Oklahoma Journeys
Week of March 15, 2008
Passenger Trains Leaving Oklahoma
It was forty years ago this week that passenger rail service in Oklahoma began sounding its last whistle. At the peak of passenger rail service in the state, more than 70 trains each day made stops in the Sooner State. That was during world War Two, but by the late 1960’s, airlines had taken over most of the passenger business from railroads meaning that big changes were ahead for the traveling public. That’s the story on this week’s Oklahoma Journeys from the Oklahoma Historical Society.
From the Oklahoma Historical Society, this is Oklahoma Journeys. I’m Michael Dean.
Following the Civil War, the westward expansion began in earnest. In 1871 the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, or the KATY for short, built a line into the territory to run trains from Kansas City to Dallas. Later in the 1870s the Frisco entered the territory, though it took till 1898 before its lines were extended from Oklahoma City to Lawton. In 1888 the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe built a line from Arkansas City, Kansas, to Gainesville, Texas, running through what was then called Oklahoma Station. A year later in 1889, many people making the land run into the central part of the state arrived from both the north and south ends on the Santa Fe Railroad. Also in 1888 the Rock Island followed the old Chisholm Trail running tracks to Pond Creek, El Reno, and Minco, and by 1893 from Minco to Dallas. These railroads played an extremely important part in the growth of Oklahoma. Our central location made it possible to take a train from Oklahoma to almost every major city in America.
By the 1940s Oklahoma had more than 70 daily passenger trains passing through the state. Not only did those trains carry passengers, but they also carried the U.S. mail. Following the war, a number of changes began taking place. Airlines began competing in earnest with the railroads for passenger service, and by the 1950s and 1960s, more and more people were flying rather than riding the rails, and the post office began shipping more and more mail on planes.
By 1968 there were just five passenger trains serving Oklahoma. The Kansas Citian that ran thru Oklahoma City to Fort Worth and back, the Santa Fe’s Chicagoan which left Oklahoma City every morning at 3:25 for Chicago, the Santa Fe Texas Chief making a daily run from Kansas City to Dallas and back, and a Kansas City Southern train that ran thru Sallisaw on a run from Kansas City to Shreveport and New Orleans.
It was forty years this week that Harlan Bell, the railroad engineer for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, could see the end of passenger rail service looming. He told reporters that because revenue from carrying mail was supporting the passenger trains, and the mail was in ever increasing amounts being carried by airliners, he could see the end of passenger trains coming. A railroad official at the same time said that in many cases mail revenue accounted for three quarters of the income for the passenger trains. A newspaper account reported that the railroads had seen the light, that freight was the real money maker.
That was in 1968. Three years later, in 1971 the federal government created Amtrak and took over passenger service across the nation. By that time only the Santa Fe Texas Chief ran passenger service in Oklahoma, and in 1979, that train was discontinued.
You can learn more about transportation in the Sooner State by visiting the transportation gallery at the Oklahoma History Center, NE 23rd Street just east of the state capitol.
Oklahoma Journeys is a production of the Oklahoma Historical Society, dedicated to the collection, preservation, and sharing our state’s past. I’m Michael Dean.