April 11, 2023 - WeatherfordDemocrat.com - 

Parker County residents have commuted west to Metroplex jobs for decades, with Palo Pinto County denizens more recently joining that commute as Metroplex migrants move west.

Maybe it would be nice for them to take the train, escaping the sun exploding on their windshields going and coming, perhaps catching up on reading instead.

That’s a hope the nonprofit Texas Rail Advocates holds. But, as Bob Dylan said when he became a Christian, it’s a slow train coming.

It hasn’t even left the station.

“It’s not an easy thing to do, to get rail service,” Texas Rail Advocates President Peter LeCody said of the odds the nonprofit group faces in its mission to reestablish passenger trains to the Lone Star landscape.

The group also works to expand freight rail, to both ease highway congestion and the resulting air pollution.

LeCody indicated it takes a village, actually a string of them.

“You have to have a lot of county governments, the cities along the route, the (economic development corporations) involved,” he said. “All of these agencies really have to be on the same page to petition for service. Until that happens, nothing will happen.”

Read more: https://www.weatherforddemocrat.com/mineral-wells/hopes-dim-for-passenger-rail-linking-parker-and-palo-pinto-counties-to-fort-worth/article_ed357416-c4fd-11ed-8619-274f96a72f36.html

Photo credit: TxDOT