An Amtrak study examining the possibility of a new train route connecting Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas is still in progress, Amtrak spokesman Mark Magliari said.

The Amtrak Expansion Feasibility Study is examining the costs of connecting Kansas City, Mo., and Fort Worth, Texas, according a press release. The new passenger rail service would extend the existing route from Dallas to Oklahoma City, known as the Heartland Flyer, to cover the 606 miles into Missouri.

The study was requested by the state of Kansas and was originally scheduled to be completed in 2009, but Magliari said Amtrak is still working on the analysis. He said he hopes the results will be released sometime this semester.

“The issue is generally feasibility,” said Brenda Perry, spokeswoman for Oklahoma Department of Transportation. “Without enough demand from riders, the potential route could fail to break even financially.”

The new cities in Oklahoma that are included in this study as potential stops are Ponca City, Perry, Guthrie, Edmond and Davis. Amtrak already has stops in Oklahoma City, Norman, Purcell, Pauls Valley and Ardmore along the Heartland Flyer route.

If the Heartland Flyer route was extended to Kansas City, professional writing junior Jamie Birdwell said she would definitely ride the train.

“My boyfriend lives in Lawrence and we trade off every other weekend, so I drive to Kansas about once a month,” Birdwell said. “It takes about five hours on a good day.”

Depending on if a train ticket were comparable to the two tanks of gas she uses to make the trip, Birdwell said she would ride the train every once in awhile.

“It’s a really long trip, and it’d be nice to get a drink or something,” Birdwell said. “I’m always kind of scared to be driving by myself in case I were to break down on the side of the road.”

Birdwell said her boyfriend, OU alumnus and current University of Kansas graduate student Tyler Branson, would probably ride the train to Norman as well.

“He is a graduate student and has tons of readings and homework,” she said.

Plans to figure out potential costs and time for construction are premature because the feasibility study has yet to be completed, Perry said.