April 21, 2025 - TRA Newswire -

Legislation is now being heard in Austin that affects the future of freight and passenger rail movement in Texas. 

Texas Rail Advocates is tracking  a total of 26 bills that have been filed.  Interested citizens can follow them through individual links on the Under The Dome page and see the current standing in the Texas House and Senate.

This session contains bills that aim to kill high-speed rail, develop a state grant program for separating railroads from highways with overpasses and underpasses, a state grant program for short line railroad development, a bill to bring high speed rail to the I-35 corridor and a bill to bring high speed rail between Austin and Houston.

Other bills would hurt city transit systems by diverting 25% of sales tax collected for non-rail or bus transportation projects, a bill to reverse a tax issue that would stop light rail in Austin through Project Connect, and several joint resolutions that if the legislature approves, would go before voters in November.

One House Joint Resolution(HJR) would allow TxDOT to use funds for transit projects while another HJR create monies to purchase right-of-way for transit projects. 

Other bills would increase penalties for theft from freight rail cars, increase penalties for disregarding a flagger at a rail crossing, trains that block rail crossings for 30 minutes or longer, and several that affect the powers of regional mobility authorities. 

Unfortunately many of the bills filed have not yet had a hearing. Time is running out and if a bill is not heard within the next several weeks and passed from one house to the other, the likelihood is that the legislation will not survive.

 Bills that are supported are shown with a green Thumbs Up while bills that we oppose are shown with a red Thumbs Down.