The Heartland Flyer will operate through the year while future funding from Oklahoma and Texas remains unclear.

Neither state legislatures appropriated sufficient funding to continue railway operations, causing the train to rely on existing emergency funding.

The Heartland Flyer provides daily transportation between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth. In 2024, the train carried over 80,000 passengers between the states, according to Amrak. It is currently operated through a partnership between the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Transportation.

Funding for the railroad has lacked stability for years. In 2025, ODOT paid $4.5 million towards the railway, but TxDOT initially did not include state funding towards the train. To prevent the closure, the North Central Texas Council of Governments Regional Transportation Council awarded $3.5 million towards the railway in August 2025.

On April 20, TxDOT issued a formal notice to Tim Gatz, Oklahoma secretary of transportation, stating that Texas would not contribute funding for 2026 railway operations.

“For many years, TxDOT has supported the route through specific appropriations for that purpose from the Texas Legislature in each biennial budget. However, the legislature did not appropriate funding for that purpose in the FY26-27 biennial budget,” the TxDOT statement read.

The partnership has previously called for both states to allocate $2.5 million towards railway costs. This year, neither state passed sufficient legislation for operations.

“The $2.5 million requested by ODOT for State Fiscal Year 2027 was not allocated to the Oklahoma Tourism and Passenger Rail Revolving Fund. Based on current projections, remaining fund balances are sufficient to support operations through the end of calendar year 2026,” ODOT wrote in a statement to The Transcript.

Amtrak is currently selling Heartland Flyer tickets through 2027. If a funding solution is not found and the Heartland Flyer ceases operations, tickets will be canceled and refunded, a spokesperson with Amtrak told The Transcript.

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