The Oklahoma Department of Transportation has launched a study funded by a federal grant to determine the feasibility of passenger rail service between Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

KRMG has learned that just under $4 million in federal grant money is funding the study, which began in recent weeks.

The grant came from the Federal Railroad Administration.

The decisions whether to build the rail line, the route it might take, and whether or not to make it a high-speed line are all part of the study's goals.

Kenna Mitchell with ODOT tells KRMG it will take up to three years to complete the study.

"These studies include not just look at the right-of-way, but also looking at the big picture of rail service," Mitchell says.

That includes "passenger estimates, looking at everything that we would need so that if we are able to bring rail, that we would have this information available to help us apply for grants and help us make a decision on the route," she added.

As for whether it would be a high-speed line, she tells KRMG "I think it's too early to estimate that at this point. There's a lot of preliminary work that needs to be done first to study the corridor and assess what would be best for the potential line."

An Oklahoma high-speed rail initiative was launched in 2002, and looked at the possibility of a 150-mph line running genrally along the Turner Turnpike between Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

Proposed cost estimates, according to a FRA study released during a 2009 workshop in Houston, put the price of building such a line at between $800 and $950 million.