Texas comptroller: rail can ease congestion

Steve Hawley, May 06, 10.

In the February and March edition of Fiscal Notes, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs says that improved passenger rail service can help reduce traffic congestion throughout the state.

Combs writes:

Texas has more than 12,000 miles of rail lines, but today only a handful of trains here carry passengers, and those aren’t exactly rapid transit. The single daily Amtrak train between San Antonio and Austin, for instance, needs several hours to make a trip that takes 90 minutes by car.

But if rail service were improved and travel times shortened, more people would take rail and leave their cars behind. Already, she says, I-35 truck traffic is expected to increase fivefold in the next 30 years, largely as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Improving rail service could reduce congestion along that route and others.

She cites the example of Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), which carries 65,000 to 70,000 people every weekday on 45 miles of light rail. Houston’s light rail line, which she does not mention, has also enjoyed tremendous success, carrying 40,000 passengers daily on just 7.5 miles of track, making it the second-busiest light rail system in the country in terms of passengers per mile.

Combs notes that the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) formed a Rail Division last year, which is currently developing a State Rail Plan to be ready by the time the 2011 state legislature meets. The TxDOT Rail Division is holding a visioning workshop in Houston on May 17 to seek input on the Rail Plan. For more details, visit the Houston Tomorrow events page.

She mentions a speech given in Texas by Karen Rae, deputy administrator for the Federal Railroad Administration, in January, in which Rae said that the federal government is creating a national rail plan and wants to hear from states. However, Rae also criticized the state, saying, “There has been no central vision, no common vision for rail in Texas,” said Karen Rae, deputy commissioner for the Federal Railroad Administration. “And that kind of vision, that kind of support from the political leadership, is critical to success in our program.”

As a result, while TxDOT requested over $1.8 billion in high-speed rail stimulus funding, the state got just $4 million to upgrade signal crossings on Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer near Fort Worth. The improvements will allow trains to travel at 79 miles per hour on the track, up from the current 49 miles per hour.