Next time you check out your local Texas Eagle Amtrak train schedule, look for Hope worked in between the Arkadelphia and Texarkana stops.
Hope, Ar., appears with a box around the number 21. Follow the schedule key and the 21translates to “Service to begin on a date to be announced.” That may not seem like much to some folks, but it is quite an accomplishment to those who have pursued the idea of getting a train stop here for years.
“It is kind of like the Martindale project. They take a very, very long time. You just have to keep hitting them and not giving up,” Hope City Manager Catherine Cook said.
The hard work is paying off, but the City is still working toward the goal of getting the Amtrak stop official as a time has to be added for the stop and a platform at the Hope Visitor Information Center has yet to be constructed.
Hope Parks and Tourism Director Paul Henley is attending a two day national conference today and Thursday in San Antonio, Texas, called the Great American Stations Civic Conversations, according Cook.
“The program will cover transit development, American Disabilities Act and engineering guidance, funding sources and historic preservation,” Cook said.
New disabilities act requirements have made platform construction more expensive than in the past, and that will take effect this year, Marc Magliari, communications director of government affairs for Amtrak said Tuesday.
Cook said Henley will be able to sit in on these discussions with Amtrak officials in the areas of government affairs and station development.
“One of the things we will explore at this meeting, are the various funding options cities and towns can employ. Hope has a leg up on many cities since it has been involved in this issue for several months and it already has a finished station, which would be the envy of many other communities at this meeting,” Magliari said.
