April 25, 2024 - TRA Newswire -

"High-speed rail is on everybody's mind, the next frontier in transportation", in the words of Dan Lamers, Senior Program Manager at the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

"I know there are some people that see the hurdles we have to go through but these same discussions happened in the 40's and 50's when the interstate system was being built." Lamers said that like with the interstate highway system,  in 50 to 75 years you would be hard pressed to find anyone who would say that the high-speed rail network in this country wasn't worth doing."

Lamers discussed the Council's push for a Dallas-Fort Worth high-speed rail connection that would allow links to both the I-35 rail travel options to Austin and San Antonio and on the I-45 rail travel corridor to Houston.

View Dan Lamer's presentation from the North Central Texas Council of Governments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBZcfpKCsX8

Lamers described how the regional transportation planners had to work with both the Federal Railroad Administration (intercity high speed rail) and the Federal Transit Administration (urban rail) for over two years to determne which federal agency had jurisdiction over the 35 mile high-speed rail line environmental process. 

"I think we need to rethink at the federal and the state level how we encourage high-speed rail", according to Lamers. "Development is going to occur whether or not we want it to. We have to be able to respond to make it work".

On the freight rail side, Lamers described the NT Moves Program, which is designed to help expedite rail freight through the region. He outlined a number of federal grants that NCTCOG has been awarded and that the planning agency has a full-time person dedicated to monitor federal grant programs.