Measuring the Benefits of Intercity Passenger Rail: A Study

Timetable Schedule
Figure 3-2 shows the Heartland Flyer schedule as published in the Amtrak system
timetable. At the time of this study, the Heartland Flyer schedule provided for a single daily
round-trip between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth. Train #821 operates south in the morning,
departing Oklahoma City at 8:25 AM and arriving in Fort Worth at 12:39 PM. Train #822
makes the return trip northbound in the evening, departing Fort Worth at 5:25 PM and arriving
into Oklahoma City at 9:39 PM (5).
Figure 3-2: Heartland Flyer Timetable Schedule (5)
As scheduled, the Heartland Flyer covers the 206-mile route in 4 hours and 14 minutes in
each direction. This time includes the following components:
• Running Time (actual travel time between individual stations);
• Station Dwell Time (time spent at each station unloading and loading passengers); and
• Recovery Time (time added to the schedule to account for unexpected delays).
On-board staff reported to researchers that the Heartland Flyer schedule is unique because
Amtrak distributes the recovery time into the scheduled travel time between each station. This is
in contrast to typical Amtrak routes, where the recovery time is added to the travel time between
the final two stations on each run. As a result of this arrangement, a Flyer run that experiences
no delays between stations will generally be early into the next station and will hold until the
scheduled departure time even after completing all station business. Since there is no smoking
allowed on the train, the station dwell time in Ardmore includes two extra minutes to allow
passengers wishing to smoke to come off the train and do so, provided the train is running on
schedule. Trains that operate with no delays generally arrive at the endpoint station up to 20
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