January 30, 2025 - TRA Newswire -

Texas State Representative Terry Canales, who serves as Chair of the House Committee on Transportation Funding, called for state lawmakers to make investments to move more people and goods by rail. Canales remarks were made during the RGV Rail Advocates annual meeting in Mission, Texas.

"Most of funding for roads is constitutionally dedicated to highways and that's where we have a funding problem, and getting funding for rail and mass transit," according to the state representative. 

Passenger rail faces an uphill climb in the legislature, according to Canales, but he pointed to House Bill 483. That bill would have allowed high-speed rail linking Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio, and hopefully some day to the Rio Grande Valley. It did pass through the House Transportation Committee but did not make to a full House floor vote.

Canales talked about pavement consumption with large trucks and carriers that cause significantly more damage to roads than cars or pickups. "In the future there has to be a change (in funding), there's no way around it. But there's 200,000 lane miles or roads that Texas owns and they have to be maintained and preserved. If we got large commercial vehicles off the roads and onto rail we would be saving incredible, incalcuable amounts of money (in repairing highways)," said Canales. "The more trucks we take off the road, the safer we are."

The Edinburg state represenative said that with rail utilized to move goods and people "we have alternatives for safety, economic reasons and to be good stewards of our tax dollars. Where strategically possible we must shift onto rail. When you take into consideration the population growth and how the state is projected to grow, the legislature has to focus on rail."

He pointed to Laredo, home of the busiest inland port in the United States and the #1 gateway for rail freight between Mexico and Texas and it's major impact on international commerce. 

Two grant programs in 2025 that originated in the House Transportation Funding Committee that Canales chairs were subsequently passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Abbott. One placed $250 million into a Grade Crossing Elimination program, a first for Texas, and a Grant Program for Short Line railroads. 

House Bill 483, supporting high-speed rail in the I-35 corridor, was first heard in the Transportation Funding Committee. "I was proud to set the bill for hearing last April and on to the Transportation Committee," who chairs over transportation funding. The bill passed both committees but was not voted on by the full House. "The fact that it made it as far as it did was very impressive," said Canales. "Making it out of committee was a monumental step in moving policy forward and gives us inspiration we are getting the light that we need on the subject." 

Rail is not a legacy system, it is a 21st century safety infrastructure system, according to Canales. "Our challange is to continue investing, collabortating, and building the infrastructure that connects the region and the rest of the state."

Photo credit: Texas Rail Advocates