July 12, 2024 - TRA Newswire -

To mollify Dallas City Council members that didn't want to see an elevated high-speed rail line on the western fringe of downtown Dallas, the Regional Transportation Council was shown a new proposed route that would move the line even further west and keep passenger trains away from developers that complained that noise would be excessive and interrupt their future plans in the area.

Michael Morris, Director of Transportation at the North Central Texas Council of Governments, told RTC leaders that an alternative for the last mile of the 30-mile long Fort Worth to Dallas passenger rail connector would steer the line west of the downtown area central business district. The bypass would skirt along the Trinity River and thread its way through the downtown Dallas spaghetti-bowl highway network before ending at the proposed Texas Central high-speed rail terminal.  

The Dallas City Council voted 14-0 in June to oppose any high-speed rail project on the west side of downtown, even thought the original footprint would have followed an existing Union Pacific Railroad line that operates freight trains screeching around a curve 24/7 next to the Hyatt Regency Hotel. 

Instead, the Council wants to wait on the results of an economic impact study that would determine the benefits of a high-speed rail line. Two RTC members that serve on the Dallas council attended the workshop remotely, and said the study does not have a definitive timeline and would be completed sometime next year.

That did not sit well with Arlington Mayor Jim Ross. He said "we can’t allow one part of the region to jeopardize our ability to meet the deadlines that are required from us.”  Arlington is the biggest draw for sports fans and the city will be ready for the World Cup, and next Super Bowl and other events. Mayor Ross said he is aware Arlington has routinely voted against transit, but is willing to put forth the resources for a high speed rail stop.  He said he's excited when other cities in the region get big draws because that helps every other city.

Director Morris indicated that 30% of the design plan must be completed by February 2025 in order to be submitted to both the Federal Railroad and Federal Transit Administrations, to qualify for funding from Washington. Morris said if the RTC can have a consensus by its August meeting, his planners would be able to complete the task in time. "Getting consensus on a process to hit a home run on high-speed rail is much more important to me,” Morris said.

Dallas Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn, who has been a constant critic of the project, asked about projected ridership on the Dallas to Fort Worth segment. Those figures are not available yet, but 15K-30K riders per day was a ballpark mentioned. Mendelsohn also asked about total costs and complained that this project shouldn’t even be planned until the Dallas to Houston segment is under construction. She also asked about ridership on DART and the Trinity Railway Express and was quick to point out the drop in TRE ridership post pandemic. She pointed out that Dallas City Council voted unanimously to not have the HSR pass through downtown. 

Dallas real estate developer Marcus Wood attended the RTC workshop and has extensive knowledge of properties along the riverfront. He indicated to Texas Rail Advocates that the proposed bypass does have some positive features while creating some potential headaches along the levees, but those are not insurmountable. The redirected line would not connect to either Eddie Bernice Johnson Dallas Union Station or to the Hyatt Regency/Reunion Tower complex. 

The West Routing will be much more complicated with engineering and will heavily involve TxDOT to route over the mixmaster highway complex. Connections to the convention center and Union Station are doable but would be a lot longer walk for pedestrians. People movers or moving sidewalks were mentioned as an alternative although this also seems much more expensive. This route might also slow the HS train down as it may have to take more curves, but also may prove to be negligible.

The Fort Worth to Dallas connector is part of a long-term goal of linking major Texas cities on both the I-35 and I-45 travel corridor with high-speed trains. North Texas would become a major hub for both conventional and high-speed passenger rail services. 

The FRA will be finalizing a report for Congress later this year that envisions 15 new daily long-distance passenger trains, many of which cross through the DFW area or other parts of Texas. Dan Lamers and Brendon Wheeler of NCTCOG specifically talked about the FRA long-distance vision plan to make DFW a rail hub and showed a draft long distance map put out by the FRA. Several officials present at the workshop noted that they had never seen that map and were quite excited about it. 

Photo credit: TrainWeb, NCTCOG