Learn more about the proposed $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded Edmond–OKC–Norman commuter rail: OKCCommuterRail.com.

In their push to create a $1.8 billion commuter train running from Edmond to downtown Oklahoma City to Norman, Oklahoma City metro-area officials have put forward several arguments, including the idea that a train will help workers commute to downtown jobs.

But market trends are undermining that rationale, including both the exodus of major employers from downtown Oklahoma City and the increased use of work-from-home arrangements.

The third-quarter report from Cushman & Wakefield, a global commercial real estate services firm, showed that office vacancy rates in Oklahoma City rank among the five highest nationwide out of 92 markets reviewed. Oklahoma City’s vacancy rate is nearly three times higher than the rate in Tulsa.

Other commuter trains have financially flailed due to similar trends.

In Minnesota, officials launched the Northstar line in 2009, running from downtown Minneapolis to the town of Big Lake. Earlier this year, officials shut down the line due to declining ridership on a train that never met ridership projections even when it attracted significantly more customers.

Citing data from the Twin Cities’ Metropolitan Council, which operated the Northstar line, American Rails reported that the Northstar train served a pre-COVID maximum of 2,660 average weekday rides, but that number fell to about 430 weekday rides on average in 2024.

University of Minnesota professor Bill Lindeke, a supporter of rail as a form of mass transit, conceded, “The commuter transit model is mostly dead.”

“The commuter rail service plan—a half dozen trips into the city in the morning and another half dozen leaving downtown in the afternoon and early evening—quickly became outmoded as workplace patterns shifted,” Lindeke wrote.

A study released in May 2025 by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted, “During the COVID-19 pandemic, many riders stopped using public transit. Commuter rail, an alternative to driving between suburbs and city centers, was hit particularly hard.”

The report stated, “Many rail systems historically operated to serve passengers riding to and from city centers. Commuter rail was particularly affected by the pandemic and related increased telework.”

The fact that some of downtown Oklahoma City’s largest employers are shifting their headquarters to Texas, such as Devon Energy, means there will be fewer workers downtown in the coming years. And general interest in living downtown also appears on a downswing.

The Oklahoman recently reported that apartment construction in downtown Oklahoma City is “collapsing” with more than $200 million in developments falling apart in the last two years.

One developer told The Oklahoman that bank financing has become harder to obtain for downtown housing projects because of “doubts” about the financial viability of downtown multi-family housing projects.

The proposed Oklahoma City train is dependent upon voter approval of a sales-tax increase to fund its construction and operations. No public vote has been scheduled yet in the Oklahoma County communities that would foot the bill.