your channel that Oklahoma is getting onboard with more public transport options!
This is such a great video! I'm from Arlington TX but I've been to OKC many times using the Heartland Flyer and Embark to get around. I've even been on the new Rapid BRT line, which was pretty decent. I mostly stay in downtown OKC though so it was interesting to see the perspective of someone who lives there and actually uses transit to get around the wider area. I've always felt like OKC is doing a lot of great things with public transit, even if it's not perfect yet. But the Heartland Flyer definitely needs higher frequency service. Hopefully that will come with the expansion to Wichita.
Reminds me a lot of my experience on amtrak, and also plotting out the bus routes in my mid size kansas town. A bit complicated, but lots of fun to puzzle out for me.
As someone who has a lot of familial ties to trains and also just so happens to live in Oklahoma (my paternal grandfather actually worked at the train station that was along the original route in Arkansas City), this is one of the best videos I’ve seen in a while.
Wasn’t expecting to see Purcell in this vid, took me off guard
I didn't even think to take the Amtrak to Norman when I was commuting from OKC. I used the 24 on Mondays and Fridays to take my daughter to her Dad's and it worked out pretty well for about a year.
I don't know how I'm so drawn into this video on a commuting route in a state 1000 miles away from me... but I'm loving this. Maybe it's because I relate to the commuting life and I love trains and wish we had better infrastructure haha. This video is super high-quality!
I can remember the late 40''s and early 50's, when my younger brother and I would board the "Doodle Bug" in Altus, OK, to go visit our grandparents in Crowell, Texas. Our parents knew the conductor, and he would watch over us and be sure that we 1) did not get into trouble, and 2) arrived safely in Crowell. At that time, there were several of those small "Doodle Bugs" which traveled all around southwest Oklahoma and northwest Texas, delivering passengers to where they needed to go. The trains also acted as the USPS sorting centers, which greatly expedited mail delivery, and the baggage cars quickly delivered freight and large items. Some ran twice a day, and there was no day you couldn't get to where you needed to go as quickly as possible, in those days. Alas, the development of automobiles which were capable of long distance travel, and better highway systems brought an end to just about all passenger rail traffic not only here, but throughout the country. It was the beginning of the downfall of US rail travel, and Amtrak or not, it will probably never be resurrected as long as the private companies call the shots. I regret the loss of those trains -- they held our country together.
You're ahead of your time!
Maybe you should post this to get more OU students to do it. With demand, that'd force Embark to upgrade and enhance commuter service; make it align with Amtrak and upgrade commuter buses to 60' articulated and/or coach. Nice to see there are frequencies, hard to believe there were no easy ways to commute between the largest city in the state and the largest university that's in the same metro. ....
Thanks for posting this. I know lots of Oklahomans that don’t even know about the Embark stuff. It’s super convenient for a night out.
wow. a public transportation video in oklahoma of all places, a state dominated by black dodge RAM/F150 environmental destroyer TEXAS edition, pavement princess drivers w/ suspended licenses that don't know how turn signals work, have a truck bed they use once a year, & have it lifted to where there can literally be 15 children sitting down in front of the truck & not be visible. i'm cynical for our state & much of america that is designed w/ cars in mind & not people, but this is a wonderfully well produced video. kudos to you.
I love all the details you went in to! Things like choosing your walking path and showing on the map the route options you could take. Very cool to see all of that, gives me more familiarity with an area I’m otherwise completely unfamiliar with.
I'm so happy they finally decided to expand the line. I wanted that 15 years ago when i was going to san Antonio to visit my mom and living in Tulsa. Train travel with a toddler/small child is the way to go fyi! So much easier and more comfortable than flying, although it does take a lot longer.
My wife and I spent a weekend in Fort Worth for our anniversary. We took the flyer. Worked out great.
Cool to see someone in OK making content in general, let alone on a fairly niche topic. Keep it up brother!
Super commuting can be stressful, but this is amazing! With the growth of our economy, more people will be traveling from city to city on a regular basis.... ...IF the train was the best way to travel. Planes and cars at their best is disappointing. Trains have the potential to do great in the US (and many don't think so) but I KNOW so.
Imagine if we had a decent train network. People wonder how Oklahoma is supposed to grow when the traffic is so bad. Alternative methods of commuting!
You mean socialism!? Get a car hippies!!!
*I Joke*
Yeah it would also be better if we fixed our incredibly bad and car dependent city planning but thats much easier to achieve
I grew up in Tulsa, got 2 degrees at OU, and never experienced the public transport options. This was a fantastic video. This is the first time I've seen your channel. Earned one more subscriber today! Great work on this! Can't wait to see what else you do!
Great video bro. Viva la Norman!!
Along the BNSF line through Oklahoma City, on the north end of the metro you have Edmond, which is a nice middle-to-upper class suburb that is also a college town, then on the southern end you have Norman, which has the largest university in the state. How some form of commuter rail hasn’t continuously existed along that route at least is insane. Then to the east, you have Tinker Air Force Base, which is one of the largest employers not just in the Oklahoma City metro but in all of Oklahoma, so that’s another commuter route that would be remarkably useful. You could even extend that commuter line from Tinker out towards Shawnee because quite a few people in Shawnee also work at Tinker or the capital, which Shawnee is something of a college town as well with Oklahoma Baptist University. The potential for commuter rail just for people going to school or working at Tinker alone would make it worth it, that’s before you add in people that would use it for work in downtown Oklahoma City or between suburbs or to go into Oklahoma City for entertainment. The work is being done behind the scenes but it’s wild that it ever stopped being such a common method of transportation here.
Bingo imagine this as elevated fast metro (driverless) with HSR as an express service in the cities
Oh hey that's the Norman stop in the thumbnail!
I've ridden this one to visit Ft Worth and enjoyed it every time.
youtube has to be reading my mind. I'm not a big train person but I think about this train a few times a year. I've only been on it once on a trip down to Dallas with my mother and it was so fun! Or 16 y/o me's idea of fun, so sitting on my phone reading manga for 3 straight hours and watching the scenery. But every time I travel to Dallas I wish I was on the Amtrak. No traffic, no dealing with other drivers (i also just hate driving in general). I could recline and chill for 4 hours like cmon! what a dream
I sure wish we had high speed rail from Tulsa to OKC. Disappointing that Tulsa is not included in the DOT HSR planning. DFW-OKC-TUL-Fayetteville. And then FYV connected to both KC and Little Rock (and on to Memphis).
Some great points about the viability of commuter rail in most markets. Having grown up in the NYC suburbs with Metro North, it never occured to me how spoiled I was with easy access to great transit. Living in Central VA now, it boggles my mind that Amtrak is the only option for intercity transit (or none at all!). NC has a great train which connects most of its cities and we all need it too!
Norman native, I’m sure you may know but they have been expanding the number of rails from Norman to OKC and will be adding a trolley/train between Edmond and Norman
I'm going to get a chance to take this route in August. I'm excited.
Its not fair that you have so few subs. You're actually traveling to the places you're talking about!
Very cool to see you make this work!
Love to see this! I took the OU-Norman route on weekends back in 2013-2014 when I was a student, tremendous respect to you for being able to make it work with the train! Also, incredible quality on the map animations and everything, this was a really high quality video!
I recognize gray owl coffee shop in one of the interviews, awesome 👏👏👏
im lucky to live in toronto with GO transit and VIA (despite how slow each one is) but my area is good enough that i can catch any random bus and catch any train and not worry about missing much
I moved to OKC from Ft worth back in 2019. However, I was still working in FW for like 4 months. At some point during this period, my car ate shit. There was a brief period of time where I used the heartland flyer to "commute" back and forth but I was staying in FW Thursday through Saturday and would go back on Sunday night and have Monday thru Wednesday in OKC. It wasn't great, but it worked for a second. I wish the rail system were better.
I live on Oklahoma City, and had no idea there was a commuter train to Texas.
Great video
I'm on OKC native and lived many years in Norman as well. Would love to see far more Passenger rail in this state. Ulsa, Ardmore, Paul's Valley, DFW, Lawton... everything is spread out and this part of the country would be well served by passenger rail I believe.
Coming from the other major college in Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University (Go Pokes), it is deeply frustrating that there was no real easy way of commuting from the Stillwater campus to Edmond (just north of OKC) and back. I wish I could easily get back to OKC by rail, or hell go to Little Rock, Tulsa, Wichita, or Kansas City in a similar and reliable manner without a car. I get Stillwater is rural, but we are the 4th largest town in the state, I believe, and right between Tulsa and OKC.
💙 Yep, truly, it WOULD be nice to have more train routes within & through Oklahoma.
😢 that we don't.
Having a positive experience with trains as a kid seems to be a common way many of us support public transit as car-dependent adults
ah man I love public transit so much
So do we.
A city of half a million being served by only a single train per day is just crazy to me. We have cities less than a 20th that size in the extremely sparsely populated north of Sweden that are served more frequently, like Kiruna, the northernmost city in Sweden, population 17,500, which has five daily trains to Luleå, population 79,000, 260 km away, with the largest city in between being Gällivare, population 17,300. And that line is electrified, there's a lot of heavy ore freight traffic on the line because Kiruna is a mining town and Luleå is a coastal city.
Oklahoma City is 710,000 people (2023) not a half of million, which makes your point even more significant. Good news is the frequency is suppose to increase to three times per day OKC-FTW and there will be daily OKC-Newton KS. In addition, Oklahoma City area RTD is hard final on implementing Commuter rail along the I-35 corridor (Edmond-OKC, Norman-OKC) to start. IMO, they should start with commuter bus immediately to build ridership, then as funds become significant - add in the rail (and move the commuter buses to the E-W suburbs).
The massive ore mine and its operations in Kiruna are why it has such extensive train service. But, yes, we know that Sweden, and Europe broadly, have extensive passenger rail. And while the lack of passenger rail in Oklahoma or many other states may seem "crazy" to you it is not at all to the near entirety of us. We, like most of the U.S., are perfectly comfortable and happy with personal vehicle and air travel.
Many fail to consider when looking at differences in passenger rail between the U.S. and Europe that while national rail systems in Europe were aimed at creating efficient passenger transport systems within and between countries, the U.S was still in its relative infancy and was still expanding westward. U.S. rail development focused on connecting distant regions and facilitating large-scale movement of people and goods to those increasingly westward and far-flung regions.
Also often overlooked is the fact that Europe had long-established cities and population centers. Knowing the size and location of population concentrations presents an entirely different picture for rail development. As does the relatively higher population densities of many European cities. Compare, for example, the Stockholm metropolitan area which despite being just ~38% the size of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area has 1.7 times its population.
Finally, the development of the national interstate system in the U.S. made passenger travel across the U.S. - which is effectively tied for the third largest country by area on the planet with Canada and China - dramatically easier. That had strong knock-on effects on passenger vehicle adoption and support, and consequently passenger rail, across much of the country.
Low-cost and ubiquitously available domestic air travel in the U.S. is another factor, but that's a different discussion.
@@rchilde1 What's sad is that the United States once had a very robust passenger rail service that serviced even smaller towns like you mentioned. Every town relied on rail to move people between cities, near and far. They were all defunded due to the funds being prioritized for interstate highways in the 1950's and 60's. We barely have a skeleton of passenger rail here except for the Northeast Corridor which remained "mostly" intacted.
Cool video. I saw your laptop screen at 9:23 and felt called to suggest using a program like 7-Zip to move files between folders since File Explorer is notoriously and painfully inefficient, even with small file sizes. It has changed my life and I hope it changes yours!
I was planning a vacation were I take rail up to the east coast, thought I would have to drive to Texas to start the trip, great video, from another public transport fan.
U dont know how happy i am to finally c my city and a route i used to take to home in okc and back to dallas for school. Ppl dont understand that 4 the first time ever okc and oklahoma in general is getting any attention. For years it was nothing here, just a desolate empty poor city, and in the past few suddey were getting recognized. Thx 4 the vid
Edit: the train does have wifi btw, its just TERRIBLE lol. It makes mcdonalds wifi look like a pro gamer setup
As a Tulsan currently living downtown (right near the train tracks) I desperately need them to connect the OKC > Dallas train to Tulsa. I'll get up early for it if I have to but doing a weekend trip without having to drive on Texas roads would be amazing. Great video!
There are active plans for a commuter rail between Norman, OKC, and Edmond! Check out the Oklahoma RTA :)
I think the spot you mention might even be one of the proposed stops!
that is so exciting! wow:D
I always forget that we have a train in Oklahoma. Great video!
Wonderful video! I remember like 6-7 years ago or so, the Heartland Flyer used to have in-train WiFi. I often miss it. When you go through the Arbuckles further south in OK, your cell signal will often cut out for over an hour. Luckily the landscape out the window is so beautiful I dont mind it too much on most of my trips :)
There is a professor at the University of Oklahoma who teaches a Saturday class. He commutes about 6 times a semester from Fort Worth. Not sure if he still teaches, it has been a few years.
Great video :]
I desperately want Tulsa to hook up to the Heartland Flyer line! Given my choice, I think I'd travel the country via train. Such a superior way to planes, buses, or cars. Thanks for this great video!
Having family and work in OKC and college in Norman has been not the best the past year I havent had a car... Glad to see someone else shared this experience with public transit in the metro! So stupid to think we have 3 metropolitan centers with rail going straight through them and we cant seem to set up a decent commuter rail service.
Its also a small world, huh? I know Caylor from my time in theatrical lighting design before I switched to environmental engineering. Cool dude! We played card games during backstage tech stuff.
At least Norman is part of the Centra Oklahoma RTA. So, maybe in 15 years the frequent regional rail system you dream of will actually exist between Edmond, OKC, and Norman.
At least we got ONE instead of NONE.
Great video man
As a former Coloradan, OK could benefit greatly from some light rail. Connecting Tulsa, Norman, OKC and Texas in a rail system would greatly benefit the OK economy and I'd love to be able to just park somewhere and take a train to see different parts of the state.
And you work for the team formerly known as the OKC Dodgers?? That’s awesome! I’m a minor league baseball fanatic, so I hope to get to a game there someday.
Nope, but the architecture firm I work for bought us tickets for the same that day so I couldn’t pass up that opportunity haha
Ive taken the Heartland Flyer before. My girlfriend and I took it down and back for a weekend trip to Dallas. We were mostly satisfied with the train, but there is no Sunday service for the train between Fort Worth and Dallas, which forced us to buy an Uber for an otherwise transit dependent vacation.
Great video !👍 I love your 🐱🐈⬛️🐈
Hey I’ve done som work at the embark in Norman right by the yellow dog! We had to completely repipe their basement and put a grinding sewer pump down there because of all the homeless people flushing anything they can down the public bathroom. I literally saw a tshirt in there once lol
Guys I think I found the only other urbanist in Oklahoma
There's more of us than you think. We just get stamped out because of how this state is
Theres always a yellow sign on the train signal arms at the crossing that has a number to call directly to the train navigation people.
Well done - I admire your tenacity - only in Oklahoma could you get commuter buses that give transfer stress that rivals an international rail transfer with tickets from two countries that don’t guarantee a connection
My god how about that route detour 😅 if we ever had anything like that in Sydney Australia it would be for a major annual festival and have signs posted everywhere and be only a 5-minute walk at most
Excellent video. Went to school in Norman for 3 years, currently live in OKC, and never even knew about this
But I have to ask why you would do this. Operating under your claim that transit costs are roughly the same as gas costs, you are essentially trading the cost of car insurance and car maintenance for the unpredictable, inconvenient, life-altering constraints mandated by these modes of public transit. Detriments include, as you mentioned, lack of control over available transit times, and the need to plan everything with a substantial amount of fluff time because of your need to walk to destinations from stations. Other detriments include lack of privacy, the inability to reliably travel in emergent situations, the inability to travel to a particular place without complicating and adding costs to your travel strategy, the inability to transport others to places, the inability to be dropped off where you need to be, the inability to make any plans outside of the unadaptable structure created by your public transit schedule. The list goes on and on.
And that's without factoring in that many clunker vehicles can get 28 MPG, which comes out to about 10 cents per mile under current gas prices. Compare that to your 17 cents using public transit. Also, your cost considerations do not factor in costs of occasionally paying for electric, per-mile devices (like the scooter you mentioned using due to the unpredictable destination at which you were dropped off), or the costs associated with purchasing a reliable bicycle. At what point is it no longer worth taking on all of these daily, inane limitations?
If a minimalist lifestyle is what you're after, it would be more minimalist, less inconvenient, more freeing, and much cheaper to just live and work in Norman.
Again, this is a fantastic video. I just do not fully understand your perspective on it. I don't like feeling compelled to drive everywhere I have to go, but I feel blessed that I have the ability to go anywhere I want to go, and that I am not a slave to schedules based on factors over which I have no control.
One last thing: this comment isn't coming from an angle or anything like that. This is strictly going off the content contained in this video. I'd love to be able to just live my life with more conveniences and comforts available to me.
Glad you enjoyed! It really began as more of an experiment than anything, but it ended up being totally enjoyable and worthwhile to me personally. Most of the issues I faced could be resolved with frequent and reliable commuter rail, which could be coming soon to this route. Other than the changes to the bus route, everything was totally reliable, comfortable, safe, and relaxing. Now I’m looking forward to better transit services that will serve this corridor in the future and will have something to look back and compare them to. -Kyler
@@eryngo.urbanism I see. It’s an ideal, rather than a practicality
I love trains, and I wish I'd known about the Heartland Flyer when I was going to OU. I don't know how I missed out on it, and it would have made my flights easier to go out of DFW rather than OKC. But I will say this for the bus: you could have taken your bike with you, which would have helped out in Norman. Is there no bike space on Amtrak?
I've also taken the City of New Orleans from Champaign, IL (my hometown) to Chicago, which is a _delight!_ But my best train experience was the three--day ride from Illinois to California my family took when I was 7. We didn't get a sleeper, just had us kids stretch out under the seats while my parents slept upright. That was an incredible trip.
Imagine if BNSF had sidings- long enough for freight trains - and would respect the law giving AMTRAK the priority over goods trains? What a wonderful world this could be…
Love seeing my city 💕
Brightline needs to watch the end of your video. A perfect business opportunity for them.
i'm an OU student and my parents live in DFW, i might have to try this at some point lol
This video is awesome
I lived in Norman for a while and driving so much was part of why I disliked it. If I could live in OKC and train commute down it would completely change my academic life. As is, I’m staying in Tulsa where I know all the bugs of traffic!
Respect from Tulsa home boy!!
I'm wondering why you don't bring a folding bike onto the train/bus, which could speed up/eliminate the walking you do in Norman.
Exactly, doesn't Embark have bike racks.
0:22 “Begs the question” is a logical fallacy concept. You’re “raising the question”.
awesome video!
You're not going to see a commuter train on that line without another track being installed. It's way too busy with freight. Usually Amtrak is late somewhere along its route because of that.